Men’s
continued from page 1
The Ducks (17-5, 8-3) need a
sweep of the Cougars and Wash
ington this weekend to assure
them of their first NCAA Tourna
ment bid since 1995, and Wash
ington State would thoroughly
enjoy being the spoiler.
“Washington State is going to
beat someone this year, and we
just have to make sure it’s not us,”
said Oregon head coach Ernie
Kent, who is 5-0 against the
Cougars. "They’ve played a lot of
teams tough, and if people think
this is going to be an easy game,
they’re wrong.”
Oregon forward A.D. Smith —
whose finger roll with 36 seconds
left in overtime sealed the
Cougars’ fate in the first meeting
— insisted Washington State is
better than its record indicates.
“Washington State is not a ter
rible team, they’ve just had some
tough losses,” Smith said. “They
almost had us beat; we were
down by eight at one point. We’ve
always had trouble with Washing
ton State, and we’ll have to play
well at home to win.”
It will be a much-anticipated
return home for the Ducks, whose
last home game was a victory over
UCLA on Jan. 29.
“We’re looking forward to play
ing in front of our crowd,” said
senior Darius Wright, who’s fifth
in the conference in assists with a
4.91 average per game. “It’s defi
nitely good to be back here in Eu
Women’s
continued from page 1
Oregon is heavily favored, to say
the least.
Which is why Litz is so nerv
ous.
“Especially right now,” Litzen
berger said. “Coming off two big
wins and thinking, well, you’re
playing teams that have won
three and five league games. And
hey, it should be easy. But it’s not.
It’s never easy.
“You gotta play every game, es
pecially defensively because you
don’t know what play is gonna
turn the game around. So you’ve
got to play every possession like
it’s the most important posses
sion. Getting players to do that is
really hard.”
Indeed, getting up for games in
Pullman, where the average atten
dance is 523, and against the hap
less Cougars, is harder than one
would think.
“It is hard,” Oregon center Jen
ny Mowe said. “Because you just
want to fast-forward to the end oi
the season and say, ‘Okay. How’d
we do?’ So it’s hard to take it one
game at a time — but we’re defi
nitely doing that, just slowing the
whole process down.”
That would help relieve some
of Litzenberger’s anxieties.
As would a big game from
Shaquala Williams.
Shaq was, by her standards,
quiet last weekend. Stanford held
her to 10 points, and Cal kept hei
to eight, well off her season aver
age of 17.
Expect a breakout game tonight
because the Ducks are, as men
tioned, in Pullman. And the envi
ronment is, basically, the polai
opposite of the ultra-supportive
one at McArthur Court — where
the Oregon women draw 5,166
fans per game, the 13th-best aver
age in the nation.
The trip to Friel Court could be
what Williams needs to rediscov
er her rhythm.
Emerald
Oregon’s Darius Wright leads the Ducks tonight against Washington State at the Pit.
gene.”
To hold off the underdog
Cougars, Oregon will need to win
the perimeter battle. Washington
State was able to play the Ducks
close in the first meeting because
they were 10-of-17 from three
point range, while Oregon suf
fered through a 3-of-17 perform
ance from behind the arc.
One reason for the Cougars’ ef
ficiency from outside was the
play of Chris Crosby, who burned
Oregon for 26 points. Smith said
Washington State is particularly
vulnerable if its two biggest
threats are taken out of the game.
“If you can hold Crosby and
Jan-Michael Thomas below their
average, you can really put a hurt
on their offense,” Smith said. “If
you take those two guys out, you
have a good chance of winning.”
Kent emphasized the impor
tance of seizing the momentum
early, and not playing down to the
ability of a team with less talent.
“I think the biggest adjustment
is to just play with more energy
because in our last game with
them we were pretty flat,” Kent
said. “That caused us to not shoot
the ball well, and we made a lot of
mental mistakes. Hopefully we’ll
be fresher being here at home and
being in the position we’re in.”
Emerald
Forward Angelina Wolvert rebounds her own miss against Washington.
“Certain people are better on
the road,” Williams said. “Person
ally, I hate playing at Mac Court. I
can’t stand playing here. The fans
are great, but as far as my focus I
think I’m better on the road.
“Some people need the home
crowd to get ’em gassed up and
whatnot, but I think we’re a better
road team because we’re a lot
mentally stronger.”
And, well, mental toughness is
definitely not a bad thing. Ask
Litz.
“We’ve gotta have ourselves
ready to play.” he said, “Mentally.
Physically. And emotionally.”
Having young players stepping
up on a regular basis isn’t bad ei
ther — although there’s some dis
crepancy as to whether that con
stitutes depth.
“I don’t know if I consider it
deep because it only seems to be
one person each time, and not
everybody,” head coach Jody
Runge said. “But it is a strong in
dication that we have players
who are young and have been
working their tails off to be in po
sition to take advantage of an op
portunity that they get to go in the
game.”
Last week sophomore forward
Ndidi Unaka provided the spark,
scoring a career-high 10 points.
The week before, it was freshman
point guard Kourtney Shreve’s 10.
And the weekend before that, for
ward Alyssa Fredrick, a sopho
more transfer, came through with
10 of her own.
Applications due
Friday
Feb 25, 2000
0 ••
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to the UHC Director's office.
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