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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 20, 2000)
Ducks’ postseason fate hinges on BCS bids ■ Oregon may not know who or where it plays in which bowl game until Dec. 3 By Scott Pesznecker Oregon Daily Emerald One day after suffering the biggest lost in his coaching career, Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti tended to his weekly conference call with re porters from around the state. But Bellotti, like everyone else, was unable to answer the big ques tion: Where will the Ducks play next? “We want the best bowl game possible to play the best opponent possible,” Bellotti said. “I don't have anything more to say on it un til I know more.” Oregon’s Civil War loss Saturday ended all hopes of the Ducks play ing in the Rose Bowl. Washington received the automatic bid to Pasadena when it routed Washing ton State, effectively beating out Oregon and Oregon State by way of tiebreakers. Under normal circumstances, the Beavers would go to the Holiday Bowl in San Diego, Calif., usually reserved for the second-place Pacif ic-10 Conference team, and Oregon would play at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, as the third-place Pac 10 team. However, this season is anything but usual. If Oregon State gets a BCS bid to play in the Fiesta or Sugar Bowl, then Oregon would play in the Holi day Bowl instead of the Sun Bowl. But other teams, such as Virginia Tech, will probably receive at-large BCS bids before the Beavers. Also, the Sun Bowl — like the Hol iday Bowl and the two bowl games in' Hawaii — has a “no repeat” clause. If implemented, the clause would pro hibit Oregon from playing in the Sun Bowl because it played there last sea son. In that case, the Sun Bowl would replace the Ducks with a Pac-10 team from either a Hawaii bowl or the Hol iday Bowl. The Sun Bowl could also refuse Oregon if Wisconsin made it to El Paso. The Ducks and Badgers have already played once this season, and play again early next season. Bowl commissioners may fear that the matchup may be unexciting and fail to draw a profitable crowd. So when will the Ducks know where they’ll go? Probably Dec. 3, when football action wraps up and BCS bids are determined. ' “We are the co-Pac-10 champi ons,” Bellotti said. “As such, we de serve to play in a great game. ” Cross country sends four to national championships ■The cross country team wraps up the 2000 season at the NCAA meet today By Robbie McCallum Oregon Daily Emerald In the sport of cross country, it’s hard to predict when or where an athlete will run his or her final race. But for four Oregon seniors, the fi nal race is today. Now it is certain; Hanna Smed stad, Katie Crabb, Rhiannon Glenn and Michael Kasahun will close out their cross country careers at Ore gon today at the NCAA Champi onships in Ames, Iowa. The men’s race begins at 11 a.m., followed bv the women’s race at 11:45. The four seniors weren’t quite sure of their fate ten days ago. The Oregon women’s cross country team was a dark horse in earning an NCAA-meet berth coming into the Western Regional meet in Fresno, Calif., and Smedstad, Crabb and Glenn faced an unknown fate. The day after the Regional meet, the Oregon men’s team was left out of the NCAA field. That left senior Kasahun with an unknown fate as well. Fortunately, Kasahun and the women’s team performed well enough at Regionals to earn NCAA berths. The unranked women’s team placed fourth in the team standings to qualify. Although the men were snubbed by the NCAA se lection committee, Kasahun and sophomore Jason Hartmann re ceived individual bids. The Ducks are familiar with the national course, having ran at the Iowa State Memorial Classic on Oct. 14. Both the 6,000-meter women’s course and 10,000-meter men’s course are the same as the national course. At the Iowa State meet, the Ore gon women finished in a disap pointing 21st, but have made signif icant improvements since then. On the men’s side, Hartmann placed 30th, followed closely by Kasahun at 36th place. Hoops continued from page 7 Luke Ridnour stole the ball in the backcourt and dished to Norwood, who streaked in for the two-hand dunk. After a MVSU timeout, Nor wood continued his dominance by draining three more of his 15 points with just under 16 minutes left. The Ducks’ dominating 21-4 run was capped on a Bracey bucket that gave Oregon the 61-39 advantage. “I thought it was a really good opening game for us,” head coach Ernie Kent said. “I was really pleased with my veteran players — particularly Bryan, Freddie, Julius and Norwood. I was pleased with how hard they played.” Jones had a positive first step to ward his goal of being the team’s go to guy with 21 points, seven re bounds and six assists. But he was more concerned with his poor 3-for 8 shooting from the charity stripe and the team’s 25 turnovers. “Everybody knows in their heart that they weren’t playing to their potential,” Jones said. “We just have to go back to the drawing board and get better.” Oregon takes its 1-0 record on the road for the first time this season af ter playing two exhibition games and the opener at home. The Ducks will face Denver this Tuesday. “The biggest thing right now is to just win games,” Kent said. Smith continued from page 7 49-yard line. There’s still life. Harrington drops back, fires it downfield, but it gets in tercepted by Grant to seal the deal. The scoreboard flashes the words, “It’s a great day to be a Beaver! ” And as you watch the Oregon sidelines, you know exactly what kind of day it was to be a Duck. When the clock showed 0:00, fans stormed the field as the Ducks ran off of it, trying to escape their nightmare as quickly as possible. As some students attempted to tear down the goal post, Oregon’s Jason Nikolao stood in full pads with his family. Hugging. Kissing. And hugging some more. The Ducks made their way down to the basement of nearby Gill Coli seum, where the reality of missing the Rose Bowl slowly started to sink in. “It was a fatal game,” senior wide receiver Marshaun Tucker said. “We had that right there in the hands and we let it slip away.” In the days leading up to this game, Harrington didn’t hide his emotions about his love for the Ducks and how much he wanted to win this game. He said he would never forget it, regardless of the outcome, and now knows that the memories will be painful. They’ll be especially painful since he threw five interceptions — after only throwing eight all season. “We had a chance to do what we wanted to do,” said the junior quar terback, while he sat on a chair with his face down, trying to hide his ob vious hurt. “We just didn't do it," Meanwhile, in the Valley Football Center, Oregon State head coach Dennis Erickson danced and talked of how proud his players should be. Those players sported grins as wide as can be and hats wi th the words, “Pac-10 Champs” on it. Actually, the Beavers are Pac-10 co-champions, along with the Huskies and Ducks. Which is where the true ironic twist comes into play. Despite hav ing two teams in the nation’s top-10 clash in a historic Civil War, the state of Oregon gets shut out in the Rose Bowl. Washington gets the berth, along with the extra money, the added television exposure and the feeling of being a real champion. All Oregon gets to feel is empti ness and despair, and must find a way to gear itself back up for what ever bowl game comes its way. And for all those heart-broken Duck fans, as well as everyone in volved with the Oregon football program, I leave you with a quote from poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson: “It is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.” Jeff Smith is the sports editor of the Emer ald. He can be reached at Smittside@aol.com. Corvallis continued from page 7 points in the first half. Their first touchdown happened with 10:03 left in the first when quarterback Jonathan Smith passed 32 yards to Robert Prescott in the end zone. Then, with 4:27 left in the first, Smith found Prescott for his second passing touchdown. Oregon State place-kicker Ryan Cesca kicked a 32-yard field goal to make the score 17-0. Harrington put the Ducks on the scoreboard when he ran six yards and jumped into the end zone with 7:38 to play in the first half. “We spotted them too many points,” Bellotti said, referring to Har rington throwing two first-half inter ceptions and Oregon giving up 97 yards in penalties. “They’re a good football team and you can’t do that. In a championship game at the oppo nent’s field, I don’t think you can spot them plays or touchdowns. ” Beaver tailback Ken Simonton scored Oregon State’s final touch down with 7:07 left in the third when he ran 20 yards into the end zone, but Cesca missed the extra point and the score was 23-7. Duck tailback Maurice Morris an swered early in the third, scoring on a 1-yard run, but he failed to run into the end zone on the two-point con version attempt that could have set up a tie, had the Ducks scored again with a second two-point bonus. Oregon would not score again. “We’re shocked right now, but we did know what was at stake and we knew as soon as the clock ran zero that the Rose Bowl hopes were gone,” Bauman said. “We’ve just got to battle back, and whatever bowl game we do go to, we’ve got to make sure we go down and handle business.” 010491 Voted Best Breakfast in Town! By Eugene Weekly Open Daily KEYSTONE 7am-3Pm r v ft gk. Breakfast Served ** 7am-3pm Lunch Served Monday-Friday 11am-3pm * Redeem for a FREE BEVERAGE of your choice <• West 5th at Lawrence • 342-2075 Open 7 Dav^s A Week Monday -Thursday 10:30 am • 9:00 pm Friday & Saturday 10:30 am -10:00 pm Sunday 11:30 am • 9:00 pm 2130w. 11th Avenue Eugene. OR 97402 tei: 302-9667 • Over 80 items daily • Free soda tax: 302-9795 B U f I I T New York Style Chinese, Japanese & American ! 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