Stanford reigns while Arizona mourns its loss
■ The Cardinal hits No. 1 in
the rankings while Arizona
and Lute Olson grieve the
death of the coach’s wife
By Peter Hockaday
Oregon Daily Emerald
Football was forgotten all over
the West Coast last weekend, as
the Pacific-10 Conference men’s
basketball season opened with fan
fare and sadness.
The sadness came mostly from
Arizona, where a disheartened
Wildcat team fell hard to top
ranked Stanford. Southern Cali
fornia and UCLA made some
noise in taking care of the Wash
ington schools. Closer to home,
Oregon proved itself with a big
win over in-state rival Oregon
State.
Heads up, folks, there’s still nine
more weeks of this.
Bobbie remembered
Arizona has been trying to play
through the sad memories of Bob
bie Olson, head coach Lute Olson’s
wife, since she passed away Jan. 1.
Bobbie Olson was not only mar
ried to Lute, but to the team as
well. Her memorial service, held
Sunday, proved that she was as
much a Wildcat as some of the
players.
“Mrs. O meant so much to all
of us,” Wildcat forward Richard
Jefferson said at the service, ac
cording to the Arizona Daily Sun.
“She always knew what to say,
when to say something and how
to say it.”
Bobbie Olson’s death has hit the
team hard, and the Wildcats have
dropped from preseason No. 1 to
21st in the AP poll. Arizona is 8-5
overall, and 1-1 in the Pac-10 after
losing to Stanford Saturday.
“We really wanted to win for
coach (Olson), for Mrs. Olson, for
ourselves,” Arizona’s Luke Walton
told the Arizona Republic after
Saturday’s loss. “We just couldn't
get it going when we had to.”
Rumors have Lute Olson return
ing to coaching the Wildcats as
early as next week, when Arizona
will take on Washington and
Washington State in the North
west.
Trees on top
With Stanford’s victory over Ari
zona Saturday, the Cardinal
proved that their December win
over Duke and the Cardinal’s 13-0
record are no fluke. Mix that with
Michigan State’s last-second loss
to Indiana Sunday, and the Cardi
nal is cooking in the No. 1 spot in
both the AP and ESPN/USA Today
coaches polls. Stanford was a
unanimous choice for the top spot
in the AP poll, and received 27 of
the 31 possible first-place votes in
the ESPN/USA Today coaches
poll.
The Cardinal will next face Ore
gon State and Oregon in its first
home Pac-10 games of the season.
We are family
As if the wins and the top
ranking weren’t enough for Stan
ford, Jarron and Jason Collins
were named the Pac-lO’s Men's
Basketball Co-Players of the
Week for the conference’s open
ing games. The twin centers com
bined for 72 points and 34 re
bounds against Arizona State and
Arizona. The Collins brothers
shot a combined 27-for-30 from
the free-throw line
Still think Jarron and Jason don’t
have an impact on their team?
When the twins start together,
Stanford is an amazing 22-0.
Higher and higher
The third Pac-10 team to break
the top-20 this season isn’t UCLA
or Oregon — it’s USC. The Trojans
are ranked 18th in the most recent
ESPN/USA Today coaches poll
and 19th in the AP poll, following
blowout wins over the Washington
schools. USC takes on UCLA in
Southern California’s rivalry game
this weekend.
Oregon was the only other Pac
10 team to receive votes in either
poll, garnering 15 votes in the AP
poll.
Arizona’s Richard Jefferson (44) had fond memories of Bobbie Olson at her memorial
service Sunday.
Group run by Starbucks CEO looks to purchase Seattle Sonics
By Luis Cabrera
The Associated Press
SEATTLE — The Seattle Super
Sonics are close to being sold for a
reported price of $200 million to a
group headed by Howard Schultz,
the chairman of the Starbucks cof
fee chain.
The seller is Barry Ackerley, who
bought the team for $16 million in
1983. The sale could be announced
by the end of this week, a league
source told The Associated Press
on condition of anonymity.
It would be the first sale of an
NBA franchise since Mark Cuban
bought the Dallas Mavericks last
year for $280 million.
“The Ackerley Group does not
comment on rumors, but, as is our
corporate strategy and commit
ment, we are continually evaluat
ing different strategic alternatives
with respect to all of our assets, in
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eluding possible acquisitions, sales
or divestitures,” Ackerley’s compa
ny said in a statement.
Starbucks spokeswoman Cheri
Libby said the coffee company is
not buying the team, but she said
she could not speak for Schultz.
Several messages left on his office
phone were not immediately re
turned.
ESPN reported the sale price as
$200 million.
The NBA Board of Governors
would have final approval over the
sale, and a vote could be held at its
next meeting March 29-30.
The team could lose as much as
$10 million this season, according
to a financial analyst.
“Their sales at the Sonics have
softened recently, sort of a residual
effect of the (1998-99) lockout,”
said Keith Fawcett, an analyst for
Merrill Lynch in New York who
tracks The Ackerley Group.
Ackerley held season tickets for
six years before he bought the team
but now rarely attends games. He
could not be reached for comment
Monday.
Ackerley, 65, underwent an un
specified cardiac procedure in
April. He also had two heart attacks
in 1991 and underwent quintuple
bypass surgery.
An Ackerley spokeswoman who
declined to be identified said Bar
ry Ackerley was not in bad health,
adding that health would not be an
issue in any business decision he
might make.
The Ackerley Group, a media
and entertainment company, owns
17 television stations, five radio
stations and 6,200 billboards
throughout the nation. It operates
the Sonics and the struggling
WNBA Seattle Storm through its
Full House Sports and Entertain
ment arm.
“Obviously, their season has
started in a disappointing fashion,
so their ticket sales have been low
er than expected,” Fawcett said of
the 17-18 Sonics. “They’ve signed
some high-priced players like
Patrick Ewing, so losses have in
creased.”
Ewing, acquired in a preseason
trade with the New York Knicks, is
earning $14 million in the final sea
son of a four-year contract.
Merrill Lynch estimates the team
will lose $8 million to $10 million
during the NBA season, which runs
from October 2000 to June this year,
Fawcett said.
The Ackerley Group “is definite
ly exploring ways to improve
shareholder value,” he said.
“They’ve given strong signals that
they’re considering either the out
right sale or a partial sale.”
Despite a cut in ticket prices, at
tendance is down at Sonics games.
The team went from Western Con
ference champs in 1996 to missing
the playoffs in 1999. Last season,
the Sonics lost to Utah in the first
round of the playoffs.
“We recognize that our sports
and entertainment segment is un- ,
derperforming, especially in rela
tion to our other assets,” Chris Ack
erley told analysts in a conference f
call in December.
Forbes magazine listed the Son
ics’ value at $187 million in a re
cent ranking of NBA franchises.
Through last season, the Sonics
under Ackerley had a 17-season
record of 790-572, including 13 sea
sons in the playoffs, four division
titles and the Western Conference
title of 1996, when the Sonics lost
4-2 to the Chicago Bulls in the fi
nals.
The Ackerley Group’s stock
closed Monday at $11.25 a share,
up $1.69 or 17.8 percent, on the
New York Stock Exchange.
Schultz joined Starbucks as head
of marketing in 1982 and went on
to buy the company in 1987 with
the backing of local investors.
He increased the company from
17 retail cafes to its present 3,300
around the world, with 37,000 em
ployees and annual sales of more
than $1.6 billion.
Schultz sat courtside with Magic
Johnson at a Sonics game against
the Dallas Mavericks on March 7
last year. Starbucks in 1998 formed
Urban Coffee Opportunities, a joint
venture with the former NBA star’s
Johnson Development Corp., to put
Starbucks cafes in inner cities
throughout the United States.