Tuesday
Best Bet
NCAA Basketball: Michigan State at Illinois
4 p.m., ESPN
SPORTS EDITOR: JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com
Cardinal’s loss to UCLA makes Pac-10 race again
■The Pac-10 gets exciting
as top teams fall to
conference foes — and out
of the nation’s favor
By Peter Hockaday
Oregon Daily Emerald
Just when you thought the Pa
cific-10 Conference was getting
boring or predictable, the league
went and slapped you in the face
to wake you up.
Stanford, 19-0 before the
weekend,
beats South
ern Califor
nia, then
loses by six
to UCLA?
Arizona
gets de
stroyed by
Oregon,
then blows out Oregon State two
days later? Oregon loses by 27 at
home to Arizona State, previous
ly 1-7 in the Pac-10? California
beats UCLA by 29, then loses to
USC by 14?
Finally, the Pac-10 is getting
interesting to watch, and it
should only get more interesting
if past seasons are a guide.
Thank heaven for West Coast
basketball.
Stanford stunned
Stanford dropped out of the
top spot in both the Associated
Press and ESPN/USA Today
Coaches poll after losing to un
ranked UCLA Saturday. The
Cardinal dropped to second in
both polls, while North Caroli
na — winner of 16 straight
games — took over No. 1 in
both polls.
Arizona dropped down as
well in both rankings after its up
set loss at Oregon. The Wildcats
are 11th in the AP poll and 10th
in the coaches poll. USC is 22nd
in the AP poll and 18th in the
coaches poll.
UCLA, despite knocking off
Stanford, being unbeaten at
home this season and owning a
7-2 conference record, couldn’t
crack the top-25. The Bruins re
ceived 93 votes in the AP poll
and six in the coaches poll.
Knight in shining armor
The Bruins’ Billy Knight was
a major factor in UCLA’s upset
win over Stanford this weekend.
Normally a bench warmer,
Knight practiced well on Friday
at Maples Pavilion and Bruins
coach Steve Lavin gave him the
start Saturday.
The move paid off for Lavin,
as Knight scored a career-high 22
points on 8-for-15 shooting. It
was Knight’s fifth start of the sea
son.
'Cats, Bruins still clawing
With UCLA’s upset of Stan
ford, the Bruins kept themselves
and No. 11 Arizona in the hunt
for a Pac-10 Championship.
Both UCLA and Arizona have
two conference losses, while
Stanford has one. In the second
half of the season, the Cardinal
will take on the Wildcats at
home and UCLA on the road.
USC and California are not far
behind Arizona and UCLA in
third place. The Trojans and
Bears each have three confer
ence wins.
True Storey
Arizona State’s Awvee Storey
earned the Pac-lO’s top award
for his efforts in wins over Ore
gon State and Oregon last week.
Storey was named Pac-10 Player
of the Week after notching a dou
ble-double against Oregon and
Turn to Men’s, page 8
Emerald
Michael McDonald and the Cardinal fell from the nation’s No. 1 spot after losing to UCLA.
Nobody running with the Devils in conference race
Laura Smit Emerald
Lauren St. Clair and Stanford have tied for second in the Pac-10 since losing to Oregon.
■Arizona State sits alone on top,
but Stanford is starting to heat up
By Adam Jude
Oregon Daily Emerald
OK, women’s hoops fans: The Pacif
ic-10 Conference season is half over,
and while many surprises have already
provided many sleepless nights, many
more could be yet to come.
With many wan
derers, Arizona
State sits alone at
the top of the con
ference standings
with a 7-2 record.
The little Devils
now hold their
own destiny: Win
out and win their
first Pac-10 crown. But in such a
stacked league — where just two
games separate the top five teams —
you can bet the boys in Las Vegas (if
they had lines on women’s games)
wouldn’t pick ASU to accomplish
such a feat so easily.
The Cards are stacked
After a 1-3 start in Pacific-10 Con
ference play, which included a 72-54
loss at McArthur Court Jan. 13, Stan
ford has rolled into the mix, and is
now tied for second place — ahead of
Oregon.
An 89-75 trouncing of USC Sunday
improved the Cardinal to 6-3 in the
conference, 12-7 overall. The Ducks
and Stanford will face off 7:30 p.m.
Thursday at Maples Pavilion.
The win in Los Angeles gave Stan
ford five straight victories, and its first
road sweep in two years. Stanford is
now in contention for its 10th Pac-10
title.
“We had our back against the wall
and now we are fighting and that’s
great,” Stanford head coach Tara Van
Derveer told the San Francisco Chroni
cle. “We are in the mix.”
The Cardinal were led by Lindsey
Yamasaki’s game-high 28 points
against USC.
“We had fire in our eyes tonight.
Every player on this team was ready to
go and it showed,” Yamasaki said. “We
know we can win and if we focus, we
will win.”
Arizona coach records
win No. 500
Arizona head coach Joan Bonvicini
was carried off the court by her team
after defeating Oregon State 83-73 Sat
urday to earn her 500th career coach
ing victory.
Turn to Women’s, page 8
We had
our back
against the
wall and
now we are
fighting and
that's great.
We are in
the mix.
Tara
VanDerveer
Stanford head
coach yy
Big money ruled, ruined professional sports in the ’90s
THE HOME
^ STRETCH
ROBBIE McCALLUM
As the 20th century fades
from our memories, so does
the 1990s and a dark chap
ter in professional sports.'
For a brief moment in the early
’90s there was hope. The Lakers
sucked, and so did the Yankees.
Life was good.
But when money talks, players
listen.
Our good friend, free agency,
came in and the likes of George
Steinbrener and Jerry West were
back in business. They were able
to attain the best teams money
could buy.
Toward the end of the ’90s,
those teams you love to hate in
New York and Los Angeles gained
strength, as All-American teams
such as the San Francisco 49ers
and the Green Bay Packers fell
from the limelight.
Strikes in professional baseball
and the NBA marred the sports,
and they still haven’t fully recov
ered. These sports are safe until
the next contract expires.
The ’90s also saw the death of
the franchise player and the
birth of the free-agency period,
together killing the sports dy
nasty. Larry Bird, Dominique
Wilkins and Magic Johnson are
gone, leaving only a handful of
franchise players like David
Robinson and Reggie Miller. I
mean geez, Patrick Ewing is a
Seattle Supersonic!
Now we have rent-a-player mer
cenaries like Randy Johnson and
Kevin Greene. From now on,
money talks.
Speaking of money, have you
been to Candlestick Park lately?
Oops, I mean 3Com Park. No?
How about Riverfront Stadium?
Oh yeah, I meant Cinergy Field.
This late-’90s innovation of corpo
ratization is one of the worst in
professional sports. There still is
hope though.
Fans in Denver and Chicago be
gan a resistance movement when
big businesses attempted purchas
Turn to McCallum, page 10