Women
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son play means to be the 65th best
team in the country if you win the
NIT.”
Then, like her coach, Craighead
put her opinions aside when she
thought of her five senior team
mates.
“If the seniors want to go though,
I’ll be willing to go,” Craighead said.
“If they want to continue the season,
then by all means. We still have a
year to come back and play, so I
don’t see this as an end; I see this as
a beginning for next season. ”
At this time, the seniors don’t
seem to have any firm decisions
made about a possible WNIT ap
pearance.
“I personally do—well OK — no,
well yes — OK,” said senior forward
Angelina Wolvert, trying to collect
her thoughts. “I think it’s kind of
bad that our coach doesn’t want to
go to the WNIT. I know she doesn’t;
she thinks it’s the ‘losers’ tourna
ment,’ and that’s fine, and it’s cool
because it’s her opinion, but I think
it’s kind of uppity to say to anybody,
even me, anybody, to say that we’re
too good for that tournament.
“Obviously we haven’t had that
great of a season, and it’s not like we
can talk. We can say, ‘well the past
couple years,’ but this isn’t the past
couple years right now. This is this
year, and we didn’t do well. The
NIT is probably where we belong,
although I’d rather be in the
NCAA’s.”
Even senior center Jenny Mowe,
usually willing to give her take on
any topic, felt uncomfortable talk
ing about the WNIT.
“It doesn’t really matter to me. I’ll
play anything if they want me to,”
Mowe said.
With three home games remain
ing against the Arizona schools and
Oregon State, there is still a slim-to
none chance that Oregon could go
to the NCAA Tournament.
If the Ducks win out, Oregon
would finish the season 17-11 over
all, a number good enough for the
Big Dance.
However, none of the Ducks are
slapping high-fives after watching
their RPI plummet from No. 51 to
No. 67 after last weekend.
“Maybe if we would have beat
UCLA and lost to USC, or won both
of those games and lost to [Arizona
State],” Craighead said, “But since
we dropped to UCLA, I really doubt
we'll get into the tournament.”
Still, at least one Duck has yet to
give up.
“I’m not giving up hope. I don’t
want them to give up hope,” Runge
said. “We have three games at home
and still an outside chance, and the
teams we have left to play are still
good wins for us.”
Given a fair‘shake?
Wolvert still isn’t happy about be
ing temporarily suspended for not
shaking the Bruins’ hands after they
beat the Ducks 70-68 at Pauley
Pavilion Friday.
After Oregon’s last-second in
bounds pass was intercepted,
Wolvert said that the UCLA bench
cleared onto the court as the Bruins
celebrated beneath the far basket.
What happened after that is clear
from all sides: Wolvert walked to
the locker room without congratu
lating the victors.
But Wolvert claims that she wait
ed with her teammates at halfcourt
for awhile and only when she
thought the Bruins were too busy
celebrating to shake hands did she
walk away.
“It’s my fault, and I’m taking full re
sponsibility for what I did,” Wolvert
said. “I just don’t think that the pun
Chrystal McConnell Emerald _
Senior forward Angelina Wolvert must write letters of apology to the Bruins for not shaking hands with UCLA players after Oregon’s
70-68 road loss last Friday.
ishment fits the crime right now. ”
“Ange still has some feelings
about it, but my thing is don’t com
plain when you get pulled over and
the police write you a ticket,” Runge
said. “I think she’s complaining,
and you know, that’s her choice in
how she handles things. I think
we’ll deal with that discipline-wise
in a different way, and I felt like that
was fair so I let her play. ”
Wolvert did get to play on Sun
day, leading the Ducks to a 74-66
win with 25 points in 23 minutes.
She would not have played if sen
ior teammates Lindsey Dion and
Brianne Meharry hadn’t ap
proached Runge and asked that
Wolvert be reinstated.
Nobody asked the two seniors to
confront their coach, Craighead
said.
“I think you could see the looks
on our faces when she told us about
suspending Ange that none of us
agreed with that,” Craighead said.
“I’m grateful that our seniors
went and talked to coach Runge,”
Craighead continued. “I don’t know
how much coach Runge thought
about what she was doing before
she decided to suspend Ange, but I
did really think it was going to be a
punishment for our team, rather
than the individual who needed to
be punished.”
Wolvert will be punished. Part of
that punishment includes writing
letters of apology to the Bruins, and
part of it will include extra running
— maybe 40 miles before spring
break, Wolvert said.
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