Tuesday
Best Bet
NCAA Basketball: South Alabama vs. W. Kentucky
Sun Belt Tournament Final
____ 6 p.m., ESPN
SPORTS EDITOR: JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com
Case of Ducks v. Runge lacks solid answers
SCOTT PESZNECKER
PEZ SEZ
I can envision it almost to perfection
— coffee mugs around Eugene drop
ping in unison, as thousands of local
readers saw the front-page headline on
the Register-Guard.
Wow.
For those of you who only read the
Emerald, but failed to see today’s page
one story, here’s the deal: On Sunday,
eight players from the Oregon
women’s basketball team met privately
with Athletic Director Bill Moos to dis
cuss their head coach, Jody Runge.
The Ducks said that Runge belittled
them in public and that she never gave
them positive feedback. They said she
never listened to them, and she didn’t
get along with assistant coaches. They
said Runge was unfitting of what a Di
vision I head basketball coach should
be. They told Moos more than can be
fit into a single paragraph.
According to the eight Ducks at the
meeting, the entire team hopes that
this season is Runge’s last as Oregon’s
coach.
And that, my friends, is what hap
pened.
But here’s what I’m concerned
about. This is the reason why I did a
rare double-take when I picked up the
newspaper Monday morning to scan
the headlines.
Why, oh why, didn’t the Ducks wait
another week?
Why approach Moos after a pair of
awesome wins against the Arizona
schools, which are two tough Pacific
10 Conference foes? Why — after
pulling the NCAA Tournament back
into their reach — did the Ducks do
something that caused so much dis
traction, with a do-or-die Civil War
steadily approaching?
Why?
I don’t think anyone, except maybe
Moos and the women’s basketball
players, understand why the Ducks
called for a meeting when they did.
But in a Monday night conference
call, Moos told reporters that the play
ers didn’t intend for news of the meet
ing to reach the newsstand. The play
ers wanted the meeting kept secret
because they were afraid.
Afraid of their coach. Their coach.
It almost feels surreal to have
watched Oregon play so well last
weekend, only to find out two days lat
er how agonizing it must have been for
them.
Because the players didn’t request
the meeting a week ago, after returning
from a Los Angeles road swing in
which they lost to cellar-dweller
UCLA. No, the decision to meet with
Moos wasn’t made after a frustrating
loss, or after a bad practice, or follow
ing another injury.
What’s most disturbing is that the
players contacted Moos on Sunday
morning — after, not before, winning
their weekend home games.
The players were still basking in vic
tory when they decided to condemn
their coach.
So there has to be a reason for all this
madness, but I don’t think those rea
sons will be revealed until after the
season. Since Sunday’s bomb was
dropped, trying to find someone close
to the team to comment on the issue is
about as easy as finding Elvis. No, the
real Elvis.
But rest assured. The truth is out
there, and soon, all will be known.
The players would rather be play
ing basketball than sitting on the
bench against Oregon State this Satur
day, which is why they aren’t talking
about Runge right now. If the Ducks
beat the Beavs and earn an eighth
straight invitation to the Big Dance,
don’t expect any comment for another
week or so.
But the senior players will talk
again once they’re out from under
Runge’s wing.
Heck, when this season ends,
there’s a good chance that any of the
Ducks will talk about it.
Moos also told reporters on Mon
day’s conference call that the Athletic
Department would evaluate Runge’s
future as Oregon’s head coach. He
said the AD would talk with players
Turn to PezSez, page 10
Adam Amato Emerald
Oregon players met with Athletic Director Bill Moos Sunday to discuss their concerns regarding Jody Runge’s tactics.
Two of Pac-IO’sbest go head-to-head in final week
Adam Amato Emerald
Arizona senior Eugene Edgerson and the Wildcats have been looking
up at No. 1 Stanford all season in the Pacific-10 Conference standings.
■ Arizona is out tor revenge against
Stanford, as both teams try to propel
themselves into the NCAA Tournament
with momentum
By Jeff Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald
Stanford may have clinched a share of the Pacif
ic-10 Conference title with its win over UCLA Sat
urday, but the Cardinal still need one more victory
to capture the championship outright.
And the No. 9 Arizona Wildcats will do every
thing they can not to give them that win on Thurs
day.
Top-ranked Stanford (27-1 overall, 15-1 Pac-10)
and Arizona (21-7,13-3) headline this week’s Pac
10 schedule, as the two prepare for a Thursday
night showdown in Palo Alto, Calif., that will be
nationally televised at 7:30 p.m. by Fox Sports
Net.
“We are definitely a very different team than
when we played Stanford [in January],” said Ari
zona junior Richard Jefferson after his team’s vic
tory against Oregon Saturday. “They are the num
ber one team in the country. It’s going to take a lot
to go up there and beat them.”
The previous meeting that Jefferson was refer
ring to was an 85-76 Stanford victory on Jan. 6 in
Tucson that came at an emotionally trying time for
Arizona. The Wildcats were playing their third
consecutive game without head coach Lute Olson,
who was taking a leave of absence following the
death of his wife, Bobbi.
The loss was Arizona’s fourth in seven games,
but after the game, Wildcat players knew there was
plenty of time to turn their season around.
“Right now, they are a better team than we are,
but that’s just today,” Arizona center Loren Woods
said back then. “That’s why the NCAA Tourna
ment is in March. This is a tough loss, but I think
you still might see the Pac-10 race come down to
these two teams.”
Since that day, Arizona has won 13 of 15 games
and still has a shot at a piece of the Pac-10 title if it
wins its final two games and Stanford loses both.
But realistically, Arizona knows that it is one loss
behind where it needed to be in order to make a
run at Stanford — and views its loss to Oregon on
Feb. 4 as the game it should have won.
So it was not surprising to see the Wildcats play
with fire and emotion in their 104-65 victory
against the Ducks Saturday.
“We owed them one,” Arizona senior forward
CC We a re
definitely a
very differ
ent team
than when
we played
Stanford.
Richard
Jefferson
Junior
Arizona