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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 13, 2001)
Tuesday Best Bet MLB (SpringTraining): Seattle vs. Arizona 6 p.m., Fox Sports Net SPORTS EDITOR: JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com Ridnour awarded Freshman of the Year honors Emerald Freshman Luke Ridnour wishes he and his teammates were still playing. ■ A total of six players from the men’s and women’s basketball teams are honored in a vote by the coaches of the Pac-10 By Jeff Smith Oregon Daily Emerald The mood was still somewhat somber for the Oregon Ducks a day af ter hearing the news that the NIT will go on without them. But for three members of the men’s basketball team, Monday brought good news to help ease the pain of having their season come to an abrupt halt. Oregon’s Luke Ridnour became the first Duck ever to be named Pacific-10 Conference Freshman of the Year. Senior Bryan Bracey ended his two year Oregon career with a spot on the All-Pac-10 team. And Luke Jackson joined Ridnour to take up two of the five spots on the Pac-10 All-Freshman team. “It’s a great honor, but I would trade all of this to keep playing,” said Rid nour, who averaged 7.4 points and 3.8 assists per game while being the only Duck to start every contest. “It’s really disappointing how [the season] ended like that. I was a little surprised, but we were only .500. I thought we still had a chance though.” As for Bracey, he had no clue about his honor until he arrived for inter views before his team’s meeting at the Casanova Center. His serious expression soon turned into a large grin upon hearing the news. “Great,” Bracey said. “It feels good. I worked really hard to try to become a Turn to Men, page6A All-Pac-10 Teams Men Women Gilbert Arenas, Arizona Bryan Bracey, Oregon Sam Clancy, USC Jarron Collins. Stanford Jason Collins, Stanford Casey Jacobsen, Stanford Jason Kapono, UCLA Sean Lampley, California Earl Watson, UCLA Michael Wright, Arizona Reshea Bristol, Arizona Megan Franza, Wash. Michelle Greco, UCIA Courtney Johnson, Cal Melody Johnson, ASU Amanda Levens, ASU Elizabeth Pickney, Arizona Nicole Powell, Stanford Felicia Ragland, OSU Angelina Wolvert, Oregon UO’s civil war goes on as Runge silences team Oregon head coach Jody Rungesays she’s trying to keep her team focused on the game RUNGE ii Right now they need to be focused on their books, * and that's been my intent as far as keeping them from the media. Jody Runge Oregon head coach _n By Scott Pesznecker Oregon Daily Emerald The saga continues. Despite the seniors’ grand goodbye and an eighth straight NCAA Tournament berth, the recent controversy surrounding head coach Jody Runge’s coaching tac tics continued to mount throughout the weekend. All seemed well just be fore tip-off at Saturday’s Oregon Civil War victory, as each senior embraced Runge during the traditional sen ior-night ceremony. However, forward Angeli na Wolvert said not all was well before the game. “Coach Runge pretty much said, ‘Put your arm around me or you don’t play,”’ Wolvert said in sever al published news reports. A whirlwind of support and criticism has surround ed Runge since last Sunday, when eight unnamed play ers met with Athletic Direc tor Bill Moos and recom mended that Runge be fired. Neither Runge nor the players would say that any reconciliation took place over the weekend. However, at least one Duck said that Runge’s coaching through the past week helped lead Oregon to its 72-60 victory against Oregon State. “This week in practice we were a little emotional, and coach finally had to say that we need to focus our emo tions on the big game, don’t waste your energy in prac tice,” guard Jamie Craighead said. “We did that, and I think that helped us today.” After beating Oregon State, Runge told reporters that the recent controversy hadn’t distracted the team from reaching the NCAA Tournament, which it did Sunday afternoon. The Ducks will face Iowa at 6 p.m. Saturday in Salt Lake City. But Runge also said she doesn’t want the controver sy to become a distraction, which is why she’s decided to continue her player lock down from the media. Ac cording to Oregon media service representatives, Runge doesn’t even want her players questioned about the NCAA Tourna ment. “My focus has been to keep them as far away from that as they can be, and to just keep them focused on practice and the task at hand, and on the opponent coming up,” Runge said at a Sunday press conference re garding the NCAA berth. “Right now they need to be focused on their books, and that’s been my intent as far as keeping them from the media.” Runge said she hasn’t talked to players individual ly, but said she addressed her whole team about.the coaching controversy last Tuesday. “I gave them some brief thoughts about how I thought about things,” Runge said. “I apologized for hurting their feelings if that’s what my motivational techniques did to them. “It’s not easy. My major concern was to make sure that they had a chance to go to the tournament, that when we had 5 of 7 at home in the second half of the sea son, that they could rally and have a chance with our tough preseason to go to the tournament. “That’s what was really important to me as far as get ting them to have that op portunity.” Laura Smit Emerald Oregon freshman Buck Mink swept Portland State’s Michael Thoersz in Saturday’s match at the Student Tennis Center. Men dominate, women fall The women’s tennis team drops another heartbreaker to Washington State while the men are flawless in their home finale By Robbie McCallum Oregon Daily Emerald It was a weekend of Northwest compe tition for the Oregon men’s and women’s tennis teams. While most Duck sports teams are ri vals with Washington and Oregon State, the women’s tennis team has an unlikely regional rival—Washington State. Through the past four years, more con tests between the Ducks and the Cougars have come down to the last match than in any other rivalry. Sunday’s match with the Cougars was no different. No. 48 Oregon came into Spokane, Wash., with six straight losses and two de feats against Washington State in 2000. The match against the Cougars lived up to expectations. Washington State continued to frus trate Oregon by winning yet another close match. Senior Tamara Filipovic won a gut-wrenching 6-1,1-6,7-5 singles match against junior transfer Vickie Gunnarsson to clinch the match for Washington State. The win completed a Cougar comeback after Oregon jumped out to a 2-0 lead. The Ducks captured the ever-impor tant doubles point off wins by Janice Ny land and Davina Mendiburu (8-4), and Adeline Arnaud and Jeanette Mattsson (8-3). Mendiburu, a freshman, easily defeated Anna Dvbicz in the first singles match, 6 3,6-0. The Cougars responded with three straight singles wins to snatch the lead from Oregon for good. Mattsson and Ar naud both fought hard but dropped two overtime sets to fall at the No. 3 and 4 posi tions. An injury-hampered Monika Ge iczys was forced to retire against No. 37 Erica Perkins at the No. 1 position to give Washington State a 3-2 lead. Nyland tied the match at 3-3 with an other two-set, overtime victory over Zo rana Roganovic, 7-6, 7-6. Filipovic’s three-set victory in the final match resembled last year’s Washington State victory, in which the Cougars bounced back from a 4-2 deficit to sweep doubles competition and win, 5-4. The road-weary Ducks had dropped a 6-1 contest to No. 17 Washington two days earlier in Seattle. The match was Oregon’s sixth straight road loss. The Turn to Tennis, page6A
