Tuesday
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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