Wednesday
Best Bet
MLB: Seattle at Oakland
7 p.m., Fox Sports Net
SPORTS EDITOR: JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com
,hi,d
Courtesy Photo
After conducting a study in nine statistical categories, the magazine Sports
ilustrated announced that Terrell Brandon was the best at his position,
"/ don’t want the credit, that’s for sure.
I’ll take the criticism though. ”
— Terrell Brandon
Ducking in ten years later
By Jeff Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald
PORTLAND —- He couldn’t even
walk the short distance from his
team bus to the Rose Garden locker
room without being noticed.
At 10:30 a.m. on a recent Sun
day in April, nicely dressed Min
nesota Timberwolves’ point guard
Terrell Brandon casually steps foot
inside the building where he will
play in a game in an hour-and-a
half and as he does so, two televi
sion cameramen rush over to film
his every move.
Once Brandon reaches the visit
ing locker room, he is greeted by
two men wearing collared Port
land Trail Blazers shirts. One is
holding a cell phone for Brandon
to use. The other is clutching onto
a thick pile of game tickets bun
dled up in a rubber band for this
day’s Portland-Minnesota Nation
al Basketball Association contest.
“Do you know who gets which
ticket?” a Blazers official asks.
“Yeah, let me see those; I’ll take
care of it,” Brandon says.
The cell phone rings.
“Hello ... oh hey, yeah no prob
lem,” Brandon says. “It’s all hooked
up. Sounds good, my man. All right,
I’ll talk to you later.”
While All-Star teammate Kevin
Garnett begins to strap on his sneak
ers and menacing game face on one
side of the locker room and Wally
Szczerbiak dribbles a basketball in
circles on the other, Brandon is
counting a wad of tickets quietly
with his mouth and fingers.
“That’s 22 ... 23 ... 24 ... 25 ...
Brandon says softly.
Soon, Brandon is the only Tim
berwolves player in the room as all
the others have gone onto the Rose
Garden floor to shoot around. Usu
ally, Brandon is one of the first play
ers to leave the locker room, but not
on this morning.
This can only mean one thing.
Terrell Brandon is in his beloved
hometown of Portland, Oregon.
Ten years have passed since
Brandon electrified the McArthur
Court crowd with his dazzling
passes and uncanny shooting
touch as the starting point guard
for the Oregon Ducks.
The 1991 Pacific-10 Conference
Player of the Year led the league in
scoring that season with 26.6 points
per game and set eight Oregon
records, including most points in a
season and highest scoring average.
His record-setting junior season
was his last on the college level,
though, as he decided to leave
school a year early amid all sorts of
speculation and doubt.
“It's not about money,” Brandon
told the Emerald on April 5,1991.
“ It’s something I wanted to do all my
life; ever since I knew what the NB A
was about from a young age to now. ”
The book on Brandon as he en
tered the NBA draft that spring
was that he was too short, didn’t
play enough defense and suffered
from a lack of experience. After all,
Brandon had only played two
Tu rn to Brandon, page 8
Men receive honors, women learn of bad news
■ Decathlete Lorenzo and thrower
Stiegeler pick up Pac-10 Conference
Athlete of the Week honors
By Robbie McCallum
Oregon Daily Emerald
The Oregon men’s
track and field team’s
hot start has been no
ticed by the Pacific-10
Conference.
Decathlete Santiago
Lorenzo and thrower
John Stiegeler have been
named the conference’s track and field Ath
letes of the Week.
Stiegeler, a sophomore from Coos Bay,
owns the nation’s top mark in the javelin
with a toss of 245 feet, nine inches. Stiegeler
uncorked an automatic NCAA berth on his
first throw of the season at the Oregon Pre
view and threw personal bests in each of his
last two outings. The latest was his second
place effort on Friday at the Texas Relays,
behind only German Olympian Boris Henry.
Stiegeler ranks second all-time on the Ore
gon records list, behind only 1992 NCAA
Champion Art Skipper.
Oregon’s second automatic NCAA quali
fier is Lorenzo. The junior from Buenos
Aires, Argentina won the Texas Relays de
cathlon with a personal best 7,726 points,
edging unattached entrant Trafton Rodgers
by 23 points in the final event — the 1,500
meters. Lorenzo is the Ducks’ first Relays
champion since 1949.
The All-American placed fifth at last
year’s NCAA Championships and ranks
Turn to Men, page 12
■The Oregon women lose a key
athlete, All-American Karis Howell,
just before their weekend matchup
By Peter Hockaday
Oregon Daily Emerald
It’s official. Two-time
All-American javelin
thrower Karis Howell’s
Oregon women’s track
and field career is over.
Howell, who placed
seventh at the NCAA
Championships javelin
toss last year, has experienced shoulder pain
for a few years and even practiced left-hand
ed at times last season.
The senior had been to the NCAA Cham
pionships three times in her career. After
“huddling with team doctors,” according to
head coach Tom Heinonen, Howell decid
ed to call it quits in the interest of saving
her body.
“It’s a big, big loss for us,” Heinonen said.
Howell’s last meet was the Oregon Pre
view earlier this season, where she placed
third behind Oregon’s Sarah Malone and
Charyl Weingarten.
Howell exits the Oregon team as the
record holder for the new javelin implement
with a mark of 168 feet, one inch.
Waiting in the wings
Out of Howell’s disappointment, a new
star in the javelin is rising to take her place:
■ freshman Sarah Malone.
Malone has already thrown an NCAA pro
visional distance in the javelin. Twice. The
freshman threw the implement 155-3 at the
Turn to Women, page 12