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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 12, 2001)
Arizona loses another underclassman to NBA ■Yet another Wildcat flies the coop to try his chance at playing in the pros By Jeff Smith Oregon Daily Emerald The morning headline in Wednesday’s Tucson Citizen read, “Arenas poised to turn pro; Gardner testing the waters. ” The headline in today’s edition could read something like this: “Gardner becomes third Wildcat to turn pro; Arenas still waiting.” Yes, for the third time in a week, an underclassmen for the Arizona men’s basketball team has declared himself eligible for the NBA Draft, and it wasn’t sophomore guard Gilbert Arenas as expected. This time, it was sophomore point guard Jason Gardner, who fol lowed the lead of fellow starters Richard Jefferson and Michael Wright and followed his “dream.” “After talking with my family and coaches, I have decided to enter my name in the 2001 NBA Draft and chase my dream of playing profes sional basketball,” Gardner said. The 5-foot-10, 181-pound guard was a key member of the Wildcats’ Fi nal Four team that lost to Duke in the championship game on April 2. Since that game, the entire make-up of the Arizona team has been dramatically altered with the departure of the un derclassmen who have jumped ship and seniors such as Loren Woods, Eu gene Edgerson and Justin Wessel. Gardner, who averaged 10.9 points and a team-leading 4.1 as sists per game, still might return to the Wildcats because he is not plan ning on hiring an agent. Under league rules, underclassmen who do not hire an agent have until June 20 to take their names out of the June 27 draft if they are not pleased with their likely draft placements. “I have done a lot of research and talked to many people involved in the NBA, and I feel that this is the best time to enter the draft,” Gardner said. “The University of Arizona has been wonderful to my family and me, and that is why I will not close the door on my eligibility [by hiring an agentj. ” Of the Arizona starters last season, Woods was the only senior. Now, three of the non-seniors in that unit have declared themselves eligible for the draft, with Arenas still making people wait for his announcement. Before last week, only two Wild cats had ever left school early in head coach Lute Olson’s 18-year tenure. Now there are five, and pos sibly six. UO tennis teams continue road trips down south ■ Important matches fill the slate for the tennis teams this weekend By Robbie McCalium Oregon Daily Emerald Ask any coach whose team has experienced a long losing streak, and he or she will tell you how im portant getting the first win is. The Oregon women’s tennis team has earned that first win and now looks toward starting another streak. Head coach Jack Griffin and his Ducks hit the road this weekend for a season-ending tour of Texas and California, beginning with non-con ference matches against Tulsa and Texas Christian. A two-month-long losing streak, in which the Ducks lost 11 straight matches, effectively eliminated Oregon from a third-straight NCAA appearance. Nevertheless, several individuals still remain in the hunt for individual nationals bids. Looking for wins this weekend will be sophomore ace Monika Ge iczys, who participated in the NCAA Tournament last season with the Ore gon team. Geiczys and freshman Courtney Nagle, the team leader in singles wins, are ranked No. 33 in the latest ITA doubles rankings. The duo is 9-12 on the season. Not far behind Nagle in the win column is fellow freshman Davina Mendiburu. The Menton, France, Oregon golfers aim for success ■The men’s and women’s golf teams hope to steady their games with the league tournament looming By Jeff Smith Oregon Daily Emerald The victory was nice, but now the 27th-ranked Oregon men’s golf team wants something else: a win ning streak. Ten days after winning their first tournament since the spring of 1999, the Ducks will look to keep their success going at the PING/ ASU Thunderbird Invitation al on Friday and Saturday. Oregon will play the same par 72, 7,027-yard Karsten Golf Course in Tempe, Ariz., that the Duck women competed on last weekend. The Ducks will face a field that in cludes nine top-30 teams, including Pacific-10 Conference rivals No. 12 Southern California, No. 15 Arizona State and No. 25 Arizona. “We are going to be playing against an abundance of high ranked teams,” Oregon head coach Steve Nosier said. “This will be a great experience. Hopefully, we will be able to rise to the occasion.” The probable starters for the Ducks are senior Matt Genovese, junior Aaron Byers, sophomores John Ellis and Chris Carnahan and redshirt freshman Mike Sica. As for the Oregon women’s golf team, it will make a shorter visit to Stanford, Calif., for its final tune-up before the Pac-10 Championships. The Ducks will compete in an 11 team field at the Peg Barnard Colle giate on Friday and Saturday. The tournament, which will take place on the par 72, 6,154-yard Stanford Golf Course, will feature host No. 5 Stanford, No. 32 Washington and No. 40 California. The list of starters for the women include senior leaders Jerilyn White and Dawn Berry, junior Kathy Cho, sophomore Megan Heckeroth and redshirt freshman Lacy Erickson. Oregon is hoping for a solid out ing to carry itself through the re maining nine days after this week end and into the Pac-10 Championships in Tempe, Ariz. Brown continued from page 11 says,” said Larkin, rolling her eyes as she talked. “’Mark, I’m not a sprint er.’ Mark wouldn’t make her do it if she wasn’t good enough. It’s only go ing to help her in her jumping. ” “I hate sprinting, just because I get so nervous,” Brown said. “I just don’t feel like I’m a sprinter yet. Maybe in a couple months I’ll be a sprinter, but I just don’t feel like a sprinter right now.” Still, Brown took to the fast races, and that has led her to become one of the iron women of the track and field team. At the Oregon Preview, Brown won the long jump with a personal record, then ran in the 100 meters, the 200 and the 4x100 relay. The sophomore is not likely to compete in all those events at the im portant Washington Dual meet Satur day at Hayward. In fact, Brown will focus all her attention on the long jump aad Washington junior Zee Og arro, who competed with Brown at the Pac-10 meet last season and has already jumped 19-31/2 this season. Brown is fully aware of the tradi tion behind the dual meet and the tradition behind Oregon track in general. She’s like a kid on the first day of school — she’s aware of the history, unbelievably excited to be a part of it, yet still humble enough to accept her role in it. “I’m so proud of the program, and what we’re out there doing,” Brown said. With the NCAA Championships and the Prefontaine Classic looming at the end of the season, Brown is getting excited for the big meets. “It shows that other people have respect for our school and our track,” Brown said. “I mean, it’s beautiful out here, they’ve done so much to our track.” “I think it’s everybody’s dream on this team to make the NCAAs,” Larkin said. “To compete in front of your home crowd in such an elite meet would be a dream.” Both athletes just want the pre liminary meets to be out of the way so they can compete in the larger than life NCAA Championships. Brown, who is improving with each meet, desperately wants to fulfill the potential she knows she has. “It would be cool if I could fast forward to the end of the season, to see where I’m at,” said Brown, as she let out a belly laugh. “It’s funny because I’ve never done a full sea son of track, so I don’t know how good I can be. I could jump 21 feet, but I won’t know until the end of the season.” If Brown wants to jump those 21 feet by the end of the season, she’s going to have to do the dance before hand. The dance is a pre-meet ritual between Larkin and Brown that in cludes a handshake, a song and, of course, a little dance. “We were doing it one time before lifting weights,” Larkin said, “and our coach was looking at us going ‘ what the... ?’” The mental image is amusing. Two college track athletes, gettin’ jiggy with it, all in the name of get ting psyched up for a race. Larkin, and the rest of the Oregon athletes and coaches, have made sure that Amanda Brown will never live through an experience like last year’s basketball team. Now, it seems, Brown simply has to reach out and jump for her goals. Softball continued from page 11 this month, Gamez said he has em phasized playing hard for the entire game. “Our focus is to continue to im prove,” Gamez said. “We want to get better. Competing in the Pac-10 is a bear, and we need to communicate better and execute better. ” Coming home After two weeks on the road, the Ducks are coming home for a seven game homestand. The team has played just three games at Howe Field this season. “The team really enjoys playing at Howe Field with the support of the fans,” Gamez said. “Not to mention the fact that we’ve got some of the toughest opponents in the country. It’s a grueling schedule, and traveling makes it that much harder. ” Thirty of Oregon’s 47 games this season have been against ranked op ponents, Gamez said. The Ducks get a break from ranked play when they host a dou bleheader with San Jose State on Friday. But No. 16 Oregon State comes to town Saturday for a dou bleheader beginning at noon. native is 12-5 this season after join ing the team three months ago. Another NCAA contender is soph omore Jeanette Mattsson, who was ranked earlier this season by the ITA. The Ducks take on T\ilsa at noon Friday, followed by TCU on Saturday. Men take on LA. schools OREGON TRIATHLON The 2nd Annual Duck Bin Chin Sprint Triathlon April 15, 2001 7:30am University of Oregon 500m swim 20k (12.4 miles) bike 5k (3.1 miles) run Registration Club Sports Triathlon Club University of Oregon Suite 6 EMU The Oregon men’s tennis team embarks on its toughest weekend of the season Friday, traveling to No. 21-ranked Southern California and the nation’s top team, UCLA. At 8-10 and 0-4 in the Pacific-10 Conference, the Ducks will likely need at least one win this weekend to im press the NCAA selection committee. TALK ABOUT GOD! www.ducknavs.org Thoughts, Questions, Answers From The Navigators Need a Job? Internship? Gain valuable experience in advertising, sales and public relations selling yellow page advertising for the UNIVERSITY OF OREGON CAMPUS DIRECTORY. 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