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!
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