Sports Editor:
Adam Jude
adamjude@dailyemerald.com
Assistant Sports Editor:
Jeff Smith
jeffsmith@dailyemerald.com
Thursday, February 7,2002
Bellotti signs biggest recruit in Oregon history
■ Haloti Ngata, the top defensive
player in the country, joins 20 other
recruits who signed with the Ducks
By Adam Jude
Oregon Daily Emerald
The Ducks were able to get their re
venge on Nebraska after all.
Among the five junior college trans
fers and 16 high school seniors to sign
with the Ducks on Tuesday was defen
sive tackle Haloti Ngata, whom Ore
gon head coach Bellotti said is “the
biggest signing in the history of Ore
gon football.”
In December, Ngata made a verbal
agreement with Nebraska — the team
that was chosen over Oregon to play
Miami in the national championship
game in January —but changed his
mind twice before choosing Oregon.
Ngata, a Salt Lake City native who also
made a verbal commitment to Brigham
Young, is ranked by many publications
as the nation’s best defensive recruit.
“I had written him down on my list
two weeks ago and most of my coaches
thought I was crazy,” Bellotti said. “I
felt a kinship with him and his parents,
and I felt very good about our relation
ship. I think we were honest with him
and his family.”
Bellotti said the 6-foot-4, 324-pound
Ngata will battle for a starting spot as a
true freshman.
“He possesses the physical tools to
play right now,” Bellotti said. “He’s a
great young man, and I sense a maturity
and a leadership that will put him in po
sition to play very early on in his career.”
After his freshman year, Bellotti said
that Ngata is considering taking a two
year Mormon mission, and Bellotti
said he is “very comfortable with that.”
However, after two years, an athlete
becomes a “free agent and can go any
where,” Bellotti said.
Ngata will be joined on the defensive
line by three other signees next year,
including Chris Solomona, a transfer
Turn to Football, page 10
Enjoying Eugene
■Senior wrestler Eugene harris is putting
together a spectacular season, but his
focus is on each moment and each match
By Chris Cabot
Oregon Daily Emerald
One of the best individual seasons in the his
tory of Oregon wrestling is unfolding this year,
but Eugene Harris will be the last person to tell
you about it.
In his senior campaign for the Ducks, Harris
has amassed 22 wins and just two losses, with
five dual meets remaining on the schedule.
This winning percentage of .916 places Harris
sixth on the all-time Oregon list.. The Las Ve
gas native is ranked No. 5
in the country at the 165
pound weight class.
Harris tries to avoid the
subject of winning a na
tional championship or
achieving one of the best
winning percentages in
school history.
“I don’t really want to
think about that,” he said.
“I just try to stay focused
on each match.”
Oregon head coach Chuck Kearney and the
rest of his coaching staff have tried to instill in
Harris the concept of focusing on the present.
“I guess very few times in life the advice is to
live in the moment and take care of right now,
but that’s what we want him to do,” Kearney
said. “When his career is done, and he’s look
ing back on it all, he can say ‘I did have a great
, record. I did have a great run at Oregon. ’ I hope
Adam Amato Emerald
Senior Eugene Harris (left) has been a leader for the Duck wrestling team this year. His 22-2 record is one of the
best in Oregon history, and he is currently ranked No. 5 in the country at the 165-pound weight class.
that he can sit there with a national champi
onship trophy in his lap, but right now we
want him to live in the moment and focus on
the process and the journey as opposed to the
rewards or the destination.”
Not an outwardly vocal leader, Harris heads
the wrestling squad by the example he sets in
all aspects of the game. Whenever a member
of the team is struggling or down, Harris is the
first one to come to his aid, Kearney said.
“When you have a guy that sincerely cares
about each and every member of the program,
that makes him a very powerful force in our
room,” Kearney said. “He’s not the kind of guy
who will jump up front and lead a charge; he
Turn to Harris, page 12
Desperate for
win, Ducks
host Stanford
■ Trying to stay alive for the NCAA
Tournament, Oregon meets No. 2
Stanford, which has lost three
straight games at McArthur Court
By Hank Hager
Oregon Daily Emerald
The Stanford women have just about
everything.
The No. 2 Cardinal are 22-1 overall,
and 12-0 in Pacific-10 Conference play.
The team has won its last 14 games
since a 68-62 loss to then-No. 2 Ten
thing Stanford doesn’t have is a win at
McArthur Court since 1998.
“I think we play better as an under
dog,” Oregon senior Jamie Craighead
said. “They come in and they haven’t
won here in three years, so we kind of
have our own streak going. We’re just
Turn to Women’s, page 12
nessee on Dec. 16.
And the team’s top
two players — Lind
sey Yamasaki and
Nicole Powell — are in
the top 10 in the con
ference in scoring.
Just about the only
UO men prepared to finally win at Stanford
■The Ducks haven’t beat the
Cardinal on the road in 16 years,
but the streak could end tonight
By Peter Hockaday
Oregon Daily Emerald
Maples Pavilion is a tough place to
play for any team.
But for the No. 13 Oregon men’s bas
ketball team, which hasn’t won there
since 1986, it’s a death trap. The Ducks
have come close to
beating the Cardinal
at Maples in those 16
years, losing by two
points in 1990 and
five points in 1993,
but mostly Oregon
has been blown out
of Palo Alto like a
row boat in a hurricane.
“We have not had much success
down there, so it’s a big game for us to
hopeftilly get over that hurdle with our
program-,” Oregon head- coach Ernie
Kent said.
Oregon and Stanford will square off
at 7 p.m. tonight. The game will not be
televised because of Fox Sports Net na
tional games, but fans can listen to the
game locally on radio station KUGN.
Maples is small, old, and loud, and
the students sit courtside. Remind you
of a certain Eugene basketball arena?
“It’s a real tough place to play,” Ore
gon guard Luke Ridnour said of
Maples. “The fans are on you. The stu
dent section is right there on the floor,
like here, and they know everything
about you. So they’re going to be on us,
but we’re looking forward to it.”
Maples Pavilion, as well as Califor
nia’s Haas Pavilion on Saturday, will be
the venues of Oregon’s redemption if
they can prove to national doubters that
they can win on the road. The Ducks
are a perfect 13-0 at home, but have lost
close games and hold a 4-5 overall
record away from McArthur Court.
' But the Ducks could be ready to
break that pattern. Coming off two
huge wins, against conference con
tenders UCLA and USC, the Ducks
have added confidence from a win ear
lier this season over the Cardinal, al
beit in Eugene.
“It certainly gives you a comfort
zone of knowing you can play with
them,” Kent said of Oregon’s 87-79 win
over Stanford on Jan. 12. “In the past,
they have just been so dominant of a
team with our program.”
The game is big for Stanford as well,
which is mired in the middle of the
conference race and has struggled to be
consistent all season. The Cardinal are
ranked at No. 20, but have the worst
overall record (13-6) of any of the six
Pacific-10 Conference teams that are
likely headed for the tournament.
Everyone knows about Stanford
star Casey Jacobsen, an All-American
last year who recently dropped 49
points on the unsuspecting Arizona
State Sun Devils. But the Cardinal’s
most important player could be Cur
tis Borchardt, the 7-foot center who
averages 16 points and 11 rebounds
per game. The versatile Borchardt
Turn to Men’s, page 10
Adam Amato Emerald
Big men Chris Christoffersen (left) and Curtis Borchardt will battle in Palo
Alto tonight. Borchardt had 29 points in Eugene in January.