r
Sports Editor:
Adam Jude
adamjude@dailyemerald.com
Assistant Sports Editor:
Jeff Smith
jeffsmith@dailyemerald .com
Wednesday, February 27,2002
Best Bet
NBA:
Portland @ Washington
6:00 p.m., UPN
Coach Kent shows Oregon what its playing for
■The men’s team prepares
for the road, where a rare Pac-10
championship is at stake
By Jeff Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald
During his Monday team meeting,
Ernie Kent displayed images to his
men’s basketball team of what it’s play
ing for this week.
“Coach showed us
pictures of the Pac-10
championship rings
and it gave us more
incentive to go out
there and get it,” sen
ior Anthony Lever
said.
So what prompted the Oregon head
coach to do so?
“Sometimes you need a visual —
especially men, we’re very visual-ori
ented and we need to be able to ^>ok
at what it is we’re going after,” Kent
said Tuesday.
Oregon has the opportunity to grab
a piece of its first league champi
onship since the 1944-45 Ducks tied
for the Pacific Coast Conference
Northern Division title. With a victory
at USC on Thursday night, the 13th
ranked Ducks would clinch at least a
tie for first and get the No. 1 seed in
the Pac-10 Tournament.
Should the Ducks beat the Trojans
and then get past UCLA on Saturday,
the championship crown would be
long solely to Oregon.
“Ever since our win over Washing
ton and especially in our meetings yes
terday, we’ve been really focused,”
center Chris Christoffersen said. “We
got together and said, ‘OK, it’s up to us
now. It’s in our hands.’
“It doesn’t matter what anyone else
does, it comes down to what we do.”
And fortunately for Ducks fans,
they’ll have an opportunity to watch
Thursday’s game thanks to a late agree
ment by Fox Sports Net and the Pac-10
on Monday.
The Stanford-Arizona game was se
Turn to Men’s, page 12
Adam Amato Emerald
Center Chris Christoffersen says he’s 100 percent healthy for this week’s games after battling through sickness.
Wrestlers
preparing
for Pac-10
title run
■The Duck wrestling team
is gearing up for the Pac-10
Tournament by lightening the
practice load to rest their bodies
By Chris Cabot
Oregon Daily Emerald
With the Pacific-10 Conference Tour
nament on Saturday and Sunday in
Corvallis, the Oregon wrestling team is
making some final preparations.
Tuesday’s practice began a stretch of
four light workouts for Oregon, which
should have the team rested and ready
to battle for its first conference crown in
20 years.
“We want to be
physically and men
tally at our best,”
head coach Chuck
Kearney said. “Today
will be the first day
that we kind of start
lightening up on (the
wrestlers) to let them bounce back and
hopefully achieve a physical peak.
When you feel good physically, there is
a tendency that you will psychological
ly feel good as well.”
The Ducks’ 38-7 win over Portland
State on Feb. 20 gave them a final regu
lar season record of 9-7 overall and 5-4
in the Pac-10.
National rankings
For the first time all season Oregon
holds a spot in Intermat’s top-25 rank
ings, debuting in the No. 23 slot. The
Ducks have won four of their last five
dual meets, including wins over No. 24
Turn to Wrestling, page 10
WRESTLING
Acrobatic freshman not ‘backpedalling’
■ Lately, Kedzie Gunderson
is making a name for herself
with outstanding play
By Hank Hager
Oregon Daily Emerald
The Ducks entered this season with
what was believed to be a problem.
For the first time in a long time, Ore
gon’s roster was domi
nated by freshmen.
Names like Amy Par
rish, Kedzie Gunder
son and Andrea Bills
are plastered inside of
the 2001-02 media
guide.
Besides junior Shaquala Williams
and seniors Edniesha Curry and Jamie
Craighead, Oregon head coach Bev
Smith really didn’t know who to turn to
when a jump-start was needed.
The Ducks may have just found that
player. And she’s not your average
freshman.
Gunderson has begun to step up and
play an increasingly effective role for
the Ducks. Her 12 points against Wash
ington State last Thursday were a career
high, and it was just an example of the
success she has enjoyed so far.
“It feels good to know that I’m im
proving as time goes on instead of
backpedalling,” she said. “It felt good to
get in there (against Washington State),
and that I can put up numbers. It was a
good confidence booster and it will be
interesting to see how things go on.”
For the Ducks, Curry is the “wacky”
senior who shows all kind of emotion
on the court. Williams is the serious
junior who has a stare unrivaled in the
conference.
And as a freshman, Gunderson has
started to carve a niche of her own.
She is the acrobat who can make a
shot from any angle or elevation. If a
team has found a way to stop her, it has
n’t shown it yet.
“I’ve always been like that, but I don’t
even see myself like that,” Gunderson
said. “People are always like, ‘How’d
you make that?’ Just knowing that I can
twist and move put up shots that you
wouldn’t call normal and be able to
make them adds a little flair.”
The games in Washington last week
afforded Gunderson, a 6-foot guard
from Bellevue, Wash., the chance to go
home for the first time. Although she
wasn’t much of a Husky fan when she
grew up — instead she “just liked
watching college basketball,” — the
games up north were a pleasant experi
ence.
“It was nice to go up to Washington
and put on a decent game for myself
and my team,” she said.
And what about her old school,
Bellevue High?
“I stayed up (after Saturday’s game)
and actually watched my high school
win the district championship,” she
said. “It was good to see them keep go
ing.”
Offensive dynamos
The Ducks may have finished sev
enth in the Pacific-10 Conference, but
several Oregon players enjoyed impres
sive statistical season.
It should come as no surprise to Duck
and Pac-10 fans that Williams finished
near the top in three categories.
Williams was No. 1 in conference play
with 18.4 points per game.
Williams was the best in the confer
ence in free throw percentage at 90.1,
Turn to Women’s, page 10
Thomas Patterson Emerald
. Jn her freshman season, guard Kedzie Gunderson has provided a
spark off the bench for the Ducks, who ptay WSU on Friday.