A scene that sets March's stage
Slowly, the bus made its way down Interstate-5.
Drained from a historic weekend, the Ore
gon men’s basketball players simply wanted
to get back to Eugene and rest in their beds.
The euphoria from their grinding 65-62 victory
at UCLA and outright Pac-10 title had subsided a
tad by the time darkness arrived on Saturday night.
Their celebration had come earlier that day, on
the Pauley Pavilion court where they donned
white Pac-10 championship hats, and inside their
locker room afterward where they reflected on
what they had accomplished.
But then came the flight from Los Angeles to
Portland. And then came the seemingly endless
bus ride from Portland to Eugene that nobody was
looking forward to.
“We wanted to stay an extra day in L.A. so we
could fly into the Eugene airport and not have to
take the bus,” senior Anthony Lever said.
Instead, they hopped aboard and relaxed, wait
ing eagerly to reach home. Finally, at 10:45 p.m.,
the bus veered off the freeway and headed into
town. It made its way to Centennial Boulevard and
took a left turn into the Casanova Center.
“We were on the bus getting ready to go home
and go to sleep and then we were like, ‘Huh? What
is going on over there?’” Lever said.
“We were like, ‘Are those really people?”’ Luke
Ridnour said.
Yes, those were people. Lots of people. Lots of
happy people.
Suddenly, the bus full of tired basketball players
had been recharged. The players all jumped out of
their seats to see if this was for real. The Duck mas
cot signaled the bus toward the cluster of fans.
Cheers erupted outside. A tape of the fight song
blasted through somebody’s car stereo. The bus
came to a halt.
One by one, the coaches and players walked out
and high-fived the masses, realizing that they were
in the middle of a late-night rally in honor of them.
There were students. There were elderly people.
There were families with little kids in tow. By the
way, it was also quite chilly.
“It’s pretty exciting, and it shows how much the
community supports us and how much it means to
everybody,” Ridnour said. “We didn’t think there
were would be people out this late in the cold.
“We had no idea.”
What the Saturday night greeting did was rein
force for these Ducks how special a season they are
a part of.
They can hear all they want about being the pro
l
gram’s first Pac-10 champions in 57 years. About
winning at UCLA for the first time since 1984. And
about being considered the best Oregon team since
the legendary 1938-39 NCAA championship team.
But those are just numbers. Actually seeing the re
action of their fans and talking with them and signing
autographs for children—and grown men—is what
lets the significance of their road trip begin to set in.
“Before, it really didn’t hit us,” senior Freddie
Jones said. “Now, to see all these people, man, it re
ally helps out a lot.”
The weekend began with Jones hitting the clutch
game-winner to lift the Ducks to the 67-65 victory at
USC on Thursday. That win clinched at least a share
of the conference championship and allowed the
team to relax a little bit and rev
el in their success.
“I can’t even begin to ex
plain the attitude we had in
that locker room after the game
when Freddie hit that shot,”
senior Kristian Christensen
said. “It was mayhem. We
were all crazy. It was insane.
We were dancing. We had
coach (Ernie) Kent dancing.
We had people screaming.
“And to top it off with to
day’s win at UCLA, it’s just
amazing. Amazing.”
Hakuna Matata Of course, the work isn ’t
done in March. The Ducks head
right back to Los Angeles on Tuesday to get ready for
the March 7-9 Pac-10 Tournament at the Staples
Center. A week later, they’ll be playing somewhere
in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and it’s
looking like that may take place just further down
1-5 in Sacramento.
So while Saturday’s mingling between players
and fans was indeed a celebration of things already
accomplished, there also was the strong sense of
optimism for things yet to come.
“We still have a lot of basketball to play, and we’re
looking at the bigger picture,” Jones said. “We’re try
ing to be in Atlanta on the first weekend in April. ”
One can only imagine the size of the rally that
would greet the team home from that trip since, af
ter all, Atlanta’s the site of this year’s Final Four.
The team bus would probably be replaced by a
trio of limousines that day.
E-mail assistant sports editor Jeff Smith
at jeffsmith@dailyemerald.com.
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II
Sports brief
Oregon softball goes 3-2 in Utah
In a five-game tournament hosted by
the Utah, the Oregon softball team came
away with three wins and two losses to
improve its overall record to 11-7.
The Ducks split their two games on
Friday, defeating Utah State, 4-1, and
then losing to the host Utah, 7-2. In the
Utah loss, Anissa Meashintubby picked
up her first loss of the season to drop
her record to 4-1. Senior Connie Mc
Murren picked up the win for the
Ducks against Utah State.
The first game on Saturday for Ore
gon pitted them against Brigham Young,
a team whose starting shortstop played
for the Ducks last year. Kate Walker,
who played under her maiden name of
Peterson at Oregon, was 2-for-3 in the
game against her former teammates.
The Ducks jumped out to a 7-0 lead,
but the Cougars were able to then score
eight unanswered runs capped by two
home runs by All-American Oli Keoho
hou for the victory. Brigham Young (11
8) was 4-0 over the weekend and have
now won six straight.
Against Southern Utah, McMurren
(3-3) earned her second win of the tour
nament in a commanding 9-1 victory.
“Connie pitched her best game of
the year,” head coach Brent Rincon
said. “She had complete command of
her pitches. She really dominated the
hitters.”
In Sunday’s contest, Oregon defeated
Eastern Kentucky, 7-2, behind quality
defense and a strong pitching perform
ance by freshman Lindsey Kontra.
— Chris Cabot
Wrestling
continued from page 7
championship round against UC Davis’
Jeremiah Jarvis. In his semi-final roimd
match, Overstake faced No. 3 seed Levi
Weikel-Magden from Stanford and
cruised to a 13-4 victory.
Williams, a senior at 125 pounds, was
seeded No. 3 in the tournament and had
to come up with two victories over tough
opponents in order to win the title.
Williams cruised through his first two
matches winning 10-2 and 18-5, which
placed him in the semi-final match
against Arizona State’s Mike Simpson.
Simpson was seeded No. 2 and ranked
No. 13 in the country, but Williams won
by a score of 15-4, placing him in the fi
nals against No. 1 seed and defending
Pac-10 champion Ben VomBaur.
In a previous meeting this season,
VomBaur defeated Williams 9-2, but in
Sunday’s matchup, Williams made the
most of his final conference match with
an 8-4 victory.
Brian Watson (141) also advanced to
the championship match but lost an 11
1 decision to Eric Larkin of Arizona
State, who was seeded No. 1 and
ranked No. 6. In his first round match,
Watson defeated Cal Poly’s Cedric Hay
mon, the No. 2 seed.
In his first Pac-10 Tournament, red
shirt freshman Shane Webster (174) fin
ished in third place. After losing his
first match to Cal Poly’s Steve Strange,
who would finish in second place,
Webster won three consecutive match
es, including a 13-4 victory over No. 3
seed Pat Owens from Boise State in the
third place match.
Also placing in the top-four for Oregon
in the tournament were 149-pounder
Eric Webb (third) and Casey Hunt
(fourth). Jason Harless finished fifth for
Oregon in the 133-pound class but was
selected as one of the four wild-card in
vitations to the national tournament.
The only Oregon wrestler not to win
a match in the conference tournament
was freshman Elias Soto (184). Soto
first lost in a 16-6 decision to Portland
State’s Charles Sandlin, who was seed
ed No. 3. Soto then lost to Arizona
State’s Will Carr in the wrestleback
quarterfinals, 5-1.
Placing third in the tournament be
hind the Ducks was Arizona State, who
was a favorite to win, with 103.5 points.
E-mail sports reporter Chris Cabot
at chriscabot@dailyemerald.com.
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