Sports Editor:
Adam Jude
adamjude@dailyemerald.com
Assistant Sports Editor:
Jeff Smith
jeffsmith@dailyemerald.com
Friday,March 15, 2002
NCAJ
Best Bet
\ Tournament
Cal vs. Penn
2:40 pm, CBS
Oregon captures first NCAA win since I960
■ The Ducks overcome a sluggish
first half to knock off Montana
By Jeff Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Ernie
Kent, with an expressionless face,
opened his postgame comments with
words of disappointment.
“We know we did not play very good
basketball today,” Kent said.
But then it was his players’ turn
to speak.
“It was the first game for us in the
NCAA Tournament and we didn’t
come out like we would have liked to,
but the biggest thing is we got the win,”
Luke Ridnour said.
“We were just so excited. A lot of us
have never been here before,” Luke
Jackson said.
“I was nervous,” Robert Johnson said.
Those words popped a light bulb in
Kent’s head.
“You sit here and
realize that only
Freddie Jones has
had real experience
in the Big Dance,”
Kent said. “This team
needed to go through
this experience.”
What the second
seeded Oregon men’s basketball team
went through Thursday was an 81-62
victory over 15th-seeded Montana in the
first round of the NCAA Tournament.
MIN’S
BASKETBALL
Turn to NCAA, page 12
Nervous Ducks begin
slowly, but will move on
■After scoring just 10 points in
the first 10 minutes of the game,
second-seeded Oregon pulls ahead
of Montana in the second half
By Peter Hockaday
Oregon Daily Emerald
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The game
ended on an emphatic Freddie Jones
dunk, a two-handed monster slam that
was more of a message to Wake Forest,
Oregon’s second-round opponent, than
to Montana, Oregon’s first-round foe.
But that dunk was hardly indicative
of the Ducks’ afternoon.
After a sluggish start and finish that
was far from high-flying, the Oregon
men’s basketball team simply out
matched Montana on their way to an
81-62 win Thursday afternoon in the
first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Ducks looked nervous and spoke of
the NCAA Tournament “jitters” after
the game.
"I was nervous,” Oregon junior for
ward Robert Johnson said. “It was my
first time being here.”
If that late Jones dunk was represen
tative of the game’s end, there were a
handful of plays that represented Ore
gon’s sluggish start. Duck center Chris
Christoffersen fumbled the basketball
out of bounds on two consecutive pos
sessions to start the game, then forward
Luke Jackson had the ball stripped out
of bounds to Montana. Jones scored
Oregon's first basket, a three-pointer, al
most three minutes into the contest.
“We know we did not play a good
basketball game,” Oregon head coach
Ernie Kent said. “Part of it was the first
game jitters, and being here for the first
time for most of these guys.”
After a Luke Ridnour layin made the
score 5-2 in favor of Oregon, the Ducks
went six minutes without a field goal, a
drought that was capped by another
Ridnour layup with 10:40 left in the
first half. The Ducks missed several
shots during that period, but hit three
free throws to keep the score tied at
eight at the end of the drought.
Oregon never seemed to find a rhythm
in the first half of Thursday’s game.
The Ducks scored only four fast-break
points, all on layins by Ridnour.
Oregon shot well in the first half, but
the Ducks simply didn't take many
shots. Oregon hit 50 percent of its field
goals in the first half, but took just 20
shots, compared to Montana’s 29. The
Grizzlies shot just 37.9 percent in the
Turn to Men’s, page 9
Adam Amato Emerald
Sophomore point guard Luke Ridnour scored 18 points against Montana to lead the Ducks to their first NCAA Tournament win
since 1960. Oregon will play Wake Forest in the second round Saturday.
Oregon looks to move forward
after tumultuous 2001 season
■ With the coaching staff
and four players gone from
last year’s squad, the Oregon
softball team begins anew
By Eric Martin
Oregon Daily Emerald
Kate Peterson left the Oregon women’s
softball team in a rush. She didn’t tell anyone
she was leaving. She didn’t know where she
was going. The freshman just knew she had
to get out of Eugene because some team mem
bers and coaches “ran me away from the love
of the game.”
“I left for a lot of reasons,” the current
Brigham Young sophomore said. She has
since married and now go as by Kate Walker,
“A lot of it was politics. The assistant coaches
were conspiring against certain players.”
The team of nine returning lettervvinners
and nine newcomers was embroiled in con
troversy that had nearly reached a crescendo.
Only a whisper of the increasingly vocal team
tensions ebbed from the confines of the
dugout. But frustrations es
calated to defiance.
A three-year starting
catcher quit three weeks
before season’s end. Three
players — including Walk
er — who were eligible for
the 2002 season didn’t re
turn. And a June 2001 au
dit revealed head coach Rick Gamez had mis
used $5,748.64 in team travel funds. He
resigned in October.
Turn to Softball, page 9
SOFTBALL
New-look Oregon softball team
opens Pac-10 play against OSU
■With a host of new players
and a new coaching staff, Oregon
hosts Oregon State in the first
Pac-10 game of the season
By Chris Cabot
Oregon Daily Emerald
With 22 games under their belt this sea
son, the Oregon softball team (14-8) will
host its first game at Howe Field and first
contest against a Pacific-10 Conference foe
at 2 p.m. Saturday against Oregon State.
The Beavers come into Eugene with a
No. 14 national ranking and a 23-8 record.
After a controversial 2001, which in
cluded a resignation of the team’s head
coach after financial issues, the departure
of three starters and a 1-20 record in the
Pac-10, the Ducks have rebounded and are
encouraged by their play through the pre
season.
“Overall, the kids have responded well
to each other with a lot of newcomers and
extremely well to myself and the two as
sistant coaches,” interim head coach
Brent Rincon said. “They are getting
along, care about each other and want to
achieve a high level of success, and we are
working hard to make that a reality for
them.”
Due primarily to what current players
described as team chemistry problems,
four Ducks quit the team in the last year.
Oregon lost Lisa Wangler, who was select
ed as team MVP after leading Oregon with
a .367 batting average from the leadoff
Turn to Preview, page 9