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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 5, 2002)
Sports Editor: Adam Jude adamjude@dailyemerald. com Oregon Daily Emerald Oregon Daily Emerald - Wednesday, June 5,2002-5 Best Bet NBA Finals: L. A. Lakers @ New Jersey 6 p.m., NBC Wednesday, June 5,2002 ■Jones and Christoffersen await their futures in basketball while many other former Ducks pursue their dreams By Chris Cabot Oregon Daily Emerald With the NBA draft fast approach ing, two of Oregon’s former basketball players await their future. Freddie Jones and Chris Christof fersen — with a little help from some influential friends — led Oregon to a Pacific-10 Conference championship and an Elite Eight finish in the NCAA Tournament last season. Now that col lege life has passed and 21 days remain until the draft, the future of bigger are nas, more talented opponents and ac tual paychecks is within sight. The most successful Oregon alum in recent years is the Minnesota Tim berwolves’ Terrell Brandon. In his 11th season in the NBA, Brandon ranked No. 1 this year in assists per turnovers with 6.14, and he needs just six points to reach 10,000 in his career to go along with more than 4,400 as sists. Brandon left Oregon after his junior year in 1991. Jones, who wowed McArthur Court crowds with his high-flying dunks and shooting touch, has statistics that . match Brandon’s numbers. Jones’ 650 points in the 2001-02 season ranks sec ond on the Oregon single-season list behind Brandon’s 745. Jones broke Brandon’s record for free throws made in a season with 169 and tied Brandon with 63 steals in a season. Christoffersen, who probably would have won the team’s most improved player award were it not given to the entire team at the Ducks’ annual awards ceremony, finished his career with 75 blocks, which ranks him third all-time at Oregon. Prior to his senior season, the 7-foot 2 Christoffersen attended Pete Newell Big Man’s Camp, and the off-season help showed as he compiled a .547 shooting percentage and 189 total re bounds. He was fourth on the team, with 286 points. Jones is predicted by many analysts to be selected in the middle of the first round while Christoffersen should go in the second round, but Oregon head coach Ernie Kent knows that the draft Emerald can be unpredictable. “I don’t think (Jones and Christof fersen) have a real good feel for what will happen in the draft,” Kent said. “No one knows. Anything can happen in the draft. I think a lot of it will de pend upon how they do in their indi vidual workouts with the teams they are interviewing with right now. They won’t know until draft day because the draft is so uncertain.” Of the 11 other men Jones and Christoffersen played with on the 1999-2000 NCAA Tournament team, eight are playing professionally or plan to this summer. Alex Scales, who averaged 16.3 points per game in the 1999-2000 sea son for Oregon, continues to amaze crowds with his leaping ability. He was Emerald co-winner of the slam dunk contest in this year’s Chinese Basketball Associa tion all-star game. Scales’ list of basketball employers is extensive. He was drafted by three teams — the Kansas City Knights of the American Basketball Association, the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the Conti nental Basketball League, and the In ternational Basketball League’s Tren ton Shooting Stars, who traded his rights to the Las Vegas Silver Bandits. In 2000, he played 14 games for the Mabo Basket Livorno averaging just over 10 points per game. He has since played in the Liga Sudameri cana Tournament in February and March of 2001, the Jiangsu Nangang Dragons Nanjing in China and the Central Entrerriano in Argentina. While with the Central Entrerriano, Scales had disputes with the team about his payment, but finally agreed to be paid in pesos instead of U.S. currency. A.D. Smith ranked second on the 1999-2000 team in scoring behind Scales, and currently plays for the Perth Wildcats in Australia. The Eu gene native has also played in Austria for the Klosterneuburg Dukes, Amicale Steinsel in Luxembourg and Gent Unit ed in Belgium. Sacramento, Calif., native Darius Wright shared the team MVP award with Scales in 1998-1999 and played two years for Oregon. In March 2001, Wright was signed by San Diego Wild Turn to Basketball, page 6 Adam Amato Emerald While Bryan Bracey (upper left) and Darius Wright (lower left) have experience playing professional basketball overseas, Freddie Jones (above) will have to wait until the June 26 NBA Draft to start his career in hoops. He is expected to be selected in the first round. Duck crew sets collegiate record in 115-mile competition Five women from the Club Sports crew team become the first collegiate athletes to row the long distance course By Jesse Thomas for the Emerald When most people travel to Port land, it is usually by car or bus or some other mode of transportation that fol lows Interstate 5. But not five women from the Club Sports crew team. They made their way by water, via the Willamette River. Freshmen Kristin Hanggi and Sarah Higgibothan, sophomores Amanda Fenton and Brantley Harrison and sen ior Nicole SherSi all competed in the 115-mile marathon from Corvallis to Portland over the weekend. The women began at 6 a.m. Satur day, along with six other boats, and rowed 85 miles. Waking up slightly sore on Sunday, the Oregon women rowed the final 30 miles to the finish. Although they finished sixth out of seven boats — most other boats were made up of masters rowers — Oregon set a collegiate record with its time of 14 hours, 44 minutes. Oregon was the first collegiate boat to compete in a race of that distance and to row for that amount of time. The women competed throughout the spring season but had never gone anywhere near that distance or rowed for that long. “We wanted another chance to race together,” Harrison said. “We are all really good friends and didn’t want the Oregon’s biggest worry wasn’t the dis tance, but its boat. The boat they raced in was old and needed some polishing before the race; Harrison said nobody had rowed in it in several years. The women would take rests every 30 minutes for a quick 60-second water break and there were a few rest stops season to be over. for the boats along the course. But oth er than that it was straight rowing. “You just get in a rhythm,” Harrison said. “You had to find a way to keep each other going.” Harrison said the women would sing songs together as a way to keep each other entertained. Through it all, the women could not have been happier with their experience. “It’s hard to describe; it was amaz ing,” Harrison said. Jesse Thomas is a freelance reporter for the Emerald.
