Emmies
continued from page 13A
course of the year, but not one was
as funny, as refreshingly honest, as
insightful as Rashad Bauman. The
big-mouthed defensive back
talked a lot on the field, and he
talked a lot off of it, and we loved
him for both. We’ll show you what
we mean. After the Fiesta Bowl,
while the rest of the Ducks talked
about the “good win” and that
“Colorado played well,” Bauman
said this instead:
“They thought they were some
thing they weren’t,” Bauman said.
“And we went out and proved
that they weren’t what they
thought they were.”
Beautiful.
Worst Interview: Ernie Kent,
rumor has it, actually schooled
his team in how to deal with the
media. It showed. When the na
tional media crush descended late
in the season, the same stories
came out, and none were even
close to controversial. Or close to
interesting, after you’d heard
them over and over. But we love
the guys anyway. Really.
• Best Athlete You’ve Never
Heard Of: You’d be surprised how
many talented athletes get over
shadowed in the large Oregon Ath
letic Department. With that in
mind, this category is a tie, be
tween tennis players Manuel Kost
and Daria Panova.
Kost, a freshman from Switzer
land, took over the No. 1 singles
job on the men’s team for the sec
ond half the season, no small feat
with the presence of Oded Teig,
last year’s winner of this category.
Panova joined the team in mid
season and the Ducks promptly
won seven of their last nine
matches, including a first-round
NCAA Tournament win over No.
18 UNLV.
Best Game: Late in Oregon’s re
markable men’s basketball season,
the Ducks needed at least a win in
Los Angeles to clinch the Pac-10 ti
tle and cap a surprising run to the
top of the conference.
With 31 seconds left at USC, and
the Ducks up by three points, Tro
jan senior David Bluthenthal hit a
clutch three-pointer to even the
score. On the ensuing Oregon pos
session, sophomore Luke Ridnour
had the ball with 10 seconds left
and found a driving Freddie Jones
with the pass. Jones elevated, fin
ger-rolled and hit the shot to send
all of Oregon into celebration.
Best Play: Jones also gets part of
the “best play” award, but he’ll
have to share it with Maurice Mor
ris. Jones’ play came against USC
at McArthur Court, when he went
up to block Errick Craven’s shot on
a fast break. But Jones did more
than block the shot, in an unbe
lievable display of athleticism he
Hockaday
continued from page 13A
Collins said. “We have our home
coming during lacrosse season.”
Which is in the spring. In fact, the
lacrosse Ducks recently went to the
NCAA Tournament for the second
year in a row. That’s the Division III
NCAA Tournament, of course. With
an enrollment of 1,600 and an aver
age incoming GPA of 3.70, Stevens
is far more selective about its stu
dents than its athletics.
“When our coaches recruit, they
know they have to recruit athletes
that can do the work here,” Stevens
athletic director Russell Rogers.
“We do compete (for students) with
some of the top schools like MIT,
Carnegie Mellon, NYU.”
Despite the gap in academics,
Oregon and Stevens have eerie
athletic parallels. The Ducks of the
Hudson recently installed Next
Tprf onto the lacrosse field. The
mi lit
It u-* « w-'nrvc*. **r*?mnt*r '*-*'«*-•* i
came down with the ball, too, and
led the fast break the other way.
Morris’ play came in the Fiesta
Bowl. The senior running back
broke free of a tackier and only had
two or three defenders beat. He
was wrapped up by a Colorado de
fender. Play over, right? Nope.
Morris danced around, sat on top
of the defender, somehow stayed
on his feet, and left the rest of the
Buffalo defense behind as he
rushed for the end zone.
Rookie of the Year: This catego
ry is also a tie, but only because we
can’t differentiate between these
two athletes. Help us out. They’re
both freshmen. They both throw
the javelin for the women’s track
team. They were both heavily re
cruited and they both followed
through on those expectations.
They’re both awesome. That’s
why Roslyn Lundeen and Elisa
Crumley get our Rookie of the Year
award. Both won All-American
honors in the javelin at last week’s
NCAA Championships, the first
time that two freshman did that in
the same event since 1981. Most
importantly, they’ll both be back
for three more years.
Coach of the Year: Two Oregon
coaches were named Pac-10 Coach
of the Year this year. We had to
choose one of them. Ernie Kent
didn’t have to go though his entire
season without the services of
Luke Ridnour and Freddie Jones.
Martin Smith did.
Smith led the men’s track team
to a second-place finish at the Pac
10 Championships despite playing
most of the season without NCAA
individual champions John
Stiegeler and Santiago Lorenzo.
Remarkable.
Most Valuable Female: Cathrine
Kraayeveld stepped up in the post
season for the Oregon women’s
basketball team this year, averag
ing a double-double in the WNIT
and truly carrying the team on her
back. She hit two game-winners in
the tournament, including the
championship game-winner.
But Kraayeveld was only contin
Ducks of the Willamette recently
took it out of Autzen Stadium.
Like the long-standing tradition of
track in Eugene, in New Jersey
they have a long-standing lacrosse
tradition. Stevens, in fact, has the
longest-running continuous
lacrosse program in the country.
Led by that lacrosse team,
Stevens is experiencing an athlet
ics renaissance, similar to the re
cent Oregon resurgence. No
Stevens team went to an NCAA
Tournament before lacrosse did it
last year. Then, this fall, the soc
cer team did it. The lacrosse team
did it again. The baseball team
joined the party.
“We’ve never been known for
athletics up until recently,” Rogers
said. “We’ve gotten additional dol
lars to do things like improving our
facilities, and we’ve got a contract
with Adidas sports now for all our
uniforms and equipment needs.”
A ^djd^spJiQol, Fqr,
• •*. •»*-* Dm* ft -•—**—" “ —
uing an excellent regular season,
when she averaged 10 points and
eight rebounds per game. For her
regular-season stability and her
postseason dominance, Kraayeveld
earns her first Emmie MVP.
Most Valuable Male: We saved
the best for last and this athlete
dominated Oregon sports for
more than just this year. He will
be remembered years from now
as perhaps the best quarterback to
ever hoist the ball downfield for
the Ducks.
Someday, you’ll be able to say
that you saw Joey Harrington play.
Really, he was that good. His pres
ence on the field was matched
only by his presence on the side
lines, where he led the team with a
fierce attitude and a winning spir
it. Joey Harrington brought the en
tire Oregon Athletic Department to
a new level and deserves the Most
Valuable award in every way.
Jody Runge Lifetime Achieve
ment Award: We started this
award last year as a joke and gave
it to Jody Runge, figuring it would
be a long time until another coach
pulled a truly boneheaded move
like she did.
But somebody did! Former soft
ball coach Rick Gamez officially
pulled a Runge! He alienated his
players, messed with the athletic
department and really made a nui
sance of himself! Then he re
signed.
For that, Gamez earns the second
annual JRLAA. Hopefully this year
will be the last year we give it out.
And that wraps up the Oregon
Daily Emerald’s sports coverage for
2001-02, the “Year of the Duck.”
We had a blast covering Oregon
sports this year, and we hope you
had as much fun watching as we
did covering. For those of you in
Eugene this summer, read us on
Tuesdays. If you’re graduating,
read us online. If you’re coming
back next fall, get ready.
“Year of the Duck II — The Attack
of the Quack” could be coming.
E-mail sports reporter Peter Hockaday
atpeterhockaday@dailyemerald.com.
shame. Thus begin the differences
between Ducks East and Ducks
West. For one, there’s the absence
of tailgating and, well, any crowds
whatsoever at Stevens. Then
there’s the academics-oriented ath
letes. Stevens athletes have an av
erage 3.1 GPA, which is markedly
higher than Oregon’s athletic GPA.
But that’s OK by the Ducks at
Stevens. They’re happy to hpve the
jocks of Oregon, even if Oregon
doesn’t appreciate the academic
visibility that Stevens earns for
Ducks around the country.
“They’re obviously two totally
different schools in terms of
scope and size and athletics pro
grams and all that,” Rogers said.
“But we do have at least one
thing in common.”
We certainly do.
The Ducks.
E-mail sports reporter Peter Hockaday
at peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com.
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