Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com
Wednesday, November 6,2002
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
Best bet
NBA: New Jersey at Milwaukee
6:30 p.m., ESPN
Crossing the Pacific
Jeremy Forrest Emerald
Redshirt freshman Ian Crosswhite, from Australia, is the only international member of the Oregon team.
Ian Cnosswhite made his way
to Oregon from Australia,
and in his first game he’ll face
his old team from Down Under
Peter Hockaday
Sports Editor
Most Ducks will look down the roster of
the Australian Institute of Sport — the
Oregon men’s basketball team’s first oppo
nent of the exhibition season — tonight
and see just a group of names.
But Ian Grosswhite will see friends.
Grosswhite, Oregon’s redshirt fresh
man forward from Sydney, Australia,
played for the AIS team two years ago,
just one of many teams that Grosswhite
played for before coming to Eugene.
On the eve of his first state-side meeting
with his former cohorts — the Ducks and
AIS will tip off at 7:30 tonight at McArthur
Gourt — Grosswhite reflected on entering
his second season with the Ducks.
“It’s real bush,” Grosswhite said of his
hometown of Gastlecrag, just outside of
Sydney. “It’s close to the city, but we’ve got
kookaburras and parakeets and all sorts of
wildlife. I actually like (Eugene) a little
more; it’s more quiet, and the community
here is embracing. People will take care of
you and actually care about you.”
Grosswhite’s thick Australian accent is
about the only thing that differentiates him
from the other athletic big men of the Ore
gon basketball team at first meeting. But
Matt Short, who redshirted last season with
Grosswhite, clarified the feeling of having
an Aussie next to him on the bench.
“He adds a little more flavor to the
team,” Short said. “We’ve got a lot of dif
ferent personalities on the team, but we
all get along so well. It just adds a little
more character to our team.”
There may not be much of a basketball
On tap
What: Oregon men’s basketball
exhibition season opener
Who: Against Australian Institute
of Sport
When: 7:30 p.m.
Where: McArthur Court
tradition Down Under, but what little there
is flows through Crosswhite’s veins. His fa
ther, Perry, played on the Australian
Olympie basketball team in three different
Olympics, captaining die squad in Montre
al in 1976 and Moscow in 1980. His moth
er, Janice, also played basketball but was
known for being a national hurdles cham
pion while at Melbourne University7.
So Crosswhite has played basketball
since he could say “hook shot.” His
mother would leave him at a day care
center that was right next to a basketball
court, he said, and the young Crosswhite
would dribble the days away.
Still, Crosswhite felt like he needed to
play basketball in America, like his sister
Anna, who plays for Virginia.
“You get a litde bit of pressure on you,”
Crosswhite said. “So it was kind of good
to get out of Australia, kind of earn things
on your own merits.”
On an Oregon team that is faster than
a speeding bullet, Crosswhite and his fel
low big men are the “X” factor — can
they be as strong as a locomotive?
As Crosswhite pointed out, the Ducks’
biggest loss last year, in the NCAA Tour
nament’s Elite Eight to Kansas, came in
large part to the Jayhawks’ dominance of
the boards. Oregon was among the na
tion’s leaders in points scored last season,
but that didn’t matter in its only March
Turn to Crosswhite, page 12
Pac-10 soccer
title to come
from California
As Pac-10 play winds down, UCLA and USC
look to grab a share of the title from Stanford
Soccer
jesse Thomas
Sports Reporter
It’s called the “Conference of Champions.”
The Pacific-10 Conference is represented by three states
along the West Coast, along with Arizona.
But when it comes to women’s soccer, the Golden State is
the only one to represent.
Stanford leads the way with an undefeated conference
mark and a 16-1-0 overall record, losing by one goal to one
of the nation’s best, North Carolina.
Stanford is led by senior forward Marcia Wallis with her
two goals in the 2-1 victory over Cal and was responsible for
eight of the 12 shot attempts.
UCLA and USC round out the top three teams in the Pac
10 with one and two conference losses apiece, respectively.
The Bruins’ only loss came to the Cardinal and the Trojans
two losses are to UCLA and Stanford.
In the race for the Pac-10 championship, Stanford will at
least clinch a share of the title as long as it wins one of its fi
nal two games. If the Cardinal can win out or UCLA drops
one of its remaining games, they will be the sole champion.
The Trojans could grab a share of the title with Stanford
and/or UCLA if they can win out and some other serious
upsets occur.
For the Oregon schools, they represent the opposite end of
the Pac-10 spectrum. Oregon and Oregon State sit in the bot
tom three of the conference with just two wins combined in
Turn to Soccer, page 10
UO’s third - quarter woes linger
Adam Amato Emerald
Oregon safety Keith Lewis breaks up a pass intended for Stanford's Alex Smith in the Ducks'
41-14 win. The Ducks face No. 5 Washington State in Pullman this week.
The No. 15 Ducks have been
outscored 59-21 by Pac-10
opponents in the third quarter
Oregon notes
Adam Jude
Senior Sports Reporter
Things would be much easier for the
Ducks if there were no halftime.
“We’re not going to go in (the locker
room), we’re going to stay out. Rain,
snow, sleet — we’re going to scrim
mage right through halftime,” Oregon
head coach Mike Bellotti said jokingly.
“We’re not going to have a halftime.
The third quarter is going to be an ex
tension of the second quarter.”
One can dream.
No. 15 Oregon (7-2 overall, 3-2 Pa
cific-10 Conference) has not trailed at
halftime this season, but has been
outscored 59-21 in the third quarter
during conference play. In the last
three games, the Ducks have allowed
seven touchdowns in the third quarter.
“We may do bull-in-the-ring in the
locker room, the coaches may do
something crazy, I really am not sure,”
Bellotti said. “It’s probably way
overblown. I think it’s still something
we’ll consider and look at the alterna
tives to improve our performance. I
don’t know that we can do more moti
vationally than what we’ve done.
“The bottom line is, we have to play
better.”
Turn to Oregon, page 10