Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com
Thursday, November 14,2002
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
Best bet
NCAA Basketball:
Alabama v. Oklahoma
6:30 p.m., ESPN2
Kid in a
candy store
Former redshirt Brandi Davis made
the most of her opportunities in her
first game last week for Oregon
Hank Hager
Sports Reporter
For some athletes, putting on a jersey takes
no more thought than going to bed at night.
For them, the game is an occurrence taken
for granted. But for Oregon women’s basket
ball sophomore Brandi Davis, her No. 21
Duck jersey took on a whole new meaning on
Saturday.
“Once I saw my jersey and got to put it on,
it was one of the most exciting things for me,”
the Compton, Calif., native said. “I was like,
‘Yes, I can make it, I can do it now.’ I was just
really excited.”
After sitting out the 2001-02 season as a
redshirt due to being an academic partial
qualifier, Davis, 19, saw her first action with
the Ducks in the team’s first exhibition game,
a 100-43 victory over Horsholm BBC.
“I was bouncing off the walls. I was really
excited,” she said about her first game. “I
can’t even describe it. It was one of those
excitements, like being a little kid in a can
dy store.”
After settling down and getting over the
nervousness that came with her first colle
giate game, Davis ended the night with 10
points on 4-of-10 shooting. Her first make, a
two-point jumper at the 12:36 mark of the
first half, sent most of the 3,540 in attendance
to their feet.
When Davis stepped onto the floor for the
first time, it marked the culmination of a year
spent sitting on the sidelines and thinking
about what could have been.
“Last season, she was kind of going through
the motions, not too excited because she
couldn’t play,” her teammate and current
roommate, Andrea Bills, said. “This year, she
just couldn’t stop talking about getting into a
game. I was really excited for her to get in her
first game and do so well.”
Heavily recruited by former Oregon head
coach Jody Runge, Davis came into last sea
son as the team’s only redshirt. She was to sit
on the sidelines for every home game, watch
ing as her teammates first struggled, but even
tually strolled to a WNIT Championship.
Worst of all, Davis said, she couldn’t travel
with the team to road contests, and couldn’t
even attend Oregon’s retreat.
“Redshirting is probably one of the hardest
things I’ve had to do in my life,” Davis said. “It
was very hard just not being able to be with
the team. It was a really hard transition, but it
was worth it.”
What Davis did gather, however, was a bet
ter understanding of the collegiate game.
While she is essentially a freshman — at least
in terms of playing time — Davis gathered
valuable experience from watching her team
mates last season.
That has catapulted her into the competi
tion for the starting wing position. Head coach
Bev Smith said the position will be decided on
a week in, week out basis.
But without a natural playing talent and de
sire to just be on the court, Davis would have
been overlooked for the position.
“Certainly, she’s got a year of experience
behind her and that helps anybody with the
game at the next level,” Smith said. “She’s
much more focused, although she’s got a lot of
work to do on that still, but she’s making
strides. She’s conscientious about it, so she
understands that it’s about competing and not
taking any time-outs or rests.”
Listed as 6 feet tall, Davis has a swagger in
her game. She can knock down 3-pointers
or pull up from 10 feet and sink a jumper.
Overall, her game is well-balanced, and all
Turn to Davis, page 10
Sophomore Brandi Davis exhibited a quick shot against Horsholm BBC in her first career Oregon
game last week. She was4-of-10 from the field and scored 10 points in the Ducks'win.
‘D’ will be focus
of second game
The Oregon men’s basketball team, after putting up 135
points in its first exhibition test, shoots for a better
defensive effort in its second game tonight at Mac Court
Men’s basketball
Adam Jude
Senior Sports Reporter
Gan it get any better than 79 first-half points?
Probably not, but the Oregon men’s basketball team hopes to
better its defensive performance from its first exhibition game,
when the Australian Institute of Sport team scored 49 points in a
sluggish second half for the Ducks.
“We’ve got a lot to improve on,” point guard Luke Ridnour said
of preparing for Oregon’s second exhibition game at 7 p.m. today
against the EA Sports All-Stars. “Defensively, we’re not where we
need to be.”
The Ducks, ranked No. 11 in the preseason Associated Press
poll, shot 70.5 percent from the floor in the first half of their 135
86 win over the Australian traveling team last week. Junior for
ward Luke Jackson led Oregon with 32 points and nine rebounds
in front of8,206 fans at Mac Court.
“We put on a show in that first half,” senior forward Robert
Johnson said.
But it won’t be that easy tonight. The EA Sports team, led by for
mer Washington State forward Chris Crosby, has composed a 1-6
record against some of the top teams on the West Coast.
, The All-Stars’ lone win came against Utah, 92-86, and lost to
Turn to Basketball, page 10
GeoffThumer Oregon Media Services
Carrie Zografos has spent three cross country seasons in an Oregon
uniform, and this weekend's meet may be her last as a Duck.
Zografos nears
end of the trail
The senior may be running her last cross
country race this weekend at the regional meet
Cross country
Mindi Rice
Freelance Sports Reporter
Carrie Zografos, one of two seniors on the Oregon
women’s cross country team and the team’s 2001
MVP, is closing in on the end of her college cross
country career.
Zografos, a redshirt senior, has led the squad in all
three meets she has raced in this season. She sat out
this season’s Willamette Invitational with a slight
injury.
Zografos graduated in 1998 from Central Catholic
High School in Portland. While in high school, she
competed in the 4A state track meet, running the
400-meters, 300-meter hurdles, 4xl00-meter relay
and 4x400-meter relay.
After graduation, Zografos went to Colorado, tak
ing 10th in the 1999 Big 12 finale in the 600-meter
race. In the 1999 cross country season, Zografos fin
ished as the eighth runner for the Buffaloes, who fin
ished eighth overall in the NCAA Championships.
Zografos transferred to Oregon in the summer of
2000, and ran in the top seven in five races during her
Turn to Cross country, page 10