Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peteriiockaday@dailyemerald.com
Friday, November 15,2002
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
Best bet
NCAA Basketball:
Georgia v. Texas
6 p.m., ESPN2
Adam Amato Emerald
Oregon's Andre Joseph battles with EA Sports All-Stars guard Brett McFall in the Ducks'132-98 win Thursday night
Ridnour shines
in Oregon win
The point guard has 31 points
and 10 assists in Oregon’s final
exhibition tuneup, a 132-98 win
over the EA Sports All-Stars
Men’s basketball
Adam Jude
Senior Sports Reporter
Is it too early to send in nominations
for national player of the year?
Luke Ridnour played nearly flawlessly
— 31 points on 11-of-15 shooting, 10 as
sists, three steals, one turnover in 29 min
utes — as the Oregon men’s basketball
team closed out its exhibition season
Thursday night with a 132-98 win over the
EA Sports All-Stars at McArthur Court.
Even though the season hasn’t even of
ficially started, the Luke-to-Luke show is
in full throttle. Ridnour hit junior forward
Luke Jackson with a half-court alley-oop
pass early in the game, bringing the crowd
of 8,412 to its feet.
Jackson, who finished with 25 points
and eight rebounds, was again on the re
ceiving end of a Ridnour alley-oop pass
early in the second half, which put the
Ducks ahead 83-61.
The Ridnour flurry didn’t stop there.
On a 2-on-l fast break a couple minutes
later, the junior point guard fed James
Davis with a seemingly effortless be
tween-the-legs pass for an easy lay-in.
Then, with about seven minutes re
maining and the Ducks leading 107-81,
Ridnour tipped a loose ball over two de
fenders, drove the length of the court and
challenged Joe Vogel, a 6-foot-10 former
Colorado State center, in the lane. Rid
nour sank a lefty lay-in and was knocked
to the ground, sending the crowd to its
feet with chants of “Luke, Luke, Luke.”
He converted the three-point play from
the free-throw line.
“When Luke’s running the show like
that ... he makes the game real easy,”
Davis said.
After putting up 135 points against an
admittedly weak Australian traveling
team in their first exhibition, the Ducks
nearly matched that again against a group
of well-traveled former college players.
Oregon, ranked No. 11 in the preseason
Associated Press poll, took 83 shots
Thursday and connected on 48 of them
— a 57.8 percent clip.
“I don’t think there’s a lot more I can
ask for in an exhibition game. I couldn’t
Turn to Basketball, page 6A
Rudy-mentary: A student steps on court with Oregon
Sure it was a gimmick, a promotion,
a way to get people into the cheap seats.
But the smile on Tex Arnold’s face
afterwards was real. The excitement
in his eyes couldn’t be denied.
Because Tex Arnold is now, per
haps, the only regular student in the
entire University who knows what it
feels like to play against the Ducks, at
McArthur Court, in front of 8,412
screaming fans.
“Unbelievable, man,” Arnold said af
terwards, on playing against the Ducks.
Arnold, an Oregon senior majoring
in biology and an ASUO student sena
tor, won an EA Sports promotion earli
er this week by scoring 116 points in a
competition
similar to the
halftime Pepsi
Shootout, where
more than 45
competitors
shot from spots
around a court
at the Rec Cen
ter, getting 45
seconds to score
as many points
as possible.
His prize was
a chance to suit
Peter
Hockaday
Two minutes for
crosschecking
up with the EA Sports All-Stars as they
faced the Ducks in an exhibition con
test. He didn’t expect much more than
a chance to warm up on the same
court with the Oregon squad and
maybe shake their hands afterward.
Arnold was there for the thrill. And
when he was introduced by court an
nouncer Don Essig, a huge roar went
up from the crowd.
The Ducks had just come on to
the court.
Midway through the second half, it
didn’t look good for Arnold, with a large
Oregon lead and an All-Stars team that
was obviously fatigued. Fans started
feebly cheering his name, chanting
“we want Tex, we want Tex. ”
But with 1:42 remaining and Ore
gon ahead by a ton, All-Stars coach
Pete Cassidy sat down next to
Arnold, patted him on the shoulder,
and asked if Arnold knew the stu
dents in the front row who were
chanting “Tex, Tex, Tex.”
“I said ‘No,’ and he said, ‘Well,
they’re going to know you here in a
bit,”’ Arnold said.
Arnold checked into the game and,
on the first possession, stole the ball
and dished it off to an All-Stars team
mate. He got the ball back, missed
an off-balance leaner.
No big deal.
“I was nervous, but after that first
steal, it just started feeling right,”
Arnold said.
On the ensuing fast break, Arnold
was just flat posterized by Brandon
Lincoln, Oregon’s freshman guard,
who dunked over the 5-8 mop-top like
he was playing with the low hoop in the
back yard against his little brother.
No big deal. Arnold would get his.
While an Oregon player was shoot
ing free-throws with 55.5 seconds
left, All-Star Nick Bradford called
Turn to Hockaday, page 6A
Seniors lead squads to regionals
Both Oregon harrier squads look
to improve over last year’s third
and 12th-place regional finishes
Cross country
Mindi Rice
Freelance Sports Reporter
Paced by seniors on each squad, the
Oregon men’s and women’s cross coun
try teams travel to Stanford on Saturday
to take on the Western Regional Cham
pionships and try to earn a place in the
national meet.
Redshirt senior Carrie Zografos and
senior Jason Hartmann will lead the sev
en-member squads into the tough races,
which feature Stanford, the top men’s
team and second-ranked women’s team.
The Oregon men have been ranked fifth
in the past five national polls. Led by Hart
mann and redshirt sophomore Ryan An
drus, the men look to automatically quali
fy for the Nov. 25 NCAA Championships
by finishing as one of the top two teams.
“Jason and Ryan need this type of com
petition to continue their preparation and
maturation,” men’s head coach Martin
Smith said. “Being able to physically and
mentally handle the challenges in this
race is a good lead-in to the future, and for
a national type of race if we qualify.”
Joining Andrus and Hartmann on the
course will be redshirt junior John Lucas,
juniors Brett Holts and Noel Paulson, red
shirt sophomore Eric Logsdon and fresh
man Shane Ahlers.
“The most important aspect is that we
run extremely well as a team and ad
vance to NCAAs,” Smith said. “It’s im
portant we also have a good race and
build some momentum and confidence
going into nationals.”
The men will automatically qualify for
the national meet if they finish either
first or second as a team. Last year they
finished third.
On the women’s side, Zografos and
senior Erinn Gulbrandsen will run in
what could be their last race if they don’t
qualify for the national meet either indi
vidually or as a team. The top four indi
viduals not from the top two teams auto
matically advance to the NCAA
Championships.
“We know what we have to do —
fourth will get us into the NCAA meet,
fifth will give us a chance, sixth will give
us a trip home,” women’s head coach
Tom Heinonen said. “We’re going to show
that we’re farbetter than last year.”
Five of the seven women who ran in
last year’s regional meet return to the
race this year. Zografos, Gulbrandsen,
redshirt junior Alicia Snyder-Carlson,
and juniors Magdalena Sandoval and
Laura Harmon were part of Oregon’s
12th-place finish in Arizona. Redshirt
junior Eri Macdonald and freshman
Nicole Feest take the open spots ran by
Sara Schaaf and Annette Mosey last year.
“Carrie and Laura know that they
have a chance to get there individually,
because the top four individuals not on a
selected team make it to nationals,”
Heinonen said. “We want to get (to na
tionals) as a team — that's been our goal
all season. It’s going to be a difficult chal
lenge, and a large share of the selection
process is out of our hands.”
After the automatic qualifiers from
Saturday’s nine regional champi
onships. another 13 teams and two in
dividuals will be selected from across
the nation on Monday.
Stanford won both the men’s and
women’s races as a team last year, as well
as the men’s individual title.
Mindi Rice is a freelance writer
for the Emerald.
GeoffThurner Oregon Media Services
The Oregon men's cross country squad is looking to make nationals.