Adam Amato Emerald
Luke Ridnour(13) and the hoops team aren't trying to steal any thunder from football.
Hoops ready for opener,
still rooting for football
The Oregon men aren t
trying to seize the limelight
from the football team
Men’s basketball
Peter Hockaday
Sports Editor
The Oregon football team has lost
four of its past five games, three of
those at home and one in rainy, dis
mal conditions.
What a perfect time for the start of
basketball season.
The Ducks men’s basketball squad
is coming off a Pacific-10 Conference
title and plays all its home games in
warm, friendly McArthur Court. The
Ducks scored 135 points and 132
points in their first two exhibition
games. There’s a strong possibility
that they’ll score 100 in the two
games of the season-opening John
Thompson Challenge on Sunday
and Monday at Mac Court.
But forward Luke Jackson said the
hoops squad is in no way trying to
steal football’s November thunder.
“We don’t compete with them, we
root for our football team,” Jackson
said. “We know the fans will come
out and watch us no matter what.”
Still, the crowds at Oregon’s two
preseason games were noticeably
larger than the crowds that wit
nessed the Ducks’ exhibitions last
season. Oregon is close to selling out
its season opener, and it it does, it
will be the first non-conference sell
out since 1984.
“A lot of people are excited to
watch us play,” point guard Luke
Ridnour said. “It’s good for us. Every
game is important.”
Meanwhile, Jackson said he and
the Ducks will support their football
counterparts in Saturday’s Civil War.
He even had a few words of consola
tion for the football team.
“Hey, they have a winning record,
that’s really good,” Jackson said.
“You can’t win the national title
every year.”
Jordan on track
One week removed from his deci
sion to redshirt the 2002-03 basket
ball season, Jordan Kent is fine with
the choice.
“It’ll give me a chance to get to
know the system, get in the weight
room, get in training,” Kent said.
For Kent, a two-sport athlete, the
redshirt season will help him adjust
to playing two sports at the Division I
level. When the spring track and
field season rolls around, Kent will
start slowly focusing his attention on
the activities at Hayward Field.
“That’s fine for me,” Kent said
about splitting time between track
and basketball. “It’s the same thing
as in four years in high school, once I
was done with basketball I went
straight to track.”
One person, at least, will be trying
to keep Kent in Mac Court: his fa
ther, Oregon head coach Ernie Kent.
“With Jordan and Adam (Zahn,
also redshirting), our main focus
will be to help them get better at
basketball,” Kent said. “They’ll
work on shooting skills, get in some
weight room work and still work
with us in practice.”
Ticking ticket time
Three weeks ago, student tick
ets to the two basketball exhibi
tion games went quicker than
tickets to the Oregon-Washington
football game.
Thursday, Pit Crew president Nate
Jolly was mobbed outside of Mac
Court when he announced he was
going to sell student seats to next
month’s Pape Jam for $5 each.
The next hot ticket is for the Dec.
4 home game against Portland — the
date that Jolly will distribute Pit
Crew shirts to the people who sit in
the Pit that night. Those shirts will
get wearers into Mac Court five min
utes early for the season’s remaining
home games.
As for the regular people, only 150
tickets remain for Sunday’s game
against Grambling State. One hun
dred of those were returned by
Grambling State. For Monday’s John
Thompson Challenge championship
game, there are only 325 seats left.
Contact the sports editor at
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com.
Sports briefs
All-Conference
Weav-ing
Oregon junior center Dan
Weaver was named a first-team ac
ademic Pacific-10 all-conference
choice for the second year in a
row, according to an announce
ment Wednesday by conference
commissioner Tom Hansen.
Weaver, who has accumulated a
3.21 grade-point average in ac
counting, was joined by senior
punter Jose Arroyo and sophomore
linebacker Jerry Matson on the
league’s academic second unit,
while quarterback Jason Fife and
kicker Jared Siegel earned honor
able mention all-conference honors.
Weaver and Siegel were previous
ly named to the Verizon Academic
All-District VIII first team in a vote
of university and college sports pub
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Shaq has CLASS
Oregon women’s basketball guard
Shaquala Williams was nominated
for the second annual Senior
CLASS Award.
The Senior CLASS (Celebrating
Loyalty and Achievement for
Staying in School) Award is pre
sented to the nation’s senior play
er of the year for NCAA Division I
men’s and women’s basketball.
The award was developed in re
sponse to the recent trend of col
lege basketball players leaving
school early to turn professional.
The list of the women’s “Players to
Watch” include players — five of
them AP All-Americans last year
— from 15 conferences.
Selection criteria is based on a
number of factors, the most im
portant being that the recipient
must have exhausted their four
years of eligibility and have ful
filled their commitment to their
respective schools. In addition, the
recipient must be working toward
their degree, be in good academic
standing and be of sound moral
character.
Softball recruits three
First year head coach Kathy
Arendsen is quickly turning the
Oregon softball program into her
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own, announcing the signing of
three players to join the Duck squad
in 2004.
Andrea Nyhus (P, White Rock,
BG), Kristi Leiter (IF/OF, Lake
Stevens, Wash.), and Susanna
Barnes (IF/OF, Lake Forest Park,
Wash.) have all signed letters of in
tent to play for the Ducks.
“We are very proud that these out
standing student-athletes have cho
sen to be our first recruiting class at
Oregon,” Arendsen said. “They will
make great Ducks. Each comes from
a wonderful family, has excellent ac
ademic accomplishments and is re
garded as among the top softball
players in their age group.”
—from staff and wire reports
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