Ducks now focus attention on WSU-UCLA
Mark McCambridge Emerald
Haloti Ngata said he's "not used to"having so much time between two football games.
Oregon’s bowl fate is in the
hands of the Cougars, the
Bruins and the bowl directors
Football notes
Peter Hockaday
Sports Editor
There’s nothing left for Oregon ex
cept to watch and practice.
The Ducks will watch as Washington
State and UCLA likely determine Ore
gon’s bowl fate Saturday, and the Ducks
will take the practice field today, Satur
day and Sunday as they prepare for
that bowl, wherever it may be.
Oregon still has two likely bowl sce
narios: the Seattle Bowl on Dec. 30 or
the Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose,
Calif., on Dec. 31. The Seatde Bowl is
still the most likely Duck destination,
even if Washington State beats UCLA
and two Pacific-10 Conference teams
go to BCS bowls. In that scenario, the
Seattle Bowl would probably try to cut
a deal with the Silicon Valley Classic to
keep Oregon in the Northwest.
“Let’s be honest, we always want
Oregon,” said Karin Mast, Director of
Media Relations for the Silicon Val
ley Classic. “But with Seattle, it’s how
badly do they want Oregon? It comes
down to financial dealings and
whether or not the Pac-10 is even go
ing to allow that to happen.”
Mast said those financial dealings
would take place on Saturday night, af
ter the Washington State-UGLA game,
which kicks off at 1:30 p.m. on ABC. If
Washington State wins, the Cougars
clinch a Rose Bowl berth and USG
would also go to a BCS bowl, because
the Trojans will finish in the top 4 of
the BCS. That’s the only scenario that
could create a controversy between
the Seattle and Silicon Valley bowls.
“Everybody knows that, logically,
Seattle is the more logical destination
for (Oregon), and because of that, it’s
really just a matter of negotiations,”
Mast said.
But the bowl scenarios are still
filled with speculation, which is why
Oregon is doing the only thing it can
this week: practice. The Ducks had
light practices all week after taking
Thanksgiving week off.
“We’re getting the young guys
back into the swing of things,” jun
ior linebacker Kevin Mitchell said.
“Just trying to re-introduce every
thing to everybody.”
For those young guys, many of
them used to the high school sched
ule of playoffs directly following their
seasons, the time between the Civil
War and the bowl game has come as a
bit of a shock.
“I’m not used to having so much
time off (between games),” freshman
defensive lineman Haloti Ngata said.
“But practice is almost like nothing
to us. We’re just messing around,
kind of. It’s cool, I guess. We want to
be rested for the bowl game.”
Mitchell agreed that the loose prac
tices have been welcomed by the
team after a long season.
“Right now, we’re just kind of
hanging out, waiting to see what
comes our way,” Mitchell said.
“Eventually we’ll start talking to (the
young players), let them know how it
works with practice and certain
things they need to do throughout
the day. Just so they have a heads up
on that stuff.”
The practices have been run by
Oregon’s assistant coaches this week,
as head coach Mike Bellotti has been
out of town on a recruiting trip.
While the coach is away, the Ducks
come out to play. But that doesn’t
mean that the Oregon players aren’t
ready for another game.
“Whatever team we play, we just
want to beat them real bad,” Ngata said.
Contact the sports editor
atpeterhockaday@daiIyemerald.com.
Men's
continued from page 9
63-34 in the Midwest Regional final.
Nick Collison posted 25 points and 15
rebounds against the Ducks on March
24. Hinrich chipped in 14 points, nine
rebounds and five steals.
“With Kansas coming up, re
bounding is going to be a huge key
for us,” said Oregon forward Luke
Jackson, who’s had back-to-back 12
rebound games for the Ducks.
Jackson and Luke Ridnour are
looking to rebound from disappoint
ing performances in the Elite Eight
loss. Ridnour was 3-of-13 shooting
with nine points and seven
turnovers against Kansas. Jackson
had 10 points and 10 boards on 4-of
16 shooting.
Win or lose, though, the Ducks are
trying not to put too much onus on a
game this early in the season.
“This is not a make-or-break, do
or-die ballgame,” Kent said. “This is
just a great window of opportunity
on center state, and we want step up
and take every advantage of it. ”
Oregon center Brian Helquist,
who missed the Portland game after
injuring his shoulder Monday,
should play against Kansas, Kent
said. Redshirt freshman Ian Gross
white had 16 points and seven re
bounds in his first career start in
Helquist’s absence.
Saturday’s game will be a home
coming for Kansas sophomore
Aaron Miles, who was named the
Oregon prep Player of the Year in his
final year at Portland’s Jefferson
High School. The guard set a Kansas
record last season for assists as a
freshman, averaging 6.8 per game.
This season, Miles started off slow
ly — averaging just 5.3 points in the
Jayhawks’ first four games — but
busted out for a career-high 20
points in the 97-70 win over Central
Missouri State.
“Aaron had a really consistent
preseason, but since hasn’t played as
well,” Williams said. “It’s still a
young year and he had such a great
year last year, and sometimes expec
tations get carried away.”
Contact the senior sports reporter
at adamjude@dailyemerald.com.
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