Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com
Thursday, January 30,2003
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
Best bet
NCCA men's basketball:
Oregon at UCLA
7:30 p.m., Fox Sports
Adam Amato Emerald
Carolyn Canes (15) has been a force at center for the Ducks this season, averaging almost 12 points per contest
Bii Gaes
Carolyn Ganes has made quite the
impact in her freshman season,
and has enjoyed it along the way
Women’s basketball
Jesse Thomas
Sports Reporter
The time had finally arrived.
Freshman Carolyn Ganes was about to
step onto McArthur Court in front of thou
sands of screaming fans for the first time.
Her nervousness had reached a climax,
but she was ready. All the anticipation had
led up to this point.
But something was wrong.
“I was like, ‘oh my gosh, my dad is not
here to give me the talk,”’ Ganes said. “I had
to borrow Dan’s (assistant coach Dan Mus
catell) cell phone. I had to call my dad be
fore the game.”
It’s a ritual for the Ganes family. Through
all her years of playing, since the fourth
grade, Ganes needed that comfort from her
father, Roger Ganes, and her usual pep talk.
Even though Ganes knows the exact
words, she said it’s just not the same with
out hearing them from her father.
“’Carolyn, just go out and play hard,
‘cause that is all you can do,”’ Ganes said,
imitating her father. “’Make sure you play
defense and rebound the ball.’”
And that is how it all began. For Ganes,
her first experience in The Pit was an unfor
gettable moment.
“The fans were all cheering and the band
was playing,” Ganes said. “I was like ‘oh my
gosh, this is amazing,’ because I had never
experienced anything like that — where
people are so into the games.”
These are praises coming from someone
who has quite the track record, consider
ing she’s only 18 years old. Ganes played
two years for the Canadian junior national
team, where
she met fel
low Oregon
teammate
Yadili Ok
wumabua,
also a fresh
man. Ganes
was the youngest member of the Canadian
national team in summer 2001.
And now she brings her 6-foot-3-ineh
presence to the post for Oregon. Through
her beginning months as a Duck, Ganes has
made her presence known and is continu
ing to become a dominating force.
The Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, native
continues to put up solid numbers for the
Ducks, and, through the team’s adversity,
holds a starting position.
Ganes leads Oregon in scoring, averag
ing 11.6 points per game, ranking her 12th
in the Pac-10, and she is bringing down four
rebounds per game.
She also shows her poise from the chari
ty line, as Ganes ranks third in the confer
ence with a .833 percentage from the free
throwline.
“More than anything, it is her
Turn to Ganes, page 13
On tap
Who: Oregon women
vs. Arizona St.
When: 7 p.m.
Where: McArthur Court
Softball set to kick off season in Lone Star state
Oregon softball begins play over
the weekend at a tournament
in San Marcos, Texas
Softball
Mindi Rice
Freelance Sports Reporter
The bats are swinging and the gloves are on.
The Oregon softball squad takes to the
road this weekend for the first of six tourna
ments before the season officially begins.
The Ducks will compete against five
teams — Texas A&M-Corpus Ghristi, Texas
Tech, Southwest Texas State, Houston and
Arkansas — in the Southwest Texas-hosted
CenturyTel Classic. The tournament pits all
six schools against one another once, over
three days.
“We have all the teams back from last sea
son’s tournament, plus we’ve added a really
good Arkansas team,” Southwest Texas head
coach Ricci Woodard said. “It should be bet
ter than last season’s tournament.”
The tournament features a mix of team
experience. Southwest Texas is the two-time
defending Southland Conference champion,
while Houston’s softball program enters only
its third season at the school.
After the weekend in San Marcos, Texas,
Oregon returns home to practice before
heading to Tallahassee, Fla., for its second
tournament of the season.
The Ducks made only a few changes during
the offseason, mostly at the coaching positions.
After an audit in October 2001 found a
$5,700 discrepancy in the team’s travel fund,
former head coach Rick Gamez resigned.
Brent Rincon was named interim head coach
for the 2001-02 season, when the team fin
ished with a 24-30 record, but went only 2
19 in Pacific-10 Conference play.
In July, the Athletic Department an
nounced its move to hire Kathy Arendsen as
the new head coach for the softball program.
Arendsen has 13 years of coaching expe
rience, and her teams had only one losing
season during those 13 years. During her
six-year tenure at Mississippi State, her last
coaching position before Oregon, she rebuilt
the Bulldogs’ program from a team on a 10
year hiatus to a squad that had two NCAA
tournament berths within a six-year span.
“Obviously, the postseason is our primary
goal,” Arendsen said. “The biggest difference
here at Oregon is that we’re not starting from
scratch. We have inherited a program that
has had success, and I’m trying to restore
that, not build something new.”
Last season, seven of the eight Pac-10
schools with softball programs were selected
for the NCAA tournament. Oregon was the
only conference team not selected. Washing
Turn to Softball, page 13
Men head to Los Angeles
with plans of stepping up
The Ducks face UCLA and USC without
the services of star Luke Jackson
Men’s basketball
Peter Hockaday
Sports Editor
Welcome back to “Who Wants to Step Up for the
Oregon Men’s Basketball Team?”
Our next contestant is straight out of Houston,
he’s a 6-foot-3-inch guard, his major is undeclared
— it’s ... Andre Joseph!
“I feel like I’ve got to step it up a lot more than I’ve
been doing,” Joseph said. “With Luke (Jackson) out,
coach said somebody’s got to step up, and I think I’m
the guy to do it.”
Our next contestant is ... everybody else on the
Oregon team!
“Everyone on the team has to step up,” guard
Luke Ridnour said. “We need to try to each do a little
more to make up for (Jackson’s) spot.”
The Ducks will, indeed, need someone to step up
as they take their second Pacific-10 Conference
road trip of the season to Los Angeles, where they
will face UCLA tonight and USC on Sunday.
The Oregon men need someone to step up for two
reasons. For one, the Ducks were slaughtered on their
last road trip to the Bay Area. For another, star forward
Jackson will likely sit out the games because of a severe
linger cut he suffered Thursday against Washington.
And the person to step up for Jackson could be ...
Jackson himself? He has said he’s ready to play at
least a little bit, but head coach Ernie Kent and the
Oregon medical staff are apprehensive about Jack
son possibly re-injuring the finger.
“He knows I want to get back and want to play,”
Jackson said of Kent.
Until Jackson can make a full recovery, Kent will
stick with Andre Joseph in the starting lineup
tonight. Joseph, a junior transfer from Lee Junior
College, has made his impression by averaging 9.1
points and almost four rebounds per game this year.
“Andre’s really starting to learn the system,” Rid
nour said. “He brings a lot of energy; he’s another
guy that can score.”
Tonight, the Ducks will face a team which, cur
rently, has nobody stepping up. The Bruins aren’t
Turn to Men's, page 13
Mark McCambridge Emerald
Luke Ridnour (13) said that every Duck player will need to step up a little bit if the team is going
to make up for the absence of injured star Luke Jackson as Oregon faces UCLA tonight.