Sports Editor.
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com
Thursday, February 6,2003
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
Best bet
NCAA men's basketball:
Virginia at Maryland
6p.mv ESPN2
Mark McCambridge Emerald
Andre Joseph (with ball) had one of the highest Duck CPAs fall term, after struggling with academics in high school.
Books and basketball
With hoops and academic life
in balance, Andre Joseph has
finally found his comfort zone
on the Oregon basketball team
Adam jude
Senior Sports Reporter
One of the last players remaining in
McArthur Court, Andre Joseph prac
tices alone at a corner basket. He sizes
up his phantom defender, fakes right,
dribbles between his legs, spins quick
ly to the left baseline and throws up a
soft floater.'
Swish.
After a few minutes of one-on-none,
Joseph heads across the court to the
south hoop, just vacated by sharp-shoot
ing teammate James Davis, and begins
taking jumpers from the three-point arc.
Assistant coach Fred Litzenberger ap
proaches the junior guard, placing his
hand on Joseph’s back after each shot to
push him forward.
“That makes you maintain your bal
ance,” Litz, as he’s known to his players,
tells his apprentice.
Joseph seems a bit annoyed with the
coach’s nudges at first, and bricks the
first few attempts. Then, with his balance
in check, Joseph finds his groove. Swish.
“There you go,” Litz says. “How about
that, huh?”
For too long, Joseph walked a thin
tightrope, hoping not to fall back. Turns
out all he needed was a helping hand, a
push to keep him moving forward.
A standout basketball player at Furr
High School in Houston — in his senior
year, he was ranked the 107th-best prep
hoopster in the nation by USA Today —
Joseph struggled to balance his athletics
and academics. Potential scholarships to
some of the country’s best college basket
ball programs — including interest from
Oregon — were for naught because his
high school grades failed to match his im
pressive scoring average.
“Nobody could offer me (a scholar
ship) ’cause I didn’t have my grades,”
Joseph said. “I was recruited by a lot of
Pac-10 schools, Big-12, Conference
USA, and the only school that stayed
was the school I signed with. Everybody
else left, and I was like, ‘Dang, all the
schools are gone; I got to sign with
somebody.’ So I signed with them, and I
never ended up playing.”
That
school,
Stephen F.
Austin in
Texas,
turned out
to be a mis
take. Ineligi
ble even to practice — much less play in
games — Joseph spent his first year out
of high school partying, continuing his
trend away from academic life.
“That was hard,” Joseph said. “That
was my first year of not playing ball.”
After a coaching change, Joseph left
Stephen F. Austin and transferred to Lee
Junior College in Baytown, Texas, where
he finally found the right combination of
books and basketball.
“The thing about junior college is, it
really makes you want to focus in on
school so you can move on to the next
level,” Joseph said. “Junior college
helped me out a lot. With smaller class
es, I could concentrate a lot better.”
With his academics in order, Joseph
excelled on the court as well, averaging
22.3 points per game in his sophomore
season and becoming Lee’s all-time
leading scorer.
Then the recruiting process began
again, and this time the scholarship of
fers came flooding in. Texas, Texas Chris
tian, Louisiana Tech, Oregon and Hous
ton, among others, came calling. Oregon,
having recruited Joseph in high school,
had the advantage over Houston, his
home-town school, and a need at shoot
ing guard with Freddie Jones’ departure
to the NBA.
Turn to Joseph, page 10
On tap
Who: Oregon men vs.
Stanford
When: 5:30 p.m. today
Where: McArthur
Court
Cardinal lurking
for UO women
The Ducks look for their first win at Stanford since 1987,
and revenge for the Cardinal’s comeback win at The Pit
Women’s basketball
Hank Hager
Sports Reporter
The image is hard to shake from the mind.
The image of Nicole Powell celebrating her two free throws that
put Stanford over the edge, 75-74, against Oregon in early January.
With just a few ticks on the clock, the Ducks could not convert.
All of that after Oregon had taken the lead, seemingly for good,
with just 3.3 seconds left.
“I think you have to take that and learn from it,” sophomore
Kedzie Gunderson said. “Definitely, you don’t want to forget it.
That was an amazing game, and we worked very hard.
“That was a heartbreaker, and we’re definitely going to want to
get that one back.”
Now, the Ducks must go south to get their fifth Pacific-10 Con
ference win of the season and will have to do it against one of the
best home teams in the nation tonight at 7 p.m.
The No. 6 Cardinal are 25-1 since the start of last season, and
have lost just 10 games at Maples Pavilion in the past five seasons.
The Ducks (8-12 overall, 4-7 Pac-10) have not won there since
March 5,1987.
“Against Stanford, we played very hard and very well,” Oregon
head coach Bev Smith said. “We’re hoping to go down there and
certainly continue that. I think although we played very hard and
V.V.V . .'Turn to Women's, page 10 ' 1^ -
Jeremy Forrest Emerald
Senior guard Alissa Edwards had a career-high 17 points in
Oregon's one-point loss to Stanford earlier this seasoryyyy yyyy y
Ducks improve
on signing day
Head coach Mike Bellotti said the Ducks gained
size and speed with their new recruits Wednesday
Football
Hank Hager
Sports Reporter
Oregon head football coach Mike Bellotti and his assistant
coaches should probably be eligible for those frequent flyer
miles by now.
Of the 24 players the Ducks signed Wednesday, only one
hails from Oregon, while 14 are from California, and the rest
are from as far away as Florida.
“We finished a successful day,” Bellotti said. “Recruiting
went very well.”
At quarterback, wide receiver and defensive back — ar
eas singled out by Bellotti that needed work — the Ducks
significantly improved.
Bellotti received a commitment at approximately 11 a.m.
Wednesday from San Leandro, Calif, quarterback Dennis
Dixon, one of the West Coast’s most sought-after players. He
will not attend school until the winter or spring, allowing
Oregon to sign two other quarterbacks, Johnny DuRocher
from Graham, Wash., and Montana’s Brady Leaf, brother of
former Washington State standout Ryan Leaf.
“It allows us to have one of the best groups of quarterbacks
in the nation joining us,” Bellotti said.
DuRocher, Washington’s Gatorade Player of the Year, is set
page 10 ' ' •>