NCAA ponders impact of potential war
Wendell Barnnouse
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
DALLAS—March Madness is one
of sports’ most well-known terms.
However, a starkly different and gen
uine form of March madness could
affect the NCAA Championships.
Numerous reports indicate a war
with Iraq could start next month. The
men’s basketball tournament opens
on March 18, and the women’s tour
nament starts on March 22.
Should the war start before or dur
ing the tournament, the possible conse
quences are varied and mind-boggling.
For the past few months, NCAA officials
have had numerous meetings to plan
for as many situations as possible.
“We have talked through numer
ous reasonable and unreasonable
scenarios,” said Greg Shaheen,
managing director of the Division I
Men’s Basketball Championship.
“We’re trying to do the best we can
to be prepared for any eventuality.”
The logistics of putting on both
tournaments requires years of plan
ning. Postponing and rescheduling
any games would create a nightmar
ish tangle of problems.
The NCAA has existing proce
dures and plans that deal with de
lays and rescheduling. So, what kind
of event or catastrophe would cause
the NCAA to alter its schedule? And
if so, what would happen?
“That falls in the category of hy
pothetical,” Shaheensaid. “It would
depend on the situation and how we
think we need to react to it. With
everything we’re looking at, flexibili
ty is the key.”
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror
ist attacks, the government has des
ignated certain events, such as the
Super Bowl, as National Security
Events. Such a designation brings
federal law enforcement and intelli
genee agencies to help with security.
For National Security Events, the
Secret Service is in charge of securi
ty measures and precautions.
CBS Sports president Sean Mc
Manus said if there are news devel
opments worthy of coverage, the
network might have to move its tele
casts of men’s games to its affiliated
cable networks. CBS is owned by Vi
acom, which also owns cable net
works MTV, VH1 and TNN.
© 2003, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
Men's
continued from page 9
be during these games; I just want them to do
it with class,” Kent said. “We don’t need to be
disgracing or putting anybody down on the
other team, disgracing ourselves. We don’t
need to do that, because this is a class com
munity, and we don’t want to lower ourselves
to some of the other environments that I’ve
been in around the country.”
Last year, The Pit Grew started a wave of
controversy by chanting “deadbeat dad” and
other derogatory comments at Bibby, in ref
erence to his strained relationship with his
son, Mike Bibby of the NBA’s Sacramento
Kings. As the USG players left the court after
the Oregon win, a fan taunted them with ob
scenities and jostled with assistant coaches.
Bibby called the entire situation a “disgrace.”
Kent, naturally, wants to avoid a similar sit
uation this year.
“There are some things that we’ve faced on
the road, environments that I’ve not felt com
fortable in, that I didn’t like either,” Kent said.
“I don’t want us to be compared to those en
vironments. I want us to have a great envi
ronment and do it in a first-class way.”
If it’s in the game...
Got a few extra Pit Grew T-shirts from years
past? Bring ‘em to the EMU Amphitheater on
Thursday, because they’re going to need ‘em.
Local EA Sports representatives will be out
at the amphitheater, filming students as they
proclaim EA Sports’ motto “If it’s in the game
... it’s in the game! ” for next year’s March
Madness video game. Students selected for
the shoot also have a chance to win $100
from EA Sports.
The shoot will take place Thursday from
noon to 3 p.m.
Ridnour redux
As Joseph answered questions in front of a
media horde on Tuesday, Luke Ridnour calm
ly took free throws behind him. Then he
missed one, and threw the ball at the back
board in frustration.
It was another free-throw miss that had Rid
nour frustrated after Saturday’s game. The jun
ior guard missed a free throw with 1:31 left after
connecting on 62-straight attempts. That num
ber is the new conference and school record.
“So what?” said Ridnour, who didn’t talk to
the media Tuesday, after Saturday’s game.
“I’m trying to win games. (The streak) doesn’t
matter to me.”
Bracket busted
ESPN.corn’s Joe Lunardi didn’t mince
words as he moved Oregon down to a No. 8
seed in this week’s edition of “Bracketology,”
which dares to answer the question, “If the
season ended today, what would the NCAA
tournament field look like?”
“You just knew the Ducks would lose a
game in Washington somehow,” Lunardi
quipped in his Oregon team report. “A bad
loss at home to one of the L.A. schools and
this will be a ‘bubble’ team.”
That’s not what the Ducks want to hear. Lu
nardi has Oregon projected as a No. 8 seed in
the Midwest region in Tampa, Fla., where the
Ducks would play No. 9 Gonzaga and face a
possible second-round matchup with No. 1
seed Florida.
Conventional wisdom says the Ducks need
20 wins to get to the NCAA Tournament,
which means Oregon needs to at least split its
last four games with USG, UCLA, Arizona
State and Arizona.
Contact the sports editor
at peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com.
Adam Amato Emerald
Ernie Kent asked that the Pit Crew be respectful of USC head
coach Henry Bibby and UCLA head coach Steve Lavin.
Sports briefs
Softball jumps
into ESPN poll
After a 3-1 weekend at a tourna
ment in Texas that moved them to
12-5 on the season, the Oregon soft
ball squad debuted at No. 22 in the
season’s first ESPN.com/USA Softball
Collegiate Top 25 poll Tuesday.
The Ducks joined all seven other
Pacific-10 Conference teams in the
poll. UCLA (No. 1), Arizona (No. 4)
and Washington (No. 5) are the high
est-ranked conference squads.
Oregon is also currently ranked at
No. 25 in the NFCA Top 25 poll.
One of the main reasons the
Ducks are ranked is their record
against ranked opponents this sea
son. Oregon has toppled Florida
State — ranked No. 15 in the USA
Softball poll — No. 12 Georgia and
No. 21 Michigan. The Ducks haven’t
lost to a ranked opponent yet.
—Peter Hockaday
Jude
continued from page 9
shots, and I’ll score 40 ... on Sega, in
easy mode)...
Trendy: The Lukes should get tat
toos on their face. Just for fun...
Did anybody else not notice that
men’s tennis stud Oded Teig (career
victories) and women’s track sensa
tion Becky Holliday (pole vault) both
set school records last week? That’s
what I thought...
Also in the oh-I-didn’t-know-we
even-had-that-sport file, the softball
team cracked the top-25 this week
after more than two years of turmoil
and futility. That should last for, say,
30 days, when the Ducks face their
first Pae-10 opponent...
Food for thought: 10 of the Ore
gon men’s basketball team’s 18 wins
are against teams with a losing
record, plus three others vs. Florida
A&M and Oregon State, who are a
combined three games over .500
(shhh, don’t tell the NCAA selection
committee).
Contact the senior sports reporter
at adamjude@dailyemerald.com.
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