Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com
Wednesday, March 5,2003
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
Best bet
NBA: Portland at Phoenix
6 p.m., KEVU
Adam Amato Emerald
Chelsea Wagner has spent the year on the bench and says she's excited to see some playing time next year.
Back on the
Dude pond
Chelsea Wagner spent ayear at
Hawaii when Jody Runge didn’t
recruit her, but she’s a part of Bev
Smith’s basketball family now
Women’s basketball
Hank Hager
Sports Reporter
The life of a redshirt athlete in
women’s college basketball is tough.
First, you’ve got to sit on the sideline
during games, and the only time you get
to come off the bench is to congratulate
a teammate or cheer on a play. That is,
you only get to do this at home games
because NCAA rules stipulate that red
shirt players can’t travel with their re
spective schools.
Then, you practice all season long.
You do basically everything the team
does, only come Thursday and Satur
day, you won’t be able to contribute on
the court.
Such is the life of Chelsea Wagner.
Wagner, a sophomore, is one of two
Oregon redshirts this season — the other
is Corrie Mizusawa — but for the 5-foot
10-inch guard, it is a unique situation.
You see, Wagner grew up in Oregon’s
backyard, and starred at Springfield
High School. She enjoyed such a fine
senior season, The Oregonian and USA
Today pegged her as the state’s player of
the year in 2001.
So why is she a transfer at Oregon, es
pecially after spending a year at Hawaii?
The Ducks “knew she wanted to
play in Oregon,” Wagner’s high school
coach, Charlie Olds, said. “What sur
prised me most is the schools in the
area didn’t recruit her.”
Wagner, a self-confessed Oregon fan
practically since she was bom, averaged
8.6 points per game last season at
Hawaii, but decided after the season she
wanted to come home. With the Ducks
holding an open scholarship, that possi
bility became reality.
“When I had my first meeting with
(Oregon head coach Bev Smith), I was
like, ‘You don’t understand, I’ve been a
Duck my whole life,”’ Wagner said.
“She’s been a Duck forever, and it was
really nice to talk to someone who had
the same feelings about a program and
wanting to be involved in it so bad.”
It could be said it is poetic justice that
Wagner is returning home.
It isn’t very often a player of Wagner’s
caliber — as evidenced by her player of
the year awards — fails to be recruited
successfully by an in-state school, much
less one that sits only miles away.
But that was the case with Wagner.
Olds said he was never contacted by
anyone in state about Wagner, which in
cludes former Oregon head coach Jody
Runge. So when Hawaii came calling,
Wagner accepted and spent a year under
the sun.
Yet, she wanted more.
“I really wanted to be a Duck,” Wagn
er said. “My whole life was like that. I
grew up a Duck, so I might as well be a
Duck. It was motivation because it was
like, ‘Why wouldn’t they want me to
come here and play?’
“So going to Hawaii, I don’t want to
say last resort; it was just something
that happened.”
Nobody really knows why Runge did
n’t recruit Wagner heavily at the time,
and for Smith, it was too late in the re
cruiting process when she took over the
reins of the program.
Olds said he expects things were said
about Wagner — albeit wrong — that
shunned coaches away from her. He
doesn’t know what those things were,
but believes they had something to do
with it.
Whatever the rumor, Smith is happy
to have her.
“We were excited,” Smith said. “I did
n’t know, having not been here when
Chelsea played high school basketball,
Turn to Wagner, page 6
Seven wrestlers
end season at
Pac-10 tourney
Senior Tony Overstake ends his collegiate career
with an 85-46 record after going 18-10 this season
Wrestling
Mindi Rice
Freelance Sports Reporter
While three Ducks will see action on the mats in 15 days at
the NCAA Championships, seven other starters ended their
season at the Pacific-10 Conference Tournament last weekend.
With a 6-4 career record going into his junior season,
Branson Phillips didn’t know if he would be starting at 157.
After a handful of matches during the preseason, Phillips
went 5-5 during the dual season. He started the conference
tournament with a loss, then came back to win two matches
in consolation. Phillips then lost and was bumped to the
fifth-place match. He won an 11-4 decision, earning fifth
place and finishing the season 10-11 overall.
Despite finishing fourth in the conference tournament,
redshirt sophomore Luke Larwin did not earn a berth in the
NCAAs. Larwin lost his first match of the Pac-lOs to Oregon
State’s Matt Ellis, but won his two consolation matches, set
ting up a rematch with Ellis. Larwin lost, earning fourth
place. He was then challenged and subsequently bumped
from a national berth. He finished his sophomore season
with a 21-20 record at 165.
Turn to Wrestling, page 6
Adam Amato Emerald
Luke Ridnour and the Ducks don't need to win both games in Arizona
to make the NCAA Tournament, but they need them to improve their
seeding when they do get to March Madness in three weeks.
UO men shoot
for improved
seed in NCAAs
A weak RPI rating has Oregon projected in the bottom
half of the NCAAToumament bracket as of right now
Men’s basketball
Adam Jude
Senior Sports Reporter
With Selection Sunday less than two weeks away, Oregon
head coach Ernie Kent has reason to be nervous about his
team’s potential stance in the Big Dance.
In this week’s version of Bracketologv on ESPN.com, the
Ducks are projected as a No. 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament,
falling a spot from last week’s projected field even though they
swept USG and UCLA last weekend in the final home games of
the season.
That position doesn’t bode well for another run to the Elite
Eight, where Oregon ended its season last year.
ESPN prognosticator Joe Lunardi has the Ducks as the No.
9 seed in the South with a first-round rematch against No. 8
seed Seton Hall on March 20 in Oklahoma City. Seton Hall
ended Oregon’s 2000 season in the first round with a 72-71
overtime victory.
If the Ducks (20-7 overall, 10-6 Pacific-10 Conference) de
feat Seton Hall in this mock bracket, they would face No. 1
seed Texas — which Oregon defeated in the Sweet 16 last year
Turn to Men's, page 6