Maj erus urges Ridnour to rethink NBA
David Stephenson Lexington Herald-Leader (KRT)
Rick Majerus (right) counsels his players in the waning moments of Utah's win over
Oregon. After the game, he gave a little free counseling to the Ducks'Luke Ridnour.
The Utah coach offers his
hand to the junior point guard
after the Utes’ first-round win
Men’s basketball
Adam Jude
Senior Sports Reporter
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — This could
become more than just a devastat
ing end to a season that began with
such promise.
This is, possibly, the end of the
Luke Era in Oregon basketball.
And, of all people, Utah head
coach Rick Majerus doesn’t want to
see Luke Ridnour leave school early
for the NBA.
After Oregon’s 60-58 first-round
loss to the Utes in the NCAA Tour
nament, Majerus, one of the most
respected college coaches in the
country, stopped Ridnour in the
hallway of the Gaylord Entertain
ment Center to offer his advice on
the star point guard’s highly antici
pated decision.
“I told him that he’s a hell of a
player and that he should stay,” Ma
jerus said. “I believe all kids should
stay in school. I haven’t had anybody
(at Utah) leave early.”
You can’t argue with results. Ma
jerus has led the Utes to 10 NCAA
Tournaments, including four Sweet
16 appearances and a trip to the
1998 National Championship game
when Keith Van Horn (now of the
Philadelphia 76ers) was a senior.
The Los Angeles Clippers’ Andre
Miller also stuck around for his sen
ior year at Utah.
Majerus tried to convince Jared
Jeffries to stay at Indiana last year,
but Jeffries left after his freshman
season and was the 11th overall draft
pick by the Washington Wizards.
Many scouting services have
projected Ridnour to be a lottery
pick in the June draft, and his par
ents have reportedly met with
prospective agents.
Throughout the season, Ridnour
has deflected questions about his fu
ture — instead focusing on the team
— and was visibly upset after the
Ducks’ season-ending loss, prefer
ring not to discuss the issue.
“I can’t even think about that right
now (because) I’m so disappointed;
I can’t even think straight,” said Rid
nour, the Pacific-10 Conference
Player of the Year who set the
school’s single-season assist record
with 218.
Junior forward Luke Jackson has
also hinted that he may go pro this
year. Underclassmen have until May
11 to declare for the draft.
“For those two guys, they have to
do what’s best for them and their
families when that time comes, and
it’s not here yet,” Oregon head coach
Ernie Kent said. “I don’t speculate at
all. I go on reality. I haven’t even
thought about that yet.”
“Anything I can give you right
now would just be adding to
the speculation, and I don’t want to
do that.”
Majerus didn’t speculate, either,
but made his point clear. He said
there is little reason for Ridnour to
worry about hurting his chances
at a pro career with an injury
next season.
“Nobody has ever gotten hurt
when they came back for their sen
ior year,” Majerus said. “He’ll be fine.
He can get an insurance policy
(through the NCAA). I’ll help him do
it. He can call me.”
Contact the senior sports reporter
at adamjude@dailyemerald.com.
Men's
continued from page 9
“I ran into him, and the refs are
going to call that if put in that posi
tion,” Ridnour said. “That’s basket
ball. Unfortunately, it had to hap
pen right now.”
Jacobson missed his first attempt,
but sank the next two. Without calling
a timeout, Ridnour took the ball the
other way before giving way to Davis.
Oregon’s up-and-down season had
reached its pinnacle last week when
the Ducks won the first two games of
the Pacific-10 Conference Tourna
ment on last-second shots, and then
claimed the tournament title. The
Ducks hoped the Pac-10 Tourna
ment experience, coupled with a trip
to the Elite Eight last year, would
help them in the Big Dance this year.
“It was a great run for this bas
ketball team and a great season,”
Kent said.
The Ducks met their match with
Utah’s yawn-you-to-death offense—
a deliberate attempt to slow the
game by eating up the clock —
which forced the impatient Ducks to
hurry their offensive sets in the first
half. The Ducks committed 13
turnovers in the first half and trailed
30-27 at the break.
“They run a very disciplined of
fense that just takes the air out of the
ball,” Jackson said. “We played right
into their hands.”
That’s basketball.
And that’s a wrap.
Contact the senior sports reporter
at adamjude@dailyemerald.com.
Hockaday
continued from page 9
Harrington, one of those unlucky 21.
Nope, he’s no relation to the former
Oregon golden-boy quarterback, he’s
just a prototypical guard/forward who
spent three years at Auburn.
Turns out he should’ve spent
a fourth.
The similarities between Harring
ton and Jackson are like the similar
ities between Mary-Kate and Ashley
Olsen. Harrington is 6-foot-5, 200
pounds. Jackson is 6-foot-7, 215.
Both are slashers who can hit the
three, both play or played at decent
schools in power conferences. They
even look like each other.
Harrington’s tale is wrapped in
yellow cautionary tape. He came
out early last season, but his phone
didn’t ring on draft day. He signed
with the Dallas Mavericks in Octo
ber last year, and played 13 games
before he was released in January.
After some time in the developmen
tal United States Basketball League,
he’s currently in the middle of a 10
day contract with the Denver
Nuggets. Those are the 16-57 Den
ver Nuggets, for whom he’s played
all of 17 minutes in two games.
Harrington is the poster boy for
NBA abstinence. And that’s the fate
for not-so-action Jackson if he fol
lows Harrington’s path.
Jackson is hardly fresh meat for
many of the carnivorous Internet
draft debates. Even Ridnour’s buzz
is fading as the stock of senior
Kansas guard Kirk Hinrich is rising
like Microsoft in the 90s. Ridnour
out-played Hinrich in December,
but the Kansas guard is getting the
attention now as his team delves
further into March Madness (see:
Hinrich lighting up Arizona like the
Wildcats were Christmas lights on
Saturday). Yeah, Oregon exited the
NCAA Tournament kinda early.
But back to Jackson.
NBADraft.net, which is one of the
few media outlets to predict both
rounds of the draft, doesn’t list Jack
son among the 58 choices. He’s
ranked 17th nationally among jun
iors by the site. He’s certainly not
ranked as a first-round choice by
ESPN, The Chicago Tribune or oth
er pontificators who don’t dare to
venture into second-round territory.
The experts agree, you and me
agree, but does the Super Curly
Haired Duo agree? With each other?
This could very well be a package
deal. Two Lukes for the price of one.
Buy one Luke, get the second one
half price. It shouldn’t be, but
they’ve stuck so close together up to
now, it wouldn’t be a shocker if they
got agents together, bought yachts
together, that sort of thing.
The NBA doesn’t know what it’s
getting, evidenced by the silence on
Jackson and the slipping hype on
Ridnour. Oregon fans, of course,
know exactly what they’re giving
up. Two may go. One may go. Does
it matter? It won’t be the same un
less both come back.
So throw another sandbag on the
wall, dig another trench. We might
need two.
One for each square.
Contact the sports editor
atpeterhockaday@dailyemerald.com.
His views do not necessarily represent
those of the Emerald.
Women's
continued from page 9
offensively. They had five players
score in double figures and shot 49
percent from the field as a team.
They also committed just nine
turnovers against the Huskies.
Giuliana Mendiola had 22 points
for Washington in the loss.
“I am extremely disappointed to
lose this game,” Washington head
coach June Daugherty said. “At
times we battled hard, but we just
couldn’t get it done.”
The game ended the collegiate ca
reers of five Washington seniors. Lead
ing the way was Loree Payne, who dec
imated Oregon in her career. In her
final game against the Ducks earlier
this season, she posted 24 points for
the Huskies in a 75-59 victory.
“This is a great group of five and
they are leaving an unbelievable lega
cy,” Daugherty said. “They worked re
ally hard in the off-season and every
year they have improved. ”
No. 1 LSU86,
No. 16SWTexas 50
The Lady Tigers showed why they
were the top-ranked team in the
West and why the Bobcats were No.
16. Roneeka Hodges scored 16
points for LSU as the Lady Tigers
shot 58.8 percent from the field.
Tori Talbert led Southwest Texas
with 18 points on 8-of-15 shooting,
but LSU was just too much to handle.
The Lady Tigers entered the locker
room at halftime with a 47-25 lead.
The game was a far cry from the
91-40 LSU victory earlier in the sea
son, but still, it was a convincing win
for the Lady Tigers. LSU won the re
bounding battle (31-29), and had 12
assists to SW Texas’ nine. The Lady
Tigers did commit 15 turnovers, but
the Bobcats were credited with 20.
“For the first 10 minutes of the
game, I think we stayed within our
game plan,” SW Texas head coach
Suzanne Fox said. “Then LSU began
to change the tempo and we didn’t play
the kind of basketball that got us here.”
Contact the sports reporter
at hankhager@dailyemerald.com.
ASUO
continued from page 1
sophomore
and journal
ism major, as
his vice pres
ident. Drake
is a member
of Chi Psi
and vice
president for
event plan
ning in the
Interfraterni
ty Council.
He’s also an
intern for the Oregon Student
Public Interest Research Group
and helps coordinate the Univer
sity Hunger Clean-Up. Boyd is
president of Sigma Phi Epsilon.
Q: What are your campus ini
tiatives?
Drake: Three primary things
that we’re going to focus on is stu
dent voice, community building
and diversity. If I’m elected, I would
immediately have a position on the
OSA, which is the student voice of
the University. With that I would
just want to representeveryone
and be a means for the students to
project their needs, desires.
(With) the community build
ing, I just want to strengthen ties
between students, professors,
faculty, as well as the neighboring
community outside of the
University. Also, part of the com
munity is involvement in organi
zations. I’d like to see more
students become involved in
organizations, and part of the
diversity thing is allowing or just
helping facilitate the different
student groups working together
— which I think makes every stu
dent group more effective.
Q: How will you interact with
the community?
Drake: I think the most effective
way to do that is using already es
tablished groups who have contact
and ties with the community.
Q: How would you make the
ASUO relevant to students?
Drake: My goal is to allow each
individual student to have their
voice heard — the collaborative ef
fort makes them feel like they can
actually approach our student gov
ernment with concerns or any
ideas that they have.
Jeremy L. Jones, a junior ma
Drake
joring in jour
nalism, is
campaigning
for executive
office without
a vice presi
dent. Jones
said he is
running for
president un
der the title
“Emperor of
Destiny,
Hope for Mankind.” Jones is a staff
writer for the Oregon Commenta
tor and has grand designs on how
to reshape student government at
the University.
Q: What are your campus ini
tiatives?
Jones: Well, my biggest plan,
and this is the most exciting —
you might not know this, but (Ore
gon State University) is historical
ly part of the University. It’s been
taken from us, and so I think we
should expand to our natural bor
ders, and the first thing we’re going
to do is declare war on them and
take them over.
Q: How will you interact with
the community?
Jones: Being an emperor, you
know, being in my position that I
will be in, interaction will be
mostly through parades, and I will
be seen everywhere. But I’ll also
be very visible to the campus in
other ways. For example, I prom
ise not only drug problems, I
promise sex scandals, I promise
the whole nine yards. You’ll have
to even hire a reporter just to tag
along just to make sure they don’t
miss anything.
Q: How would you make the
ASUO relevant to students?
Jones: Well, I’ll be expanding it
of course, so therefore it’s already
better. It’ll finally be a part of their
lives, and not only a part of their
lives, it will be their lives.
You know, there’s a lot of prob
lems around here because there’s
no control. I’m talking about con
trol, I’m talking about control of
their dressing — I mean, they’re
going to have to have a book on
them at all times, just to tell them
what to think. This is the kind of
control. It’s going to be a major
part of their lives. And they will re
spect me for that, I think.
Contact the senior news reporter
atjenniferbear@dailyemerald.com.
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