Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012, June 06, 2003, Page 9A, Image 9

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    Ridnour
continued from page 7A
conceivably end up with any team,
including Golden State, which has
the 11th pick and is expected to lose
starting point guard Gilbert Arenas
to free agency.
“That’s how I like to play,” Rid
nour told the San Francisco Chroni
cle of the Warriors’ up-tempo of
fense. “It would be a good fit as far as
that goes.”
Finally, in what could be a home
town selection, Sean Deveney of the
SportingNews has the former Ore
gon guard going to Seattle at No. 14.
However, Deveney is not com
pletely enamored with Ridnour on
the whole.
“The Sonics used Brent Barry as
the point man last year, but in Rid
nour, would be getting a guy who
can penetrate and dish to the
team’s perimeter shooters,” De
veney wrote. “His defense is a weak
point, though.”
A number of teams are in need
of a point guard next season, and
how Ridnour does at the physical
portion of the camp can weigh
heavily, although it will not make
up the whole equation. One com
plaint about the Blaine, Wash., na
tive is that he is undersized at this
point of his career.
But scoring 19.7 points a game for
the Ducks this past season while
dishing out 218 assists speaks won
ders about Ridnour’s talent. Now, all
he has to do is sit back and wait for
the dominoes to fall.
That may not be his desired posi
tion, but it is the reality right now.
Contact the sports reporter
at hankhager@dailyemerald.com.
Lorenzo
continued from page 7 A
So Lorenzo decided to redshirt
the season with Stiegeler.
This season, he came back.
Event 7: Comeback kid
Lorenzo’s comeback from his in
jury was completed at the Texas
Relays in April. He won the title at
the prestigious meet in 2001 with a
personal best and almost did it
again this year. He did have a per
sonal best of 7,911 points but fell
short of winning the event by a
mere 15 points.
That happened after Lorenzo sat
in third after the first day, 182
points behind the leader.
This has become Lorenzo’s
trademark. He did it at the NGAAs
in 2001; he did it in winning the
Pac-10 title this season.
“A lot of it has to do with maturi
ty as an athlete,” Lorenzo said. “I’m
25 years old. I’ve competed in high
level competitions many times. In
the decathlon, just like the
marathon, you need a lot of de
cathlons in order to be able to set
tle down, stay cool and relax.”
When he started running track as
a high schooler in Buenos Aires, Ar
gentina, Lorenzo was a javelin
thrower and pole vaulter. Those are
the two most technical events in
the decathlon, and that’s why
Lorenzo started as a decathlete.
Both those events are on the sec
ond day of the decathlon along with
the 1,500-meter race, which is one
of Lorenzo’s best running events.
The second day holds Loren
zo’s key to another NCAA
Championship.
Event 8: 8,100 points
Lorenzo doesn’t have specific
goals in mind when he enters a de
cathlon. He says he just tries “to be
as good as I can on that day.”
But with that said, he concedes
there’s a magic number in this
week’s NCAA finale. That magic
number is 8,100 points, which
Lorenzo compares to a 10-second
100-meter dash.
“Since the beginning of the sea
son, I said that probably 8,100
points is going to win the national
title, and that’s what I’m shooting
for,” Lorenzo said.
That may sound like a tall order
for a man whose best is almost 200
points less than the mark he’s
shooting for, but Lorenzo thinks he
can get there for several reasons.
First, he has two of the best decath
letes in the nation driving him.
Second, Lorenzo has improved
his marks with almost every meet
he’s competed in over his career.
Now he needs to clear the ulti
mate barrier.
Event 9: He’s a
brainiac, braai-niac
Lorenzo came to Oregon just to
run track. He was a decathlete.
But when he got here, he discov
ered the academic side of college
was almost as important as the
athletic side. So he threw himself
into academics like he throws
himself into training and came out
with a future.
Lorenzo took the MGAT exam,
the entry exam for medical
school. He will finish his Oregon
career with a degree in exercise
and movement science and hopes
to become a sports-medicine spe
cialist some day.
But that’s not even the best of it.
Lorenzo was recently named Phi
Beta Kappa, an honor reserved for
the best of the best students nation
wide. He was only one of four Ore
gon athletes to earn the award, and
he treated it in typical Lorenzo
fashion.
“They told me I was elected, and
I was like ‘Oh, thanks,”’ Lorenzo
said. “They said ‘No, I’m serious,
that’s a worthwhile recognition.’
And I said ‘OK.’”
Event 10: Olympiad?
Though he has two big steps di
rectly ahead of him next week in
the form of the NGAAs and gradua
tion, Lorenzo faces his biggest step
next year.
He’ll make an attempt at the
Olympics.
Because he’s still an Argentinean,
Lorenzo should have no problem
making his country’s Olympic
team. All he has to do is hit a mini
mum standard, which he estimates
at 8,000 points, and he’ll be off to
Greece next summer to represent
Argentina. What he does when he
gets there, that’s a different story.
But, like many people graduating
college, Lorenzo is staring down a
fork in the road. His fork is labeled
“athletics” on one side and “aca
demics” on the other.
“I’ve got to this point in my life
where I wish I had a crystal ball so
I could see my future, see what’s go
ing to happen to me,” Lorenzo said.
“But I don’t, so I have to make sure
I leave both doors open.”
Fortunately for Lorenzo, those
doors are wide open. Maybe he can
do one on the first day and one on
the second. But unfortunately, life
isn’t a decathlon.
Contact the sports editor
atpeterhockaday@dailyemerald.com.
Check OUt www.dailyemerald.com
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