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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 14, 2003)
Sports Editor: Hank Hager hankhager@dailyemerald.com Friday, November 14, 2003 Oregon Daily Emerald SPORTS Best bet NCAA basketball: Gonzagavs. St. Josephs 6 p.m., Friday, ESPN2 Drew takes center stage when UO, UCLA battle Maurice Drew, a highly coveted recruit last year, will face off against the Ducks Saturday in Los Angeles By Hank Hager Sports Editor Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti failed to lure a running back in the Ducks' 2003 recruiting class. Bellotti will FOOTBALL face °ne °f the - top backs he failed to land when Maurice Drew takes the field for UCLA Saturday. Drew, who came to the Bruins from De La Salle High School in Concord, Calif,, was rated the sixth-best running back to come out of high school last season. "You better get low," Bellotti said. "He's a very good runner. He's 200 pounds, and he's about 5-8 tops. He's a complete running back that possess es speed. He'll break tackles. He's got a natural feel for the game and he runs very hard." Drew was on a short list of running backs that Bellotti was recruiting. The head coach failed to land one and was further criticized when Lynell Hamil ton — now playing for San Diego State — raised concerns about his re cruiting trip to Lugene. Regardless, Bellotti and the Ducks will have a two-headed running back monster to deal with when they fly to Los Angeles. Drew and incumbent sophomore Tyler Lbell have shared the repetitions lately. "He's never been caught from be hind in high school," Bellotti said of Drew. "And he ran back punts. "We knew that. We obviously cov eted him a great deal. He's stepped in and become their leading guy." Quarterback roulette UCLA quarterback Matt Moore, de moted to backup this week in favor of Drew Olson, told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday that he was sur prised at the timing of the move. UCIA head coach Karl Dorrell had said after the Bruins' 31-13 loss to Washington State last Saturday that Moore would start against Oregon. Two days later, Dorrell's tune had changed and Olson was penciled in as starter. Moore went 11 of 29 for 138 yards against the Cougars. "There were some things 1 didn't hit — Marcedes (Lewis) was open in the end zone a couple times," Moore said. 'There were some flat routes 1 should have hit on third down. Just little things, man, and it happened a lot. “That was a huge thing. It leads coach Dorrell to believe 1 don't know what's going on. liven though that's not the case, that's what it seemed like Saturday because 1 just didn't perform like 1 should have." Earlier in the week, Bellotti was ex pecting Moore to start. However, he said it really doesn't matter who starts for the Bruins at quarterback because the Ducks need to focus on other as pects of the UCIA offense. "1 think it's about containing their running game, whether it be Maurice Turn to FOOTBALL, page 10A Women face two in home tourney Danielle Hickey Senior Photographer Kedzie Gunderson and the Ducks face their first Division I opponent on Saturday. The Ducks open their non-exhibition play with games Saturday and Sunday in a tournament By Mindi Rice Senior Sports Reporter The Oregon women's basketball team faces its first NCAA Division 1 opponents this season in the Women's Sports Foundation Classic. The Ducks open with Valparaiso at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday at McArthur Court. "We're excited to play and get go ing," point guard Corrie Mizusawa said. "It's our first game that's actually going to count, so we're excited to have the fans there and hopefully have a pretty big crowd." The Ducks play Saturday and Sunday, with Sunday's game against either LSU or Villanova. The opponent is contin gent on the outcome between the Tigers and Wildcats. All three teams played in the 2003 NCAA Tournament. LSU ad vanced to the Elite Eight. "They're definitely better teams (than we've faced this season)," for ward Cathrine Kraayeveld said. "They're more disciplined and they're going to execute, so we real ly have to be that much more disci plined and more focused on doing what we need to do to play well in the game." WOMEN’S BASKETBALL After an 80-69 win against a trav eling team from the Czech Repub lic and a lopsided 87-29 defeat of Western Oregon, the Ducks are ready for new competition. They also are working on what their team needs to accomplish, regard less of the opponent. "It's a real good opportunity to evaluate our team," head coach Bev Smith said. "Certainly we are focus ing defensively and really trying to make sure that we play defensively well so that we can control the backboards. By controlling the backboards, we can control the tempo offensively." Offensively, the Ducks may have a lower-scoring game because of a change on the court. A quirk the tournament is throwing in this year is two alterations that may be added by the NCAA starting in the 2004-2005 season. The women will play with the three-point line moved from 19 feet, nine inches to 20 feet, 6.25 inches. "The three-point line really isn't that much farther out," Kraayeveld said. "If you're going to shoot a three, a couple inches extra really isn't that big of a deal." The other change is modifying the 12-foot-wide rectangular key to a trapezoid shape that is 19 feet, 8.75 inches at the baseline. " The key is definitely a bit differ ent, especially when we practiced free-throws," Mizusawa said. "The first two rebounders have to get out Turn to BASKETBALL, page 10A Oregon wrestlers start season in Wyoming Oregon begins the 2003 04 season without the services of four key wrestlers due to various reasons By Scott Archer Freelance Reporter With the winter months begin ning to overtake the University cam pus, a few teams conclude their sea sons, while others are set to make a dramatic entry onto the Ore gon sports WRESTLING s“nek . __ Such is the case with the Oregon wrestling team as it prepares for its opening matches this season. The Ducks travel to Laramie, Wyo., Saturday to compete in the Cowboy Open. The tournament begins a three month long season for the wrestling team; a season that will see the team travel to California, Nevada and Ne braska, among other destinations. The Ducks will host only three events at McArthur Court this sea son. Oregon's first home match, set for Dec. 14, welcomes Big 12 Con ference team and No. 1 Oklahoma State. Oregon then travels for a month, coming back to Eugene in a matchup with California schools Fresno State and Cal State Bakers field, on Jan. 21 and 23, respectively. A month later, Oregon hosts rival Oregon State in its second-to-last ruatchon Feb-15, . Oregon head coach Chuck Kear ney expects this year to be a transi tion season because several key wrestlers are redshirting. Martin Mitchell, Tony Rolen and Shane Webster, an All-American last year, will redshirt. "Everyone else on the team has redshirted," Kearney said. "We want guys to stay in the same class. We are going to reload this year and in two years be a top-10 team nationally." As a team, the Ducks finished fifth in the Pacific-10 Conference Tournament a year ago, qualifying three Ducks for postseason compe tition. The Ducks also finished with a 8-11 dual meet record. The Ducks return 16 wrestlers from last year's fifth-place team, some of which have yet to experi ence Pac-10 wresting. Kearney ad mits that this year is a reloading year. "We are going to focus on doing things to be successful, where we aren't focusing on results but per formance," Kearney said/-"But we want to qualify as many wrestlers as we can for the national tourna ment." One of Oregon's steadiest wrestlers, Jason Harless, won't be with the team this weekend because of personal reasons but will resume practicing shortly in hopes of an outstanding season. "1 want to be a Pac-10 champ," Harless said. "Every year I have been in the top two, but things haven't gone well (in the past). 1 also want Turn to WRESTLING, pagelOA UO swept by Arizona for 15th Pac-10 loss The Ducks drop their 16th consecutive match after being swept by Arizona at McArthur Court on Thursday night By Jon Roetman Sports Reporter The Oregon volleyball team played its first game with freshman Heather Madison at setter but experienced a familiar result. The Ducks lost for the 16th consecutive time Thursday, dropping a match to Ari zona, 3-0 (30-22, 30-20, 30-26) in front of 738 fans at McArthur Court. Oregon (3-21 overall, 0-15 Pacific-10 Conference) once again saved its best vol leyball for the third game of a match after struggling through the first two. Ore gon trailed by as many as seven points early in game three, but eventual ly fought back and took a 22-21 lead on a Madison ace that landed just inches inside the baseline. The Ducks built a 24-22 lead before giv ing way to the Wildcats. "1 was nervous before (the match)," Madison said. "But once 1 got in a groove it was fine." Turn to VOLLEYBALL, page 10A itJP HLJP IHIk VOLLEYBALL Lauren Wimer Photographer Kelly Russell had six kills Thursday.
