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.