Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 2003)
Sports Editor: Hank Hager hankhager@dailyemerald.com Friday, November 21,2003 Oregon Daily Emerald SPORTS Best bet NCAA basketball: Massachusetts vs. Texas Tech 4 p.m. Friday, ESPN2 It begins: Ducks open against Bulldogs After two exhibition wins, Oregon starts off its regular season tonight at McArthur Court against Fresno State By Jesse Thomas Sports Reporter It's time for the Oregon men's basket ball team to get back to business. Exhibi tion time is over. The Ducks ended that time with two wins, but they don't count. Tonight Ore gon plays Fresno State in the home opener at McArthur Court, and tonight counts. Hie Ducks are ready. "I'm anxious to start the season and get some games in that count," freshman Aaron Brooks said. "Hopefully we'll just click together and show everybody how good we are." _ Oregon will at H HT ivi f tempt to get its 12th iwl SSL Sri ' S straight season BASKETBALL °Penins win ^ last season opener they lost was in the 1991-92 season when the Ducks were de feated by Montana, 78-39. The Ducks have won their last five home openers dating back to the 1997-98 season. Fresno State, the defending Western Athletic Conference champion, comes off a 20-8 finish from last season. The Bull dogs are led by senior Jonathan Woods, who averaged nearly a double-double last season with 9.6 points per game and 9.7 rebounds a contest. Fresno State defeated the EA Sports All Stars, 68-60, on Nov. 13 in a preseason matchup. Oregon defeated the EA Sports All-Stars, 76-74, on Monday night. "Coming off the last two exhibition games, I feel really good about where we are," senior guard Hike Jackson said. "It's im portant that our team has a good mental im age of where we are and where we need to be. As long as our team stays hungry and keeps on having the desire to be better, we're going to be a really good team this year." In the series between these teams, Ore gon leads, 6-2. The home team has never lost. The most recent meeting was a 87-75 victory for Oregon at home in 1996. Oregon has won 21 consecutive noncon ference games at home. No current Duck player has ever lost a nonconference game at Turn to HOOPS, page 8A Adam Amato Photo Editor Sophomore Brandon Lincoln will likely be sharing time with freshman Aaron Brooks at the point guard position this season. Duck wrestlers destined for South Oregon The Oregon wrestlers travel to Ashland for their second match of the season Scott Archer Freelance Reporter With one meet already under its belt, the Oregon wrestling team looks to understand a bit more about itself Saturday when the Ducks travel to their second tournament of the year, the SOC Best of the West Tournament in Ashland. Southern Oregon will host the event. Oregon received strong perform ances from several of its wrestlers in the team's opening meet, the Cowboy Open in Laramie, Wyo., last Saturday. The Ducks placed eight wrestlers in the event, led by freshmen Cyle Hartzell, who paced the Duck finish ers with a second place finish in his 149-pound weight class. Junior Luke Larwin finished third in this 165 weight dass. Meanwhile, Chet McBee daimed third in the 174 dass. Sophomore Joey Bracamonte finished fourth in the 165 dass, as did Skyler Woods in his 141 dass. "Luke Larwin is ready to have a breakout year," head coach Chuck Kearney said. "(Skyler) Woods is ready to have a breakout year, (a lot of wrestlers) are on the verge of breakout years." Larwin finished last Saturday with a record of 4-1, as did McBee, giving them the best record, percentage-wise, on the team. Woods' younger brother, Scott, took fourth in the 157 dass. Oregon redshirt freshman Cody Parker, com peting in the heavyweight division, finished the day fifth overall. Ending the day, sophomore Jacob Boyles fin ished fifth in the 125 dass. The SOC Best of the West is a 20 DUCK WRESTLING year old Southern Oregon University Open wrestling tournament. Ihe tournament also features youth and junior tournaments in addition to the collegiate wrestlers. Joining the Ducks on the mat will be Oregon State, Portland State, San Francisco State, Menlo, Pacific and a number of junior colleges. Kearney believes that seeing similar teams in open tournament formats al lows the Ducks to be able to grasp how they will need to wrestle in the Pacific-10 Conference. "We are wrestling against people we will see a lot of," Kearney said. "We also get to see different types of com petition." Southern Oregon has already seen one of the weekends competitors in No. 6 NAIA Menlo College. The Raiders bounced back from an 18-0 deficit to beat Menlo, 23-18, a week ago. Southern Oregon is ranked seventh in the same division as Menlo. Oregon State opened their sea son with a loss to No. 8 Nebraska last Saturday. Oregon State heavyweight Ty Wat terson, a redshirt freshman making his varsity debut, battled with No. 15 Mitch Mastedt into overtime before losing, 8-6. The Beavers' Matt Ellis lost 2-0 in the 165 class to No. 13 Jacob Klein. After the Ducks travel south this weekend, the team will regroup and work on its Pac-10 schedule. Oregon State will present Oregon's first Pac-10 matchup Dec. 13 in Corvallis. The team should get a preview of what to expect against Oregon State af ter this weekend. Oregon's first home meet is slated for the next day, Dec. 14, against No. 1 Oklahoma State. Both matches will begin at 7 p.m. Saturday's meet will take place at the Compton Arena at the Jackson County Expo. The meet will begin at 9 a.m. Scott Archer is a freelance reporter for the Emerald. Legans paces Bulldogs’ offense Fresno State enters tonight’s game undermanned but ready for an upset of Oregon By Hank Hager Sports Editor While the Oregon men's basketball team plans on taking its run-and-gun offense into McArthur Court as its key element, Fresno State will be a team on the opposite spectrum. The Bulldogs do not have the speed or the depth that the Ducks enjoy. In stead of employ ing an up-tempo offense, Fresno State plans on trying to stop the Ducks in their tracks. "That's our identity," Fresno State head coach Ray Lopes told The Fresno Bee alter an exhibi tion win last week. "That's our pro gram. Defense and rebounding." Defense and rebounding led the Bulldogs to a 20-8 record last season. Two of the losses came in the team's fi nal two games of the season. A 62-59 loss to Tulsa and a 92-71 heartbreaker to Rice tainted Fresno State's Western Athletic Conference record of 13-5. Entering tonight's game against Oregon, the Bulldogs will be under manned, expecting to have just seven players available to play. Forward Francis Koffi, a junior college transfer originally from Paris, will be held out of the game because of worries about his eligibility. Junior forward Dreike Bouldin won't play because of a fractured right pinky finger and sophomore guard Terry Pet tis will sit due to suspension. "We're going to have to be an oppor tunistic team, because right now the numbers hurt us," Lopes told the Bee on Wednesday. "Foul trouble hurts us. Fatigue hurts us." Fresno State will have senior Shan tay Legans, a guard Oregon fans should recognize. After three seasons at California, Legans transferred to Fresno State previous to last season but had to sit out last year because of NCAA regulations. Legans' last game at McArthur Court proved to be a close one with the Ducks defeating the Golden Bears, 76-72. The guard started and played 23 minutes, posting five points and two assists. "|Jonathan] Woods and Shantay Legans are two very good players for them," Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said. 'They are guys with some experi ence; Woods from last year and Legans having played at Cal and knows this environment. This environment will not intimidate him." Only Woods, a senior forward who transferred to the Bulldogs last season Turn to FRESNO, page 9A Shantay Legans Fresno State guard
