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