Sports Editor:
Hank Hager
hankhager@dailyemerald.com
Wednesday, January 14, 2004
Oregon Daily Emerald
SPORTS
Best bet
NCAA basketball:
North Carolina vs. Maryland
6 p.m., ESPN
-*****
Erik Bishoff Freelance Photographer
James Davis scored 17 points, but it wasn’t enough in Oregon's loss to Oregon State.
Ducks remain
positive despite
recent losses
Oregon has 15 games remaining in the Pac-10
and knows that each becomes increasingly
important in the quest for the NCAA Tournament
By Hank Hager
Sports Editor ______
The Ducks have had a few days to let the loss to Oregon
State sink in, and although Oregon is not happy with the re
sult, the team is confident heading
__ into its game against Washington on
MEN'S
BASKETBALL
Thursday.
James Davis had 17 points and
Luke Jackson scored a career-high 39,
but the Beavers dropped the Ducks to
1-2 in Pacific-10 Conference play. It's
the third time in four years that Oregon has started off its
first three games with a losing record.
"I think there are people who are still pretty unhappy
with themselves,” Oregon forward lan Crosswhite said. I
know that we're going to have two hard days of practice, get
after each other and make each other improve.
The games against Washington and Washington State this
week could very well be the turning point in the season for
the Ducks.
At 6-4 on the season, Oregon is searching for its first true
winning streak. After starting out with consecutive wins over
Fresno State, Portland State and Marshall, the Ducks have
gone 3-4 in their last seven games.
Crunch time is near. It may not come this week, but wins
over the I luskies and Cougars would be key.
"We definitely know what has cost us as far as going into
Pac-10," Jackson said. "We feel like there are some specific
areas we need to clean up. Every game from here on out is
important. Not just this week."
After the two games this week at McArthur Court, Oregon
travels to Tempe and Tucson to play Arizona State and Ari
zona, respectively. The Ducks have gone 10-11 against the
Sun Devils and Wildcats the past five seasons.
"We know that we are capable of winning a lot of ball
games and we're not going to get down because we ve lost
two here lately," Jackson said. "I know this team is capable
of doing good things. We're not counting ourselves out
of anything."
Taken out of the game
Andre Joseph scored a season-low three points against
the Beavers.
The senior forward hadn't been held to three or fewer
points since the 2003 NCAA Tournament loss to Utah in
March. He failed to put the ball through the basket
Turn to POSITIVE, page 10
Oregon looks
to improve after
earning first win
Fresh off their first victory, the Ducks continue
to work hard in practice with better results
in mind when they visit Stanford on Thursday
By Scott Archer
Freelance Reporter
Oregon's victory over Army was a starting point for what
the team hopes is a turnaround
in performance.
SuP UP Cjt 1hL Army was Oregon's most difficult
WRESTLING opponent of the day, according to both
_ the team's players and coaches.
It was partly the fashion with which
the Ducks beat Army that should give the team more confi
dence heading into this week's showdown with Stanford.
* Turn to IMPROVE, page 10, ,
Freshman Cody Parker's (behind) 184 win contributed to Oregon’s 23-21 victory Friday.
£
Jon Roetman
Roughing the passer
Sports
can be
positive
diversion
"It will all pay off someday."
My mother uttered those six words to
me shortly after Seattle's 33-27 overtime
loss to Green Bay in the Wild Card
round of the NFC Playoffs Jan. 4.
As a lifelong supporter of teams with
less-than-stellar resumes, losses like the
one that occurred to my NFL team of
choice on the frozen tundra of Lambeau
Field are hard to swallow.
Despite being educated year after year
on how to stomach a heartbreaking de
feat, it never gets any easier. 1 luman na
ture tells one that he or she should aban
don something that routinely causes
such ample amounts of pain and suffer
ing. The mind of a die-hard fan, howev
er, doesn't work that way.
No matter how much it hurts, 1 keep
coming back. Giving up on the Sea
hawks would be like having part of me
amputated.
Even though I've been through an
abundance of agony, falling to the Pack
ers was the worst sport-related moment
of my life, finishing slightly ahead of the
Cubs' collapse against the Marlins last
October and the Blazers' fourth-quarter
meltdown against the Lakers in the 2000
Western Conference Finals.
By now most people have either seen or
heard about the guarantee made by Sea
hawks' quarterback Matt 1 lasselbeck after
winning the overtime coin toss. After cor
rectly calling heads, the confident signal
caller told referee Bemie Kukar "we want the
ball and we're gonna score."
After years of wallowing in obscurity,
it brought a smile to my face to see a
Seattle player facing down one of the
most pressure-packed moments in fran
chise history with such confidence.
Obviously, Seattle didn't score and
Green Bay won, causing me to walk
around with a glazed-over look on my
face for several days. When I closed my
eyes, all 1 could see was Al Harris run
ning down the sideline, ball in hand, fin
ger in the air, ending what seemed to be
the start of a promising playoff run.
That's where my mom came in.
The call she made to let me know that
everything was OK seemed crucial to my
immediate existence. Several days later, I
realized that she was right. I started fo
cusing on how the Seahawks had im
proved and what positions needed to be
upgraded in order to make a run at next
year's Super Bowl.
Impossible dreams like the Seahawks
making the Super Bowl are what sports
are all about. Investing your heart and
soul into a team and experiencing the
ups and downs can be a distraction from
the daily grind. Finding out your team
just signed the top prize in the free agent
Turn to ROETMAN, page 10 . . .