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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 27, 2004)
WARM continued from page 5 during the last three games. On Satur day the Ducks held a 33-32 advantage over Arizona State, which has the best rebounding margin in the conference. Moving on The first half of the conference schedule came to a close Saturday with the Ducks winning only two of nine games. Besides blowout road losses to then-No. 9 Stanford and Washington, Oregon had a chance to win every game. The Ducks are confident they can improve in the second half. One reason to have confidence in the Ducks is freshman Eleanor Har ing. The 6-foot-1 forward is one of Oregon's most athletic players and has stepped up on both sides of the ball. "We went through some tough spots and we've really rebounded back," Haring said. "I think last week end was a sign. Although we didn't get the wins, we really played hard. We know we're (really) close and it will be interesting to see how the last half of the season goes." Oregon had an outside chance of competing for the Pac-10 title until Cathrine Kraayeveld was lost for the season on Dec. 2 with an anterior cru ciate ligament tear in her right knee. Since then, Oregon has had to scratch and daw for every basket and every re bound. While the Ducks came out strong in several games, not having anything come easy usually took its toll by game's end. Oregon lost to California, UCLA, Arizona and Arizona State by a com bined 16 points. Despite their struggles, Smith said she's happy with the way the team has stayed together. "We went through some tough spots and we've really rebounded back. I think last weekend was a sign. Although we didn't get the wins, we really played hard." Eleanor Haring Oregon forward "Given the rough road that we've had, what we're really satisfied with as a coaching staff is that (the play ers) haven't given up," Smith said. "We're looking uphill, but they've got that grit and they've got that en thusiasm to turn the second half around." Contact the sports reporter at jonroetman@dailyemerald.com. Erik Bishoff Photographer Eleanor Haring (54) and the Ducks are close to an elusive third Pac-10 win. They almost defeated Arizona and Arizona State last week. HAGER continued from page 5 I couldn't think of anything intelli gent to say on Oregon's 24-point loss to Arizona. There were some posi tives, but mostly there were negatives. The Ducks will move on. Arizona will move on. They'll meet again and there will be a different result. Maybe. The Oregon women's basketball team is 2-7 in Pacific-10 Conference play. That speaks for itself. So, what did I do? Well, I did the same thing any red-blooded Ameri can male who can't think of a column would do. I turned on ESPN's "SportsCenter." Ah, the last bastion of inspirational television. It's a show like no other, and it's on so often it doesn't matter if you work the morning, afternoon or late shift. You just can't miss it. I've found myself inexplicably drawn to it since I first got cable TV when I was 11.1 know why I watch — I just can't figure out why I do it so often. Lately, though, I've found myself shying away from the big show. I still watch, but not with the same gusto I once had. I can't seem to keep the re mote from clicking to Comedy Central or Fox Sports Net. It's almost beginning to seem as though the show is becoming a cari cature of itself, a cartoon that pushes the limits of respectability. Even though it's always been known for its brash nature, the show seems to be mimicking its reality show brethren on the non-cable television channels. The information is still fresh, and the analysts know what they're talking about, but the next laugh always seems to be around the comer. The problem is, it's becoming a forced laugh. I'm still waiting for the day when Stuart Scott makes a sock puppet because, well, ratings suggest that males aged 8 to 15 prefer him to make an ass of himself than to actu ally present sports news in a clear and informative fashion. Maybe it's just that "SportsCenter" considers itself dominant over Fox. Maybe the show is trying to pull in new viewers. Maybe after 25 years there needs to be some things done to keep it fresh. There's a lot of maybes in there, and only the executives of the show really know what the answer is. But in the meantime, give Dan Patrick some more air time, kick Scott off the show and bring back Keith Olbermann. I'll still be watching, but I am grow ing skeptical of the so-called world wide leader in sports. Bring back CNN/SI. Now that was a sports channel that had some gusto. "SportsCenter," for all its newfound issues, is still the best highlights show on the air today. As Homer Simpson would say, "Ooh, 'SportsCenter.'" Now if I can just find that damn bag of pretzels. Contact the sports editor at hankhager@dailyemeratd.coni. SPORTS BRIEF Nets fire Scott, name Frank interim head coach EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — After watching his uninspired New Jersey Nets go through the motions of an em barrassing 21-point loss to the Miami Heat on Friday and hearing that Byron Scott was unsure of whether the team was listening, Nets president Rod Thom began to realize a change was necessary. Finally, at 10 Sunday night, hours af ter a victory over the Celtics, Thom did what he couldn't bring himself to do last March, last summer and last month he fired Byron Scott. The Nets terminat ed ties with the winningest coach in their NBA history on Monday morning, less than a week after the team was sold to Brooklyn developer Bruce Ratner. Scott coached the team to two straight NBA Finals but could not sur vive a 22-20 start, even though it was good enough to lead the Atlantic Di vision. The Nets promoted lead assis tant Lawrence Frank to interim coach for the remainder of the season. The first-time head coach is now the youngest in the league at 33. Thom said he had made the decision and new ownership had no input. "This was a very, very difficult thing to do on a personal level," said Thom, who gave Scott his first head coaching job in 2000. "Sometimes your team needs a new voice. This is Byron's fourth year here; it happens at differ ent times to virtually every coach ... that your message just isn't received and taken on the court." "The Miami game was the nadir, so to speak, for us," added Thom, who said he considered other coaching candidates in and outside of the i— organization before deciding on Frank. "We didn't compete at the nor mal level I think this team competes." Thorn was also adamant that no player — especially Jason Kidd — had any input on the decision. The rela tionship between Scott and Kidd has been speculated about since last sum mer, when reports had the point guard demanding Scott be fired or else he would not re-sign as a free agent. Several sources have maintained that Kidd never made such a demand and they also denied an early afternoon report Monday from The Associated Press that Kidd had talked to management on Saturday to dis cuss a coaching change. "I didn't talk to anybody about any change," said an angry Kidd, who played golf with Scott and Thom dur ing an off day on Thursday in Miami. "Far from it. Somebody made an er ror. You can check my phone records. I didn't call Rod. Why would I need to tell Rod (to make a change)? That's his job. I'm not doing his job." — Ohm Youngmisuk New York Daily News Los Angeles $175 Rio de Janeiro $715 New York $280 Tokyo $547 Frankfurt $310 Hong Kong $489 London $381 Bangkok $609 Paris $377 Bali $719 Mexico City $383 Sydney $984 Lima $618 Delhi $1029 Fares are roundtrip from Portland. 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