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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 29, 2004)
Sports Editor: Hank Hager hankhager@dailyemerald.com Thursday, January 29, 2004 -Oregon Daily Emerald SPORTS Best bet NBA: Sacramento vs. San Antonio 6:30 p.m., TNT Coming to a point After an injury to freshman point guard Aaron Brooks, the starting duty has gone to Brandon Lincoln By Hank Hager Sports Editor Brandon Lincoln knows success. As a sophomore at Jefferson High School in Portland, the Oregon point guard teamed with current Kansas stars Aaron Miles and Michael Lee to win the state's 4A championship. Two years later, he was rated as a "super prospect" by http://www.FansOnly.com and was ranked as the 67th-best play er in the nation by ESPN.com. That equated to a No. 2 ranking in the state of Oregon. So when fresh when Brooks went down, combined to score 12 points, dish out six assists and turn the ball over two times. It can be viewed as a setback, based on statistics alone, but they've been suc cessful to a point considering the ad justments the two have had to make. Since Brooks suffered the in jury, Lincoln has averaged 2.8 points and 2.4 assists per game. He failed to score against Washington State and Arizona State, both Oregon wins. Coming into the season, Davis was virtually anoint ed the team's niau puilil gUdlU Aaron Brooks went down with an injured wrist in early Janu ary, there were no worries. perimeter sharpshooter. He has yet to start a game this season, playing in all but one, and mgm; Right now, just tilling in spot, kind of takes care of it self because I'm surrounded by great players," Lincoln said. "We're just getting better with every game. We had an unfortunate loss to Ari zona where it kind of got out of hand. We're still making forward progress. We're not going to let that loss knock us back too far." Against the Wildcats, Lincoln and senior James Davis, the heir apparents has been deadly from out side. H i s shooting ability has not been affected by Brooks' ab sence. Overall this season, he is shooting 48.3 percent from beyond the three-point line. In Pac-10 play, he has knocked down 54.3 per cent of his shots from downtown. He ranks second in the Pac-10 in three-pointers — just behind Stanford's Chris Hernandez, who has made 54.8 percent of his three-pointers, but in 47 less attempts. He's been a key offensive leader since Brooks went down. In the past five games, Davis has averaged 13.2 points per game. "I think we're doing all right now," Davis said. "I think it could be a lot better, but as far as us two together, and Luke Jackson playing a little bit, we're doing all right." Jackson has been tak ing the ball up the court and run ning the Oregon offense from the point at times. That was the case in the Ducks' loss to Oregon State on Jan. 10, a game in which the Creswell senior had a career high 39 points. During that time, Oregon was a work in progress. Lincoln was starting his first career game in a Ducks uniform and had just six points and two assists. Davis, meanwhile, connected for 17 points but was unable to establish an offensive rhythm in the second half. Last season, Lincoln played in 26 games for the Ducks, averaging a little more than eight minutes a contest. He was a valuable contributor off the bench and served that role well on a team that had Luke Ridnour. Ridnour was on the fast track to the NBA, eventually getting drafted by Seattle with the 14th overall selection in the 2003 draft. When Brooks came to Eu gene, it was expected he would see backup action at the point, allowing Lincoln to come off the bench at the other guard position. When Ridnour left, it threw a wrench into the Oregon offense; forcing Brooks, the super freshman, into increased playing time. That meant Lincoln was an even more valuable tool as a sophomore. Lincoln said Oregon head coach Ernie Kent's feedback for him has been to "stay aggressive and stay optimistic. "Guys make mistakes all the time. I'm not perfect. Nobody's perfect. He knows I'm going to make mistakes. He just wants to make sure I stay opti mistic and keep trying to get better." For Lincoln, the adjustment is ob vious. He had been well-accustomed reacting to the situation when replac ing Brooks on the floor. Now he has to know what he's go ing to attack before the game even starts. "At first, it kind of caught me by sur prise," Iincoln said of his starting role. "It's still a work in progress. There's still a lot of things I need to work through. There are things the guys are helping me on. I'm getting better with it every day. "Coming off the bench, you can get a feel for the how the game is go ing. I wasn't really adjusted to start ing the game, getting right into it. That was something I wasn't used to. Coming straight out and playing is kind of different." Lincoln is expected to get con sistent time on the floor until 3rooks gets back on the scene, which is expected to be in late February. Kent said the freshman from Seattle is right on schedule for his return to the lineup. Brooks is set to have pins taken out of the wrist on Mon day and will under go a CT scan on Wednesday. If all is well, Kent said, the cast could be taken off the same day. From then on, he will start his re habilitation Turn to POINT, page 14 California forwards provide backbone of Bears’ offense Cal’s Leon Powe leads the Pac-10 with eight double doubles and in averaging 9.7 rebounds per game By Jesse Thomas Sports Reporter His nickname is "The Show." Not coincidentally, one only earns such a nickname by putting on a show for the fans, for the team and for the opponent. California forward Leon Powe has proven his worthiness of such a nick name in just his first season with the Golden Bears. The freshman from Oakland, Calif., was named the Pacific-10 Conference's Player of the Week on Monday after the terror he brought to USC and UCLA last week. Powe is only the 20th freshman in league history to receive the honor. He is the Bears' leading scorer and re bounder and will lead his team into McArthur Court tonight in the hope of starting Cal's first winning streak all season. Powe scored 14 points against USC Jan. 22 and grabbed eight rebounds on the night of his 20th birthday. Against UCLA on Saturday, he electrified the crowd with 19 points and 14 rebounds, accounting for his league-leading eighth double-double of the season. Powe had 12 points and eight re bounds in the final eight minutes against the Bruins. "It's like having another point guard in the lineup, and that's helped us," Cali fornia head coach Ben Braun said. "He's an extra ball handler. He's certainly a Turn to BACKBONE, page 14 Oregon opens second half of Pac-10 against UCLA,USC The Ducks are in Los Angeles today for a 7 p.m. tip-off against UCLA; UO looks for its third Pac-10 win By Mindi Rice Senior Sports Reporter Halfway through Pacific-10 Conference play the Oregon women's basketball team is looking to change its fate. The Ducks (10-9 overall, 2-7 Pac-10) travel to Los Angeles to take on UCLA at 7 p.m. Thursday and USC at 4 p.m. Saturday in search of their second conference win on the road. The start of the season's second half gives Oregon an opportunity to finish strong: finish a play, finish a game and finish a season. "The one thing we need to work on is finishing games at the end," point guard Corrie Mizusawa said. "Against Arizona and ASU, we had chances to win at the end and we just didn't come through and make plays. We've been playing well for 35 and 38 minutes but just not finishing the game." WOMEN’S BASKETBALL The Ducks are even running end-of-game situation al drills during their practices to help them with their approach if they're ahead or behind with a few min utes remaining. "We're a little more tentative on offense," Mizusawa said. "Just kind of waiting instead of not being aggres sive. That's the thing we're working on in practice — being more aggressive no matter how much time is left on the dock." The Ducks have had the lead in the waning minutes more often than not in their Pac-10 games, but Ore gon has let as large of a lead as 12 points slip away to become a loss. Thursday, Oregon gave up a six-point lead to Ari zona before the Wildcats turned the game around and earned the win, 70-66. Against Arizona State on Sat urday, the Ducks held an eight-point lead with four minutes remaining. The Sun Devils went on a 13-3 run to dose the game and earn the 69-67 victory. "Our players certainly understand that both of those games were within our hands," Oregon head coach Bev Smith said. "It's just a matter of extending 37 good minutes of basketball to 40. Playing UCLA and USC is a great opportunity for us to get back and play those games for 40 minutes and get back on the Turn to WOMEN, page 14
