Sports Editor:
Hank Hager
hankhager@dailyemerald.com
-Oregon Daily Emerald
SPORTS
Best bet
NCAA basketball:
Cincinnati vs. Xavier
4 p.m., ESPN2
Tuesday, February 3,2004
Season still up in the air for Duck men, women
Oregon will need a healthy dose
of wins in the second half to
ensure an NCAA Tournament bid
By Hank Hager
Third place in the Pacific-10 Conference
is not a bad place to be as the league sea
son sits at its midway point.
It's not bad considering Oregon had lost
its starting point guard for all but two
games of the Pac-10 season. It's not bad
It's not bad considering the collective
Pac-10 is down this season, ranked at or
below the Atlantic Coast, Southeastern
and Big 12 Conferences.
Or is it?
"With everything that this team has
been through, losing Matt (Short),
Mitch (Platt) and Jordan (Kent) and
Aaron (Brooks) still not back, for us to
be sitting here in third place, and we
were playing for second for two weeks
in a row, I think that says a lot about
this team," Oregon head coach Ernie
Kent said after the Ducks' loss to Stan
ford on Saturday.
Oregon is tied for third with California
and UCLA, and all three teams sport iden
tical 5-4 records in conference play. The
wild card, however, may be the fact that
Oregon will play two fewer games than the
Golden Bears and Bruins this season. That
Sports Editor
MEN'S
BASKETBALL
figuring the Ducks
used just eight
players against
Stanford, and the
three reserves com
bined to score no
points.
Turn to WINS, page 10
Ok
Erik Bishoff Photographer
Oregon’s James Davis (1), Mitch Platt (background), Andre Joseph (35) and Luke Jackson (33) have been key contributors to
the Ducks’ success this season. Oregon is 54 in Pac-10 play, good enough for a tie for third place.
The Oregon women have
a tough road to travel one week
into the second half of the
Pacific-10 conference season
By Mindi Rice
Senior Sports Reporter
One week past the midway point of
the women's basketball Pacific-10 Con
ference schedule, Oregon has its work cut
out for it.
With an 11-10 overall record, the
Ducks are barely afloat in the eligibility
for an NIT berth at the end of the
season.
_ With a 3-8 Pac
WOMEN’S L° re“ghd;h°reand
BASKETBALL slowly sinking in
- the conference
standings.
Amid the injuries, the lost leads and
the punishing practices, the Ducks are
actually coming together and making
progress.
"We have been really searching for an
identity — for a lineup that will bring us
consistency," head coach Bev Smith said.
"We've realized as a team how we needed
to play."
This season has been a roller coaster
ride for the Ducks as a team. The team
has gone from extreme highs, like a nine
point win against then-No. 9 LSU in No
vember, to extreme lows, like the 45
point loss at Washington on Jan. 15, and
has had continued falls and climbs
Turn to WOMEN, page 10
Bruins’ streak reaches five after loss to St.John’s •
After a perfect start to what
appeared a glorified Pac-10
season, UCLA has lost five
in a row and is sinking fast
By Jesse Thomas
Sports Reporter
After a perfect 5-0 Pacific-10 Con
ference start, UCLA desperately
needs to re
turn to its
winning ways.
After keep
ing pace with
Stanford and
its undefeated
record, UCLA has slipped to a tie for
PAC
10
third in thePac-10.
The Bruins just lost their fifth
game in a row to St. John's at Madi
son Square Garden over the
weekend.
St. John's, which entered the game
on the brink of the worst losing streak
in school history, beat UCLA for the
sixth straight time using solid three
point shooting.
"We have to go back to the draw
ing board and make some
changes," UCLA head coach Ben
Howland said. "We are not getting
off to good starts offensively or de
fensively."
The Red Storm entered the game
on a seven-game losing streak. The
only other time St. John's had such
a bad record was during the 1918
19 season, when the team went
0-7.
"This was a long time coming for
us," St. John's interim head coach
Kevin Clark said. "I want them to cele
brate this one, enjoy this one and take
the lessons from it."
Elijah Ingram lit up Madison
Square Garden when he hit five
first-half three pointers. UCLA as a
team had one. The Red Storm fin
ished with a season-high 10 three
pointers.
Howland had no problem with
praising Ingram after the game.
"In the first half, Ingram was ab
solutely spectacular," Howland
said. "The threes he made were
money in the bank every time he
shot it."
UCLA struggled in all aspects of
the game. The Bruins only scored
55 points, their third-lowest point
total of the season. UCLA managed
48 points against Washington State
on Jan. 8.
The Bruins were outrebounded 49
to 30 against the Red Storm. They
shot 5 of 15 on three-pointers and
were a mere 4 of 15 from the free
throw line.
UCLA's Trevor Ariza is the only one
who brought light to the Bruins with
his 19 points, yet he did miss all five
of his free-throw attempts.
"Trevor was the only one in my
mind who had a good game for us,"
Howland said.
The Bruins will return to Pauley
Pavilion and conference action this
week when Washington and Wash
ington State visit Los Angeles. UCLA
accomplished the Northwest sweep in
early January but only by a combined
margin of five points.
Arizona barely surviving
What is going on down in Tucson?
Does the Arizona men's basketball
team even know?
After what appeared to be a chance
to regain their footing with three
straight wins, the Wildcats headed
north over the weekend and got shut
out by Washington and squeaked by
Turn to STREAK, page 9
Platt provides new option for Oregon in first season
Whether he was grabbing defensive
rebounds — 10 in all — or posting up
his defender for 13 points, Mitch Platt
was a big piece of Oregon's puzzle on
Saturday in the team's 83-80 loss to
Stanford.
The freshman from Henderson,
Nev., collected key rebounds and
showed a flair for hard work in the
paint. It was his first career double
double and shouldn't be the last.
With his efforts, Platt became that
ever-important facet of an offense
that holds a variety of special roles.
Luke Jackson is the all-around
shooter, James Davis is the perime
ter threat and Ian Crosswhite is the
dangerous forward.
What does that make Platt?
The filler. The dyed-in-the-wool
filler who acts as the team's fourth op
tion but can play down low like its
second. Platt is a grinder and needs to
be. When Robert Johnson left after
last season, the grinding, scraping as
pect of the Ducks left with him.
Jackson can have that mentality,
but he needs to be finessed through
the season. He is too valuable to be
banging play after play, tempting in
jury and probably a subsequent end
to Oregon's season.
That's Platt's role, to bang, grab
those rebounds and run the floor.
With his ankle almost completely
healthy, he is beginning to strive in
that role, and he's becoming one of
the Pacific-10 Conference's big-time
freshmen.
He has proved that, so far. In the 12
games he's played — four were
missed due to an ankle injury suffered
during the Pape Jam — he is averag
Hank Hager
Behind the dish
ing 5.7 points and 4.5 rebounds.
Those statistics aren't gratuitous but
reflect his steadying presence first off
the bench and now as a starter.
The Sporting News described Platt
as a "skilled big man who can pass,
run (the) floor," in its 2003-04 season
preview.
If only the magazine knew then
what the rest of the Pac-10 should
know now.
"I think he's made a stride in just
the last month in general," Oregon
head coach Ernie Kent said after the
team's loss Saturday. "Since he's got
ten that brace off his ankle, each day
he gets a little bit better.
"For him to play like that in this en
vironment is huge. This is very similar
to how he played down at Arizona
State. He is starting to come; he is
starting to feel very confident with
what he does."
Platt had 13 points, and eight
rebounds against the Sun Devils. That
was with Ike Diogu on the floor, who
is one of the toughest big men in the
Pac-10, if not the nation.
Platt's effort against Stanford came
against Rob Little, Matt Haryasz and
Co., a group of big men who were as
much a reason for the Cardinal's per
fect start than any other players on
Stanford's roster.
Kent pointed out that Platt and
Crosswhite have created a duo that,
with a little more toughness and full
health, could have potential to be very
good. That's no doubt, especially con
sidering the duo has dominated dif
ferent aspects of the game.
Crosswhite has earned a reputa
tion as a dangerous outside
Turn to HAGER, page 8