Sports Editor:
Hank Hager
hankhager@dailyemerald.com
Thursday, April 1, 2004
-Oregon Daily Emerald
SPORTS
Best bet:
NIT Championship
Michigan vs. Rutgers
5 p.m., ESPN2
Oregon, Oklahoma agree to play two-game series
The Ducks face Oklahoma
for the fifth time in school
history when they travel to
Norman, Okla., in September
By Hank Hager
Sports Editor
NEW YORK — After weeks of spec
ulation, Oregon football finally
agreed to a home-and-home series
with Oklahoma on Wednesday.
The Ducks will travel to Norman
on Sept. 18, for the first of two games.
The Sooners will play in Eugene
sometime during the 2008 season.
The game next season replaces a
scheduled road contest for Oregon at
Nevada. The Ducks will eventually
make up that game.
"Oregon football is now at a level
where we can compete with the best
programs in the country," Oregon
athletics director Bill Moos said in a
release. "Certainly the University of
Oklahoma is
one of those.
"I feel we
FOOTBALL °we ft to °ur
- players and our
fans to make
every effort to schedule marquee teams
on a home-and-home basis."
Talks between the Ducks and Soon
ers had been on-going for about a
month. Oregon needed Nevada to al
low the Ducks to get out of their im
mediate obligation.
"This has been an unusual and
complicated process due in part to the
lateness of the negotiations and the
sensitivity to the University of Neva
da," Moos said.
Both games between the Ducks
and Sooners are slated to be played
before a national television audience
with both teams agreeing to pay the
visitor $300,000.
The 2004 season will mark the sec
ond such year that the Ducks will take
on a nationally renowned program
from outside the Pacific-10 Confer
ence. Oregon defeated Big 10 Confer
ence member Michigan, 31-27, at
Autzen Stadium last season.
Oklahoma went 12-2 last season,
losing to Louisiana State in the na
tional championship game, 21-14.
The Sooners swept through the
Big 12 Conference, winning all
eight of their regular season games.
However, they lost to then-No. 10
Kansas State, 35-7, in the Big 12
Championship game.
The most notable Sooner player is
quarterback Jason White, who won
the Heisman Trophy as the nation's
top player this past season.
The Ducks and Sooners have met
four times with Oklahoma winning
each contest. However, the Sooners trip
to Autzen in 2008 will be their first.
"Intersectional contests like this
and previous series with Michigan,
Michigan State and Wisconsin pro
vide quality competition as well as
tremendous exposure not only for
Oregon football but the entire Uni
versity as well," Moos said.
Oregon opens up the 2004 season
on Sept. 11, hosting the Big 10's Indi
ana. After the game with Oklahoma,
the Ducks return to Autzen Stadium
against Idaho on Sept. 25.
The Ducks open their Pac-10 sched
ule by hosting Arizona State on Oct. 2.
Contact the sports editor
at hankhager@dailyemerald.com.
A small bite
of the Big Apple
The careers of four Oregon seniors came to an end
with Tuesday’s loss to Michigan in the NIT
By Hank Hager
Sports Editor
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NEW YORK — Reality, Andre Joseph said,
began to set in as Michigan's lead grew dur
ing the second half Tuesday at Madison \
Square Garden.
The Ducks' season was assuredly over. In
turn, the college careers of the team's four sen
iors — Joseph, Luke Jackson, James Davis and
_Jay Anderson — came \
to a halt.
Now, the future comes
into the picture.
"I'm going to graduate
and play hoops some
where," Joseph said. "The important thing is to get
the degree, because I know I'll play ball somewhere. I
know I've got to get (the degree)."
Joseph has been the most publicized of the Oregon
seniors in recent weeks, most notably because of the 22- \
credit class load he had to take winter term. He earned a
course-satisfying grade in all but one class, and will retake
it in the spring before he moves on.
Davis, Jackson and Anderson are all in the graduation
boat as well.
Jackson is rumored to be a first-round selection by Hous
ton in the 2004 NBA Draft, according to NBADraft.net. But for
Davis and Anderson, the NBA is something they'll have to
watch on television.
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"I really can't believe it's over," Davis said. "In the spring
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time, when they start to work out again and start doing their x
individuals for next season, I really don't know what I'm
going to be doing.
"It's definitely kind of exciting, but definitely very
emotional right now. I'm going to miss all the team
mates and all the coaches that've been there for me."
The quartet leaves as one of the most prolific play- /
er groups in Oregon's history.
Jackson finished with 656 points this season
and 1,970 for his career, good for second all-time.
Turn to NIT, page 14
Nyhus pitches one-hitter in sweep of Portland State
The Ducks swept Portland
State in a doubleheader at
the Vikings' Erv Lind Stadium
By Mindi Rice
Senior Sports Reporter
Ani Nyhus almost did it again.
For the second time in as many
starts, the transfer from Central Ari
zona College pitched a stellar shutout
— this time throwing a one-hitter as
the No. 17 Ducks (27-9 overall, 1-0
Pacific-10 Conference) shut out Port
land State, 1-0, in the second game of
Wednesday's
DUCK
SOFTBALL
doubleheader.
The one-hit
victory fol
lowed close on
the heels of her
no-hitter against Utah State on Saturday.
The sole hit that Nyhus allowed
was an infield single to Viking center
fielder Whitney Olsen, the lead-off
batter in the first inning of the game.
Despite giving up the hit, Nyhus
faced the minimum number of bat
ters — 21 — with the help of a double
play in the bottom of the first. She is
now 12-4 this season.
Nyhus struck out 12 in the victory,
her second consecutive start with a
double-digit strikeout performance.
In the Utah State victory, the junior
broke a 10-year-old Oregon record,
striking out 16 batters.
Offensively, The Ducks managed
four hits against Portland State pitcher
Vanessa Holm. Holm struck out 10 in
the game.
Oregon's lone run came on catcher
Jenn Poore's fifth home run of the
season. Poore was 2 for 3 in the game.
Shortstop Breanne Sabol and third
baseman Ashley Richards added Ore
gon's remaining hits.
In the first game, the Ducks' offense
came alive in the final innings.
After Oregon's Anissa Meashintub
by allowed seven hits and two runs in
five innings, the Ducks put together
three runs in the top of the sixth to
take a 3-2 lead.
With the lead, Oregon brought in
Nyhus to relieve Meashintubby. She
pitched two shutout innings, earning
her first save of the season.
The Ducks added two runs in the
top of the seventh for a 5-2 win.
Meashintubby earned the victory,
improving her record to 10-2 in her
Turn to SOFTBALL, page 14