Sports
Oregon Daily Emerald
Thesday, February 1, 2005
“Wow, he’s been on our side all night!”
Bulls announcer Johnny Kerr after an airball by Boston Celtic Mark Blount during
Blount’s Jan. 19 triple-zero (0 points, 0 blocks and 0 rebounds in 22 minutes)
■ In my opinion
a
CLAYTON JONES
SEVENTH INNING STRETCH
Options are
running out
for Oregon's
lollygaggers
As the Oregon men’s basketball team’s sea
son is in a tailspin going into the second half of
the Pacific-10 Conference season, a great scene
from a baseball classic, “Bull Durham,” came
to mind, but in a little different manner.
Imagine head coach Ernie Kent and assis
tant coach Fred Litzenberger in the locker
room talking to the team after the first half of
the Stanford game:
Kent: “You guys... you lollygag the ball around
the perimeter. You lollygag your way down on de
fense. You lollygag in and out of the lineup. Do
you know what that makes you? Litz...”
Litz: “Lollygaggers!”
Kent: “Lollygaggers.”
At least that’s how I saw it in my mind after
the horrible thumping they took Saturday.
So what’s going wrong?
Oregon has tried lineup changes, different
defenses and shifting more or less players in
and out of games. None of them has worked.
As I watched the game against Stanford, I
struck up a conversation with a guy who had
gone to high school at Churchill back in the
1970s when Kent was one of the Kamikaze
Kids. He told me back in those days, teams
scored their points by creating turnovers. He
said this season’s team doesn’t do that.
He’s right.
Turnovers lead to fast breaks.
Fast breaks lead to easy baskets.
Easy baskets lead to more points.
More points lead to more wins.
Oregon has seen other teams take away its
fast break opportunities, and that’s when we
see the Ducks just stand around and hope to get
a decent shot.
And “hope” is the key word. Look at the oth
er teams in the Pac-10. They get plenty of de
cent looks at the basket because they work for a
good or great look. Oregon’s offense has been
about as stale as day-old popcorn and doesn’t
seem to be getting better.
Speaking of not getting better, Ian Crosswhite
appears to be pressing more and more with
each game. He seems to play hard in spurts, but
something is missing. Whatever it is, Oregon
hopes he finds it soon.
One bright spot during the Ducks’ skid is the
play of freshman phenom Malik Hairston. He
has upped his scoring average to almost
13 points a game and is shooting more than
52 percent from the field. With his recent suc
cess, Oregon needs to get him the ball more.
He’s only taking, on average, 10 shots per game.
The former high school McDonald’s All-Ameri
can should be getting more shots (I say 20). Ore
gon needs a go-to scorer they can count on for of
fensive output and to take pressure off point
guard Aaron Brooks, and that guy is Hairston.
With nine games left in the season, the Ducks
are riding dangerously low in the standings.
With a tough Oregon State team waiting
for them Saturday in Corvallis and the Wash
ington schools on the horizon next week, the
Ducks might not be fighting for an NCAA
Tournament or NIT bid, but rather a
conference tournament bid.
claytonjon.es @ daily emerald, com
■ Duck soccer
Former PSU coach to lead Oregon
BY BEAU EASTES
DAILY EMERALD FREELANCE REPORTER
After resurrecting a perennial doormat in the
Big Sky Conference, Tara Erickson hopes to do
much of the same in the Pacific-10 Conference.
Erickson, Portland State’s head coach for
the past four years, was announced as the
new Oregon women’s head soccer coach
Monday afternoon.
The 31-year-old replaces Bill Steffen, who re
signed last fall following a 49-107-14 record in
nine seasons in Eugene.
Erickson, the Big Sky Coach of the Year in
2002, led the Vikings to a 29-38-10 record in her
four years at Portland State.
She was a two-time All-Pac-10 selection
during a standout playing career at Washing
ton. After graduating in 1996 with a degree
in communications, Erickson assisted the
women’s team through 1999 and assisted the
men’s program in 2000.
In accepting the Portland State head coaching
job, Erickson took over a team that had gone
5-31 the previous two seasons, including an
0-18 campaign in 2000. Following a one-win in
augural season, Erickson led the Vikings to a
13-5-4 record and a spot in the Big Sky Confer
ence tournament finals in 2002.
At Oregon, Erickson inherits a Duck team in
similar disarray. The Ducks finished 2004 with
a 3-13-3 record, including a 0-7-2 record in
Pac-10 play. Furthermore, the Ducks were the
Pac-lO’s lowest scoring team, netting only four
Geoff Thurner | Oregon Media Services
Tara Erickson, Oregon’s new women’s soccer head coach, was introduced to the media Monday. The former
standout player at Washington comes to the Ducks after four seasons as Portland State’s head coach.
goals in their nine conference games.
On the bright side, Erickson will have 22 of 25
players returning, including she of the eight top
goal scorers for the Ducks. Also, several under
classmen, including five freshmen, saw quality
minutes last fall due to a rash of injuries: At
times, the Ducks were without six starters.
Erickson’s familiarity with the Northwest
should play a key role in recruiting within the
SOCCER, page 6
Lauren Wimer | Senior photographer
Sophomore Tommy Skipper, seen here last spring, won the pole vault event at
the Athletes.com Invitational this weekend, out-vaulting all other competitors
by at least a foot with a mark of 18 feet, 6 1/2 inches.
■ Duck track and field
Skipper, Logsdon
earn automatic
qualifying bids
Four other Oregon athletes earn provisional NCAA
qualifying marks at their respective indoor events
BY BEAU HASTES
DAILY EMERALD FREELANCE REPORTER
Spread across the Northwest, six
Oregon indoor track and field ath
letes took home NCAA provisional
or automatic qualifying marks
this weekend.
In Nampa, Idaho, at the
Athletes.com Invitational, sophomore
Tommy Skipper easily cleared the
NCAA automatic qualifying mark of
18 feet, 1/2 inch by vaulting 18-6 1/2,
a full foot higher than the next vaulter
at the Idaho Sports Center.
“I was pleased to come in and
compete right away,” said the 2004
NCAA outdoor pole vaulting cham
pion. “But technically, I made too
many mistakes.”
Skipper, who made his winning
height of 18-6 1/2 on his second
attempt, missed three tries at 19 1/4.
“Tommy had a great shot at
nineteen feet, but barely knocked it
off on his way down,” Oregon pole
vault coach Mark Vanderville said.
“He dropped his legs a little too soon
and hit the bar on the way up. ”
Sprinters Kedar Inico and Matt
Scherer also qualified for the NCAA
Indoor Championships, which will be
held in March, earning provisional
marks in the 400 meters. Senior Inico
took home the gold with a 46.95-sec
ond sprint, just ahead of junior Scher
er, who ran a 47.04.
Inico’s time was the second
fastest all-time Oregon indoor
400-meter mark, 0.54 seconds off
Scherer’s record run last year. Both
runners easily bested the NCAA
provisional mark (47.25) and were
within one second of the automatic
qualifying time (46.05).
“The sprinters have looked good,”
assistant coach Dan Steele said.
TRACK, page 6
IN BRIEF
Oregon's Davis named
Pac-10 Player of the Week
Oregon senior guard Brandi Davis has
been named U.S. Bank Pacific-10 Conference
Women’s Basketball Player of the Week for
Jan. 24-30.
The La Habra, Calif., native averaged
21 points and 2.5 rebounds in a combined
52 minutes of play off the bench as Oregon
swept the Southern California schools at home.
For the weekend, she shot 51.9 percent from
the field (14-of-27) and 47.6 percent from be
hind the three-point line (10-of-21), propelling
the Ducks to a 6-0 conference record at home.
In Oregon’s 78-71 victory over UCLA on
Jan. 27, Davis came off the bench to score a
career-high 28 points on 10 of 19 shooting, in
cluding 6-of-13 from three-point range in
27 minutes of play. Davis’ first points came with
3:13 left in the first half, scoring the Ducks’ final
11 points of the half to give Oregon a 33-31
advantage heading into intermission. In the
second half, with the Ducks up by one, Davis
hit a pair of three-pointers and made a layup,
giving Oregon a 10-point lead with 8:14 left,
a lead they would never relinquish.
In the Ducks’ 81-59 win over USC on Jan. 29,
Davis again came off the bench to score
14 points on 4 of 8 shooting from beyond the
three-point line.
The weekly honor is the first of Davis' career
and the second for the Ducks this season. Ore
gon senior Andrea Bills received the award for
the week of Dec. 30.
— Brian Smith