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HE & SHE I HE & SHE II ALBANY
290 River Rd., Eugene 720 Garfield, Eugene 1-5 EXIT 233, 3404 Spicer Dr.
688-5411 345-2873 541-812-2522
1
You define the family ...
we provide the food... I
Join us for
mediterranean
cocktails!
Mediterranean Rustica
Call for reservations
2435 Hilyard ► 684-8400 ► www.iraila.com
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Feed Your Mind
(r Fill Your Belly
...without
emptying your wallet!
"Bowls, Burritos, & Beyond”
Fresh, home-made whole foods
with lots of veggie S vegan options
...mixed with goofy artwork, snappy tunes
£ an oxygen-based atmosphere
Organic Juice S Smoothie Bar
Scrumptious Home-made Vegan Baked Goods
Micro-brews on tap
760 Biair Blvd
(e 8th Ave $ Monroe, just west of downtown)
Open Mon-Sat 11-1 Opm; Sun 11-9pm 868-0668
■ Men's basketball
Erik R. Bishoff | Photographer
Superstar recruit Malik Hairston averaged 13.1 points and 5.0 rebounds per game in his debut season in Eugene. The freshman from
Detroit, Mich., earned a spot on the Pac-10 All-Freshman Team.
Inexperience drives Ducks to
season of underachievement
Oregon started the season
with high aspirations, but
couldn't meet expectations
BY JON ROETMAN
SENIOR SPORTS REPORTER
Hype.
With it comes the potential for glo
ry. Consequently, the possibility of dis
appointment lurks in the background.
The 2004-05 version of the Oregon
men’s basketball team received am
ple attention before it ever stepped
foot on McArthur Court. The Ducks
were ready to unveil their best re
cruiting class in school history. Aaron
Brooks was supposed to make a Luke
Ridnour-esque transition from his
freshman year to his sophomore
campaign as the team’s point guard,
and Ian Crosswhite was going to be
the glue holding everything together
as a dominant low-post scorer.
After Oregon defeated Southern
California in its Pacific-10 Conference
opener Dec. 31, the hype seemed jus
tified as the Ducks started the season
with a 9-1 record. The next two
months proved otherwise, however,
as competition stiffened and Oregon
(14-13 overall, 6-12 Pac-10) dropped
12 of its last 17 games.
Each member of the four-man, all
star recruiting class hit the wall at some
point. Brooks never quite matured the
way head coach Ernie Kent had hoped,
and Crosswhite was dismissed from
the team for an unspecified violation of
Athletics Department policy, after
19 games worth of underachievement.
Things got so bad down the stretch
for Oregon that it failed to qualify for
the Pac-10 Tournament. The Ducks
finished in a tie for the eighth and fi
nal spot with California, but lost in a
tiebreaker with the Golden Bears.
Road losses to Cal and Oregon
State and home losses to Washington
and Stanford were particularly
painful as Oregon let victory slip
away in a cloud of inexperience.
Oregon’s season can be viewed as
a disappointment or a building block
for a bright future.
Impressive young talent
It’s easy to see why so many ex
pected so much from a team with
five frp^hjnen, ^qphpp\ofes^ three (
Danielle Hickey | Photo editor
Oregon head coach Ernie Kent led an inexperienced Duck team this season and suffered
his first losing season in Pac-10 play in four seasons.
juniors and no seniors on its presea
son roster. The recruiting class of
swingman Malik Hairston, guards
Bryce Taylor and Chamberlain
Oguchi and forward Maarty Leunen
was a talented group expected to play
like seasoned veterans.
Most of the Ducks’ preseason hype
was a direct result of landing Hairston.
Rated the No. 7 prep recruit in the
country by Rivals, the 6-foot-6 Detroit,
Mich., native was considered the
Sqhppl’ s biggest ,recr\ii( §ince the days
of Ron Lee and Greg Ballard. Hairston
didn’t wait long to solidify himself as a
legitimate offensive threat, scoring
30 points in just 19 minutes of play
during Oregon’s exhibition opener
against Trinity Western on Nov. 7.
That would be his biggest perform
ance of the year, however, as Hairston
struggled to find his place in the
offense at times.
Hairston ended the season as the
REVIEW, pagq 5B