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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 16, 2005)
Oregon Daily Emerald Wednesday, November 16, 2005 “It's one thing to cheer for your teammates, but it’s another to go to war with your teammates. ” Oregon men’s basketball walk-on, Adrian Stelly ■ In my opinion SCOTTI. ADAMS INTENTIONAL GROUNDING A road trip into Cougar country for the ages Homer Simpson’s last reference to the col lege road trip seems appropriate to open this week’s column. “Ah, the college road-trip,” he said. “What better way to spread beer-fueled mayhem?” With that being said, let me tell you about my weekend in the Palouse. What began as an early-planned but sel dom acknowledged pipe dream to see the Ducks play Washington State on the road turned out to be one of the greatest weekends of my college career. It started with a seven hour car ride winding through 1-5,1-82,1-84 and half a dozen other highways leading to the Evergreen State. Nine friends and I crammed into a suite at the Holiday Inn in Pullman at 7:30 p.m. By then, we needed to recharge, so five of us went to Denny’s and discussed heroes of past games between the Ducks and Cougars. I couldn’t help but men tion one of the biggest Duck-killers of them all, Ryan Leaf. We headed for the front counter to pay when I noticed a familiar looking man leaning against a wall behind us sipping a beer and talking to some of his friends. He looked like Oregon quarterback Brady Leaf. Then it hit me. It was Brady’s brother Ryan Leaf, a 1997 Heisman Trophy finalist. My friends con firmed my beliefs— it was definitely him. With Cheshire Cat grins on our faces, we piled back into the suite and tapped the beer keg we smuggled into the hotel, and the countdown to kickoff started. We spent the next day watching football before heading to Martin Stadium. The game was unbeliev able but even more so were my peers and I, who did not talk smack to the Cougar faith ful until they drew first blood. They fired the first shot, informing us that No. 11 Oregon sucks. It was on. We yelled everything we had at the them. I was pretty creative at times, yelling “No sales tax,” or “0-8 ain’t so great!” When it was over, we cheered with the vic torious Oregon players, some of whom I used to pass on the way to class in Barnhart Hall. Our cries lofted into the frosty Pullman night. We hoped they’d be loud enough to reach the ears of the BCS head honchos. We gave the Washington State fans a cou ple more rants as we left Martin Stadium. “If you don’t have conference wins I feel bad for you son; we got 99 problems, but we’re 9-1! ” we yelled. There’s nothing like the sound of rhythm challenged Caucasian males trying to rap. The drive home Sunday started with a wrong turn we noticed while passing a “Wel come to Idaho” sign on the highway. A little detour never hurt anyone just like a college road trip. For the cleaning crew that ventured into room 209 Sunday, you have my sympathy. sadams@dailyemerald. com ■ Men's basketball recap Ducks win in final exhibition, 84-66 Malik Hairston contributes a double-double in Oregon's win over Oregon Tech Tuesday night BY LUKE ANDREWS SPORTS REPORTER After Oregon’s opening exhibition victory against Southern Oregon last Wednesday, coach Ernie Kent was adamant about the im provements his team will make on the defen sive end in subsequent practices. That didn’t bode well for visiting Oregon Tech on Tuesday night as the Ducks’ defense hounded the Owls en route to an 84-66 win in front of 8,818 at McArthur Court. Oregon, playing in primarily a half-court trapping defense, forced 19 Owl turnovers and held them to 38.7 percent shooting from the field. Point guard Aaron Brooks led the Ducks with five of the team’s 10 steals. “I thought we did a much better job,” Kent said of the defense. “We’ve got a chance to be a really good defensive team if we continue to work in that direction.” Sophomore guard Malik Hairston recorded a double-double with 19 points and 11 re bounds and Oregon, after a three by sopho more forward Maarty Leunen, used an early 13-0 run to take command. Leunen finished with 12 points. The Ducks led 44-30 at the half after utiliz ing their inside height advantage. Oregon out rebounded Oregon Tech 20-12 in the first half and 41-28 for the game. The Ducks also outscored the Owls 48-24 in the paint. Oregon shot only 10 three-pointers compared with Oregon Tech’s 21. “Coach is really emphasizing that we need to go inside-out,” Leunen said. “It will help the perimeter guys more because the defense will collapse and then we get dribble penetration.” The Ducks built on the 14-point halftime lead and held their largest lead at 82-56 with three minutes remaining in the second half before eventually pulling out the 84-66 win. “I think we came out with a lot more ener gy, a lot more intense,” Hairston said. “I think we saw flashes of what this team can do.” Andre Lawrence, a senior guard from Port land, had a game-high 30 points on 12 of 27 shooting to lead the Owls. “He’s creative, worked hard, and he’s good at shot faking,” Leunen said of Lawrence. “He just hustled and got his points.” Oregon’s newest member, Ivan Johnson, again had another statistically solid game down low for the Ducks. In 17 minutes, John son finished with 10 points on five of 10 shooting and had two steals. He had a team high 14 points in Oregon’s opening exhibition Oregon’s Malik Hairston led the Ducks to an 84-66 exhibition win over Oregon Tech Tuesday. Hairston recorded a game-high 19 points and 11 rebounds. Zanf. Rrrr | Photographer game victory against Southern Oregon in 20 minutes of action. “He has a high basketball IQ, but he needs to grasp the total concept of what it means to play at this level,” Kent said. “There’s proba bly about eight or nine plays that he’s com fortable with ... but he’s done a good job with it so far. ” The Ducks still have work cut out for them before the season officially starts on Sunday against Savannah State. Oregon turned the ball over 16 times on TUesday. “We’re going to have some turnovers with how fast we play,” Kent said. “I didn’t think they were bad the first half, but all-in-all, those are things we can still clean up.” Oregon and Savannah State tip off at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday at McArthur Court. The game begins a streak of three consecutive at home in as many nights for the Ducks, which includes Bowie State on Monday and Pacific on TUesday. “We’re definitely ready,” Leunen said. “The season begins. The games really count. For us to get where we want to be, we have to come ready to play and get these games.” landrews @ dailyemerald. com ■ Club men's lacrosse Oregon finishes successful fall season After posting a 2-1 mark in the fall's final tournament, Oregon's lacrosse club will begin training in preparation for the spring season BY WILL SEYMOUR FREELANCE REPORTER The University men’s lacrosse club finished its fall exhibition season Nov. 12-13, facing tough competition at a six-team tournament at California State University in Chico, Calif. The Ducks finished the weekend with a 2-1 record. Oregon now looks to use this fall’s experience to protect its high national ranking and to pro pel the team into winter training before the reg ular season begins. The field at the Chico State Fall Tournament was split into two pools of three teams, and the Ducks were placed in the tougher of the two. The title of favorite, both in the pool and in the tournament, belonged to Sonoma State Univer sity, a team that finished as runner-up in last year’s national tournament. “They’re a perennial top-five team,” senior goalie Nathan Cordova said. Oregon, which finished in sixth place at that same national tournament, eagerly anticipated this marquee match-up that kicked off its weekend. Playing stop-time halves instead of the usual quarters, the Ducks drew first blood when junior Julian Coffman took a pass from midfielder Matt Connors and buried the ball in the net for a 1-0 lead. Sonoma scored the next two goals only to see Oregon junior Scott Miller pick off a clearing pass and punish the Seawolves with a tying goal. The Ducks’ momentum contin ued when Josh Schane tallied the third score of the afternoon, helped by Connors’ second assist of the afternoon. The Seawolves then showed why they are a team to be reckoned with, as they scored the final four goals en route to a 6-3 final. Although disappointed with the final result against Sonoma, Oregon took some positives away from its encounter. “We mentally got over Sonoma,” coach Joe Kerwin said. “It showed we can compete.” Kerwin was also impressed by his team’s overall speed and athleticism, which he credit ed to conditioning. On the other hand, Kerwin cited a lack of finished opportunities and porous transition defense as the cause of the Ducks’ downfall. LACROSSE, page 8
