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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2019 BAKER CITY HERALD — 5A OREGON MEN’S BASKETBALL PREVIEW Retooled Ducks look to avoid another slow start WORLD SERIES GAME 7 ■ Oregon advanced to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tourney last spring but the Ducks struggled during the Pac-12 season By Anne M. Peterson AP Sports Writer Elsa /Getty Images-TNS The Washington Nationals celebrate after defeating the Houston Astros, 6-2, in Game 7 of the World Series at Minute Maid Park in Houston on Wednesday. Home Sweet Road ■ Washington Nationals rally past Houston Astros, 6-2, to win franchise’s first World Series in an unprecedented series in which the visiting team won all seven games the Senators in 1924. This franchise started out as the HOUSTON — Stephen Strasburg Montreal Expos in 1969 when the major paraded the MVP trophy for delirious fans leagues expanded beyond the border, put- packed behind the dugout. Max Scherzer ting a team with tricolor caps at jaunty tearfully hugged his teammates. Gerardo Jarry Park. They moved to D.C. in 2005, Parra did the Baby Shark chop, Sean ending Washington’s three-decade-plus Doolittle fl apped snow angels next to the wait for big league baseball after the Sena- mound. tors skipped town to become the Texas Almost out of contention in May, champs Rangers. in October. But the incredible path these wild-card Howie Kendrick, Anthony Rendon and Nationals with the curly W logo took, well, the Washington Nationals completed their no one could have imagined. amazing comeback journey — fi ttingly with Because in one topsy-turvy week, they one last late rally on the road. put aside the pain of past playoff failures In Game 7 of the World Series, no less. and upended heavily favored Houston. Kendrick and Rendon homered in the Quite an ending to a season that began seventh inning as the Nationals overcame back in February with the Nationals and a two-run defi cit, rocking the Houston Astros working out side-by-side at the Astros 6-2 Wednesday night to win the fi rst spring training complex they share in title in franchise history. Florida. With all eyes on Scherzer and his “Resilient, relentless bunch of guys,” remarkable recovery after a painkilling manager Dave Martinez said. “They fought injection, these Nationals truly embraced all year long.” their shot in the only Series when the road Having lost star slugger Bryce Harper team won every game. in free agency and beset by bullpen woes, Even more against the odds: Juan Soto Washington plummeted to 19-31 in late and Washington came from behind to win May. It got so bad there was talk the Na- fi ve elimination games this postseason, an tionals might fi re Martinez and trade away unprecedented feat. Scherzer. “What a story,” said Ryan Zimmerman, Instead, they stuck with the mantra that the only player who’s been a part of every sprung up on T-shirts — Stay In The Fight. Nationals team. “That was our motto,” Scherzer said. “The way this game went is the way our And months later they fi nished it, indeed. whole season went.” Shut out on one hit by Zack Greinke go- Strasburg, new lefty Patrick Corbin and ing into the seventh, they still found a way the Nats brought the fi rst World Series to win. championship to the nation’s capital since See Series/Page 6A ol’ Walter Johnson delivered the crown for By Ben Walker AP Baseball Writer Payton Pritchard wants Oregon to dominate from the start this year. The Ducks are No. 15 in the AP preseason poll. They were ranked at the start of last season, too, but before their surprising run in the NCAA Tournament they had a number of early losses that dropped the team out of the Top 25. They fi nished 25-13 overall and 10-8 in the Pac-12. This season, the Ducks don’t want to be a surprise. “We’re really motivated for this year because I felt like last year, I guess my last two seasons, my sophomore and junior seasons, we played down in the regular season,” Pritchard said. “Defi nitely didn’t play how we wanted to and fi nish how we wanted to, so we’re looking forward to the beginning of this season. We kind of want to make a statement and change the narrative of how it’s been lately.” Oregon rebounded last season by winning the Pac-12 tournament for an NCAA berth, then defeated Wiscon- sin and UC Irvine as a No. 12 seed before falling to Virginia in the Sweet 16. This season the Ducks were selected to win the Pac-12 title in the preseason media poll. But they’ll have a decidedly new look. Oregon returns just three scholarship players from last season’s team: Pritchard, Will Richardson and Francis Okoro. Starters Kenny Woo- ten, Paul White and Louis King have all moved on. Oregon landed some high-profi le prospects with a recruiting class considered among the top fi ve nationally, including 6-foot-11 center N’Faly Dante from Kansas and 6-foot-9 power forward C.J. Walker from Florida. Also joining the Ducks is national junior college player of the year Chris Duarte. Shakur Juiston and Anthony Mathis are graduate transfers. The newcomers will work around Pritchard, who aver- aged 12.9 points, 4.6 assists and 3.9 rebounds last year and was named the Pac-12 tournament’s most outstand- Michael Conroy / Associated Press fi le photo Payton Pritchard returns for his senior season with the Oregon Ducks men’s basketball team. DEPARTURES Heralded recruit Bol Bol left Oregon after just one season, during which he was limited to just nine games be- cause of a foot injury. The son of the late Manute Bol was a second-round pick in the NBA draft and is currently on a two-way contract with the Denver Nuggets. Louis King played just one season at Oregon as a fresh- man before declaring for the draft, but he was not selected CLOSING IN and is now on a two-way Pritchard is closing in on deal with the Detroit Pistons. several Oregon records his Kenny Wooten, who was a senior season. If all goes well, sophomore last season, also he should leave the Ducks declared and went undrafted. as the career leader in as- Picked up by the Knicks, he sists, steals, wins and career was waived before the start of the NBA season. games played. With 1,803 career points, he likely won’t break Ron Lee’s career record THE WAITING IS THE HARDEST PART (2,085) but could surpass Dante won’t be able to play Luke Jackson for second right away because he was place. not cleared in time by the “To watch Payton grow NCAA after graduating early over four years, he was our point guard on our Final Four and reclassifying as a 2019 team, and last year really ex- signee in August. He has ploded to take us to the Sweet said he’ll enroll for the winter term on Dec. 14, which means 16. He’s a talented young he’ll miss at least nine games. man that’s driven,” Altman said. “He works very hard at A native of Mali who has a 7-foot-5 wingspan, Dante his game. You love players chose Oregon over Kentucky. like that.” ing player. He went through the NBA draft process after last season but ultimately decided to stay at Oregon for his senior year. “We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of new play- ers. I think they’re talented and are a good group, but we’ve got a lot of new faces to try to blend together and try to get to work together,” said Oregon coach Dana Altman, who is in his 10th season. OREGON STATE MEN’S BASKETBALL PREVIEW Tinkle returns with high hopes By Anne M. Peterson AP Sports Writer Wayne and Tres Tinkle are looking to make their last father-and-son season at Oregon State memorable. Tres Tinkle, the son of head coach Wayne Tinkle, is a se- nior this year. He considered leaving for the NBA in the off- season but ultimately decided to return to the Beavers. That means he’ll have one more chance to do something with his dad that Oregon State hasn’t managed since his fi rst year: Make the NCAA Tournament. But fi rst, a Pac-12 title is on Tres Tinkle’s wish list. “All that stuff is kind of why I came back,” he said. “I think this is our best chance with this group of guys to do something like that.” Tinkle averaged 20.8 points, 8.1 rebounds and 3.8 assists last season, when the Beavers fi nished 18-13 overall and 10-8 in the Pac- 12 — their best fi nish in the league since 1989-90. Oregon State fell to Colorado in the quarterfi nals of the Pac-12 tournament to cap the season. The younger Tinkle has moved beyond thinking he has to “prove it up” because he’s the coach’s kid, his dad said. “The way he’s approached his teammates and the way he’s approached his leader- ship has shown great matu- rity,” Wayne Tinkle said. The Tinkles aren’t the only family in the Oregon State program. Ethan Thompson, the son of assistant Stephen Thompson, is a junior this season. Older brother Stevie graduated last year. Like Tres Tinkle, the younger Thompson also con- sidered the draft. “It’s hard when you’ve got guys like, ‘OK, now I’m going to test the waters,’ and you worry about what that does to your locker room. But I thought both Ethan and Tres showed great maturity in that they still worked with their teams, when we met to work out, and then they did what they had to do on the side to prepare for that experience,” Coach Tinkle said. Tinkle and Thompson are joined on the roster by senior Kylor Kelley. Four freshmen and three junior college trans- fers are newcomers to the team. Among them is 7-foot-1 post Roman Silva out of San Bernardino College. The Beavers were picked to fi nish seventh in the league in the Pac-12 preseason media poll. Rival Oregon was picked to fi nish fi rst. FAB FROSH Freshman Jarod Lucas is already turning heads. The 6-foot-3 guard set 15 school re- cords at Los Altos High School in Hacienda Heights, Cali- fornia, starting every game in four years. He set a CIF Southern Section record with 3,356 career points, which was the third-most points in state history. “He can put it in the basket. We didn’t shoot it particularly well last year, and he’s one guy that we think brings that, and the surprise has been his toughness and his IQ to pick up our concepts on the de- fensive end, and so that more than just rolling him out there to make shots I think is going to give him an early shot,” coach Tinkle said. THE LAST DANCE Tres Tinkle didn’t play as a freshman when the Beavers last made the NCAA Tourna- ment in 2016 because of a foot injury. The Beavers fell to VCU 75-67 in the opening round. Gary Payton II was a senior that year. COMING BACK While his son is moving on, Wayne Tinkle appears to be staying put. He signed a one-year contract extension in the offseason that keeps him at Oregon State through the 2022-23 season. GELLING The Beavers played a pair of exhibition games this season to help the new players integrate. Oregon State beat Carroll College 79-60 on Oct. 23, and beat Warner Pacifi c 96-45 on Tuesday night. “We felt like the more op- portunities to get our guys to be introduced, to play in front of a crowd, will help us get out of the gate when we’re playing in earnest,” Wayne Tinkle said. Nick Daschel / The Oregonian Oregon State junior Ethan Thompson, left, and senior Tres Tinkle represented the Beavers at Pac-12 men’s basketball media day. 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