Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 13, 2021)
FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT A5 S PORTS THE BULLETIN • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2021 bendbulletin.com/sports COLLEGE BASKETBALL Oregon Ducks men pause activities The No. 22 Oregon men’s basketball team has been put on pause after a positive COVID-19 test within the program, a source within the pro- gram said on Tuesday. The Ducks’ games at Matthew Knight Arena against Arizona State on Thursday and Arizona on Saturday have been post- poned. Both games were going to be televised na- tionally on ESPN. Stadium’s Jeff Good- man was first to report Oregon’s positive test. Oregon (9-2, 4-1 Pac- 12) is tied for second place in the conference standings and is coming off a win last Saturday against Utah when it ral- lied from a 10-point half- time deficit to win 79-73. The Ducks’ next game now is scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday at home against Pac-12 leader UCLA, a game that was supposed to be played Dec. 23 but was post- poned when a member of the officiating crew tested positive for COVID-19. Oregon isn’t the only program in the confer- ence dealing with corona- virus postponements. The No. 10 Duck women had Sunday’s road game against Ari- zona State called off due to the Sun Devils program going on pause. Oregon is still scheduled to play at No. 11 Arizona on Thurs- day. The Oregon State women haven’t played since Dec. 19 as they post- poned five straight con- ference games due to an outbreak on its team. The Beavers are expected to resume playing this week but will miss their sixth straight game Thursday when they were sched- uled to play Arizona State. The Oregon State men’s team went on pause last week and missed their road games at Utah and Colorado. They also had games against USC (Dec. 20) and Stanford (Dec. 31) post- poned. The Beavers are back playing this week start- ing with an 8 p.m. game Thursday against Arizona in Corvallis. Prep Football Season remains uncertain Bulletin file photo In this photo from the 2019 high school football season, Mountain View’s Keenan Harpole breaks a tackle by Summit’s Joe Cross. Unless the OHA changes stance on football, start of the already condensed high school season could be in jeopardy BY BRIAN RATHBONE The Bulletin I n a little more than three weeks, high school football teams in Oregon are scheduled to open practices to begin officially preparing for contests the week of March 1. While football is scheduled to start practice be- fore the other traditional fall sports, the issue is that football remains a prohibited sport. So unless the Oregon Health Authority changes its stance on foot- ball, the start of the already condensed season could remain in jeopardy. Mountain View High School football coach Brian Crum joined the Bulletin Sports Talk to discuss the state of high school football in Oregon. “The analogy that I use is that we have continued to kick the can down the road of whether it is sus- pension of a season, or moving beyond, or canceling COLLEGE FOOTBALL of spring sports, or condensing of seasons,” Crum said. “As we get to January 2021, I think all thought we would have played by now, but we haven’t. See Uncertain / A6 The wait is almost over for teams that missed the playoffs NFL Seahawks fire OC Schottenheimer — Associated Press For the complete interview with Mountain View High School football coach Brian Crum, visit bendbulletin. com/sports. NHL — The Register-Guard RENTON, Wash. — The Seattle Seahawks fired of- fensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer on Tues- day following a season in which the team set sev- eral offensive records but coach Pete Carroll had clear issues with how the offense operated. Seattle announced the move, citing “philo- sophical differences.” The Seahawks had the high- est-scoring team in fran- chise history, Russell Wil- son threw a career-high 40 touchdowns in the regular season, and wide receivers DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett both set club records for receiving. Still, the Seahawks re- gressed offensively in the second half of the season, and Wilson and Carroll both made comments following Seattle’s 30-20 playoff loss to the Los An- geles Rams that indicated concerns with the lack of adjustments by the of- fense late in the season. Schottenheimer, 47, completed his third sea- son with the Seahawks after previously serving as the offensive coordinator of the New York Jets and St. Louis Rams. Full Interview BY TOM CANAVAN Associated Press Leon Neuschwander/For The Oregonian/TNS Oregon State quarterback Tristan Gebbia was one of five transfers to start for the Beavers during the 2020 season. Oregon State plans to use the transfer portal as part of a long-term strategy BY NICK DASCHEL The Oregonian Is mining the NCAA trans- fer portal for players a good way for Oregon State to build its football program, or does it make sense as a long-term strategy in combination with high school recruiting? It’s a complicated question for Beavers coach Jonathan Smith. Only five to 10 FBS schools consistently have success load- ing up on four and five-star high school recruits. Ore- gon State is not one of those schools, and is unlikely ever to be among that group. Enter the transfer portal. In October 2018, the NCAA made it as easy as ever for ath- letes to transfer schools. They simply fill out the NCAA paperwork to enter the portal, which allows other schools to contact the ath- lete regarding their interest in transferring. See Oregon State / A7 NEWARK, N.J. — Jack Hughes of the New Jersey Devils hadn’t had a layoff like this since … ever? The wait is almost over for NHL teams that missed playoffs. More than 100 NHL players from New Jersey, Buf- falo, Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Jose, Ottawa, and Detroit have not played a meaningful hockey game since the league paused play in early March because of the pandemic. Ten long months. “I don’t think I’ve had, I guess, 10 months of no games my whole life,” said the 19-year-old Hughes, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 draft. “So, obviously, something new. But I mean, games are like riding a bike, you could say. If you’re a hockey player, it’s something that comes nat- urally.” It has been an eternity for Hughes and the rest in a sport predicated on rhythm, repetition and teamwork, a boring stretch unimaginable to athletes whose lives have followed a schedule that has rarely changed for years. As kids, they played pee- wee hockey at all hours of the day. When the rink wasn’t available, the pond was. The long rides to tournaments, the steady drumbeat of practices and workouts. Most of all, there were games. The games finally return for everyone with a com- pressed 56-game season that begins this week. It will be a fresh start for the 24 teams that made the postseason when play resumed Aug. 11. It will be something more than that to the other seven whose players had weeks on end without hockey. Hughes spent time in Mich- igan to work out with his brothers, Quinn of the Van- couver Canucks and Luke, one of the top prospects in juniors. He spent five days a week in the gym and focused on eat- ing healthy to add 14 pounds to his 165-pound frame. Jack Eichel of the Sabres spent a lot of time reflecting on how fast his first five years in the NHL went. Kyle Palm- ieri of the Devils returned to his family’s farming roots and grew a garden (he said the carrots needed more pa- tience). Other players took up hob- bies or pumped iron, skated when they could and simply let their bodies heal at a lei- surely rate. Devils center Tra- vis Zajac, 35, said he felt great a week into camp. What’s uncertain is how the teams coming back from the hiatus will perform. Will they be fresher? A step slow? “I think that’s the mil- lion-dollar question that everybody’s searching for,” said Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson, who joined the league in 2009. “But at the end of the day, we don’t have much of a choice. It’s what we’re going to have to do. I think that we’re going to nav- igate through it the best way that we think we know how.” Sabres defenseman Jake McCabe said the last 10 months were like an extended “Groundhog Day,” filled over and over with uncertainty and concerns. There were good times, too. He and his wife, Gaby, had a baby girl in April so they had a chance to watch her grow together. “She’s already eight months old, which reminds me just how long we’ve been in this pandemic,” McCabe said. “Now she finally gets to see what her dad does for work so that’ll be fun to get back on the ice. It really is crazy how long it’s been.” During the pause, the Kings sent five players to Germany and had a couple of prospects playing in Sweden. See NHL / A6