THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021 A7
MEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL | OREGON STATE BEAVERS
DEAR ABBY
Write to Dear Abby online at dearabby.com
or by mail at P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069
Dear Abby: My grand-
daughter just informed me
she has decided she would be
happier living as a boy, and
she has gone so far as to le-
gally change her name.
I want to be supportive,
but I admit I’m having a lot
of trouble accepting it, or at
least figuring out how to deal
with it.
She’s my only grandchild
and most likely the only one
I’ll ever have. I loved my
granddaughter with all my
heart, and I don’t know how
to shift gears to a grandson.
I keep stumbling when I
try to use the new name. I
would welcome any sugges-
tions you could make, in-
cluding information about
support groups you might
know of.
— Grandma in Pain
Dear Grandma: Gender
reassignment is not some-
thing that someone does on
a lark. There are many steps
involved, and the journey,
while liberating, can be chal-
lenging both physically and
emotionally.
I am sure this is something
your grandchild has given
much thought to.
Yes, coming to terms with
it can be as much of a jour-
ney for family as it is for the
transgender person, and it
can take time and under-
standing on all sides.
A group called PFLAG
can help you through this. It
has been mentioned in my
column for decades. It has
helped countless families to
build bridges of understand-
ing between themselves and
their lesbian, gay and trans-
gender loved ones.
Please don’t wait to contact
them. You will find PFLAG
at pflag.org, and their phone
number is (202) 467-8180.
Dear Abby: I am a 50-year-
old man. My whole life, my
relationship with my father
has been strained.
When I was in my teens
and 20s, when he bought
presents for my two siblings
and not for me, he would say
things to me like, “I forgot I
had you.”
In spite of this, I became
very successful in life. I had
a great career and am now
retired.
My father recently an-
nounced to me that he had
made only two mistakes
in his life — marrying my
mother, who has put up with
him for more than 60 years,
and having children.
My dilemma is, he is now
90 years old and has many
health problems. He is in
the hospital now for a heart
problem.
I know he won’t last much
longer. I feel nothing for him,
and I am not sad. When he
dies, I know I won’t care. Is
this normal? I feel guilty for
feeling this way.
— Don’t Care in Tennessee
Dear Don’t Care: Please
don’t feel guilty for feeling no
regret at the prospect of “los-
ing” a cruel and withholding
parent who made it his busi-
ness to make those around
him feel “less than.”
Do not be surprised if,
rather than feel a sense of
loss, you feel at peace, as
though a weight has been
lifted from your shoulders.
You should not feel guilty
for that, either. Comfort and
emotionally support your
mother as best you can when
he dies, but don’t be shocked
if she, too, feels some relief.
Their union could not have
been the happiest.
YOUR HOROSCOPE
By Madalyn Aslan
Stars show the kind of day you’ll have
õ õ õ õ õ DYNAMIC | õ õ õ õ POSITIVE | õ õ õ AVERAGE | õ õ SO-SO | õ DIFFICULT
HAPPY BIRTHDAY FOR THURSDAY, FEB. 25, 2021: Giving,
intuitive and powerful, you lead an active unconscious life 4 thus sleep is
very important to you, including dream time. This year, you manifest a dream
you have, and it is tremendously successful. Trust yourself. If single, vibrant
feelings of passion and a creative spirit lead you to your mate. If attached,
astounding spiritual insights develop with your partner this year. You decide
to work together. PISCES is deeply psychic.
ARIES (March 21-April 19)
õõõõ Today encourages you to splurge or take a gamble. Do enjoy some
special goodies or luxuries in moderation, but don9t go to extremes. You9ll
realize that there is so much to appreciate and be thankful for. Tonight: Catch
up with an old lover.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
õõ Work out anger issues with family members. Compromise is the solu-
tion to domestic conflicts. Your residence might need some maintenance.
Patiently work out differences and make much needed repairs. Shop for the
best prices. Tonight: A long and arduous family dinner.
Will OSU’s Ethan Thompson finally be
recognized for his statistical excellence?
BY NICK DASCHEL
The Oregonian
Is this the year Oregon State’s Ethan
Thompson breaks through and earns Pac-
12 all-conference recognition?
The senior guard has 116 starts during
his OSU career. If Thompson starts the fi-
nal four regular season games and the Pac-
12 tournament, he’ll break the school re-
cord of 120 held by Gary Payton.
Thompson has never missed a college
game. He’ll likely finish third in career
minutes and assists. Thompson is among
OSU’s career top 10 in field goals, free
throws and three-pointers made and at-
tempted, and points.
Statistically, Thompson is one of the best
players in Oregon State history.
Yet during his first three years at OSU,
Thompson never earned as much as hon-
orable mention all-conference. Not even a
mention on the all-freshman team in 2018.
Heading into the penultimate week of
regular season play when Oregon State
plays at California and Stanford, there’s rea-
son to believe Thompson is worthy of post-
season recognition.
The 6-foot-5 Thompson is averaging a
career-high 16.2 points a game this season.
He leads the Beavers in assists and steals.
Thompson is among the Pac-12’s top 15 in
seven different statistical categories.
Good enough for some all-conference
love?
Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle points
Ducks
Continued from A5
“Fortunately we’ve had
something to play for every
year and so the guys have ral-
lied around that and been un-
selfish and we’ve found ways
to get a little better. I’m hoping
this group will be the same.
“The difference this year is
we’re getting healthy at the right
time. We hopefully won’t have
any more of those darn pauses
that shuts down for 8-9 days
and we can’t practice. If we can
finish the last four weeks of the
season here and stay healthy,
not have any more pauses, get
Eric (Williams Jr.) healthy, then
physically we’re in the best
shape that we’ve been and that
will definitely help. Then hope-
fully the unselfishness and the
team goals will be there.”
It’s also what made Monday’s
72-58 loss at USC so hard to
understand. Oregon entered
the game riding a five-game
win streak, though the prior
three wins came by a combined
nine points, and with Williams
back on the court and play-
ing significant minutes off the
bench the Ducks the healthiest
they’ve been all season.
A 15-0 Trojans run com-
Courtesy Oregon State Athletics
Oregon State’s Ethan Thompson goes up for a
dunk against Utah on Feb. 18. Thompson led
all players in points (25) and assists (8) in the
Beavers’ 74-56 rout of the Utes.
to expectations. The Beavers were picked to
finish last of 12 in the Pac-12 in the presea-
son poll. They’re currently seventh with a
chance to finish as high as fifth.
“You have to give him a lot of credit for
that, his leadership, and what he brings de-
fensively and offensively,” Tinkle said.
Thompson’s shooting percentage is a lit-
tle down from a year ago, but Tinkle says
unlike last season, he’s usually the focus of
the opposing defense. But during the past
month, Tinkle said Thompson now starts
games by thinking playmaking first and
scoring later.
“He really listened to coaching on the
importance of setting the table for others
and how that makes him that much more
difficult to guard,” Tinkle said.
Defensively, Thompson is often assigned
to the opponent’s best guard. It’s one rea-
son Oregon State leads the Pac-12 and is
among the country’s top 20 in three-point
shooting defense.
“He’s much, much better on the ball de-
fensively and understanding how to use his
length and keep in front of guys,” Tinkle
said.
Thompson landed second-team honors
on the preseason all-conference team. At a
minimum, he’s under consideration for a
post-season Pac-12 honor.
There are a number of givens for the 10-
man first team: Arizona State’s Remy Mar-
tin, Stanford’s Oscar da Silva, Utah’s Timmy
Allen, USC’s Evan Mobley, Oregon’s Chris
Duarte.
Thompson is among a group of 10 to 12
players for the final five berths. Is the best
player on a team that has exceeded presea-
son expectations worthy? The conference
coaches will speak in a couple weeks.
“Obviously I’m sure everybody was disappointed; our staff
was disappointed with the energy level that we showed
Monday night in a big-time game that we needed to bring it
and we sure didn’t.”
bined with 0 for 12 shooting
by the Ducks to open the night
effectively ended the game be-
fore it even began, and this was
a marquee game, with USC re-
claiming sole possession of first
place without so much as a real
threat from an Oregon team
that was supposed to be seek-
ing what would’ve been its best
win of the season.
“Obviously I’m sure every-
body was disappointed; our
staff was disappointed with the
energy level that we showed
Monday night in a big-time
game that we needed to bring
it and we sure didn’t,” Altman
said Wednesday.
“As a coaching staff we’re
disappointed that we didn’t
have our team better prepared,
especially me. We knew how
important the game was and
we just didn’t show. That hasn’t
been something that — our
program has usually showed up
for big ball games and we sure
didn’t show up the other night.
“I don’t know if it’s physi-
cal energy I don’t know if it’s
mental. Talked to a lot of guys
(Tuesday) trying to get them
going a little bit. … We’re go-
ing to practice today; I told
them, ‘Fellas I know we got a
lot of games coming up but we
need to practice. We need to be
physical in practice. We need to
get our game back.’ We’ve been
having so many walk-throughs
trying to conserve energy in
between Colorado, Utah, USC,
we haven’t practiced. We’re go-
ing to practice today and hope-
fully get a little bite back in our
game for Stanford on Thurs-
day.”
The last time Oregon lost by
14 or more points also came at
USC (66-49) on Feb. 21, 2019
as part of hellacious trip to Los
Angeles after which came a re-
markable 10-game win streak
and Sweet 16 appearance.
To give further context to the
rarity of a five-possession loss
for Oregon under Altman, who
is 273–107 overall and 127-65
in Pac-12 play in Eugene, only
27 of those losses came by 14 or
more points and 11 occurred in
his first two seasons.
The question for the Ducks
(14-5, 9-4 Pac-12) as they enter
a gauntlet of four games over
seven days and five in 11 days,
is whether Monday was an ab-
erration or exposing who they
truly are.
Oregon is No. 49 in the NET
rankings as of Wednesday and
the next week and a half will de-
termine where it’ll be seeded in
the NCAA Tournament or pos-
sibly if it’s actually in jeopardy
of not making the Big Dance.
Altman said he hasn’t looked
at the NCAA daily nitty gritty
report since before last week’s
game against Colorado.
“If we take care of our busi-
ness we’ll have an opportunity;
if we don’t take care of our
business it doesn’t make any
difference,” he said. “We got to
go play well against Stanford,
play well against Cal, Arizona,
UCLA, Oregon State. We got a
bunch of games here. We just
got to play well and I think if
we do that we can take care of
our share. If we don’t play well
all those numbers don’t matter
anyway.”
The Daytona 500 was
stopped for nearly six hours
by rain and numbers before
the lengthy pause had been on
pace with last year’s race. Per-
haps viewers just didn’t come
back when the race resumed.
As for last weekend, it is pos-
sible journeyman 500 winner
Michael McDowell didn’t give
NASCAR the traditional bump
in interest.
But if fans have walked away
over social justice, industry
partners believe the progres-
sive stance offsets all losses.
Toyota, for example, com-
petes at every level of NASCAR
and has long championed its
diversity and inclusion pro-
grams alongside a “respect
for people” company pillar.
NASCAR has now aligned its
core values with the corporate
culture of one of its top stake-
holders.
“It seems as if we are truly on
the cusp of breaking through
to a much broader and diverse
audience,” said David Wilson,
president of Toyota Racing De-
velopment. “You know there
are multicultural motorsports
fans in this country, but a lot of
them haven’t felt comfortable
or welcome in the NASCAR
space. It’s just difficult to artic-
ulate how critical this is for the
growth of the sport.”
— Dana Altman, Oregon men’s basketball coach
GEMINI (May 21-June 20)
õõ Relationships with siblings and neighbors can be demanding. Be pa-
tient. Undercurrents and extenuating circumstances are afoot. As the day
ends, facts come to light. You9ll be glad that you were understanding and
tolerant. Tonight: Allow others to grow and explore.
Motor sports
CANCER (June 21-July 22)
None of the stereotypes
Kamara had come to believe
about NASCAR has proven
true.
“I’m meeting fans, interact-
ing with people, and I’m like,
‘Oh, this is a safe space,’” Ka-
mara said.
“This is not what I thought
it was. I was pleasantly sur-
prised.”
There’s been blowback to-
ward NASCAR for drawing a
firm line but it fits Phelps’ vi-
sion for the sport. He has cited
a recent brand tracking study
that found 1,750 self-iden-
tified “avid NASCAR fans”
overwhelmingly supported the
sanctioning body’s stance on
social justice in 2020.
Banning the flag ultimately
“opened up an aperture to a
brand-new fan base,” Phelps
said.
It could be that those who
typically would raise a Confed-
erate flag at a race stayed home
this year rather than comply
with NASCAR’s new world or-
der. And maybe people really
did stop watching.
Viewership for the Daytona
500 fell 34% from last year, and
Sunday’s road course race was
on one hand the most-watched
sports event of the weekend
and NASCAR’s most-watched
road course race since 2014.
But it also averaged 76,000
fewer viewers from the same
slot last year, a February oval
race at Las Vegas.
The drop in viewers could
be benign.
õõõ Old financial obligations or debts are becoming more manageable.
You are entering a more promising security cycle. Learn more about finan-
cial management. Do not repeat patterns and habits that led to previous
disappointments. Tonight: Conversations about monetary matters are
enlightening.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)
õõõõõ Today is wonderful for study and analysis of all kinds. Social pros-
pects are especially bright. Adorn yourself. Assemble an especially wonderful
costume. Much can be accomplished. There is a deeper understanding of
your own psyche. Tonight: Any confusion will clear.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)
õõõõõ Today is a time for rest and reverie, with the Moon in your sector
of solitude and subconscious yearnings. Take note of dreams. Answers come
from within. Allow nature and wildlife to draw nigh. The natural world offers
peace and comfort. Tonight: Quiet time.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)
õõõõ Competitors provide inspiration, but take time to relax and regroup
if you start to feel pressured. Community involvement will be rewarding.
A mission to make the world a better place has appeal. Tonight: Enjoying a
renewed appreciation for your cherished friendships.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)
õõõõ Career prospects are both interesting and challenging. Innovate; be
creative. Combine business with pleasure. Listen carefully to others. Today
indicates that valuable information is offered during social situations and at
Zoom meetings. Tonight: Sincerity is the best form of communication.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)
õõõõ A deep awareness is present. Your intuition is wonderful. Heed those
inner voices, and you9ll be guided toward success. Your energy level will be
high, but do quell irritation. It9s especially easy to overreact now. Tonight:
Friends are willing to give your career a boost.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
õõõõ Your priorities and desires are in flux. It will be a wild but interesting
day. Decide what it is that you really want and pursue it. There are endings
and beginnings in process. Fate intervenes in plans, so be flexible and obser-
vant. Tonight: Relax.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)
õõõõõ Talented and powerful people are drawing closer to you. The
promise of partnerships is very real. You discover much about others and
how they feel toward you. Tonight: Keep an open mind and seek the truth,
then all will be well.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)
õõõõõ Your work is rewarding and interesting today. You9ll be thinking
of how best to manage your time and resources. Needed materials and sup-
plies become available. Communication with the very young or the elderly is
excellent. Tonight: Be aware of how old habits come into play.
Continued from A5