The BulleTin • Friday, March 19, 2021 B3
FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT
B3
S PORTS
The BulleTin • Friday, March 19, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
NFL
NFL looking into
Watson allegations
DALLAS — The NFL
said Thursday that it was
investigating allegations
that Houston Texans
quarterback Deshaun
Watson sexually as-
saulted multiple women
after three massage
therapists filed lawsuits
against the star player.
In lawsuits filed this
week, two of the women
claim that Watson
touched them with his
penis during massages
last year, and the third
alleges he forced her to
perform oral sex.
Watson, 25, has
broadly denied that he
acted inappropriately and
said he looks forward to
clearing his name.
The women, who are
not named in the law-
suits, are represented by
Houston lawyer Tony Buz-
bee, who posted a picture
Thursday of a letter from
the NFL on his verified In-
stagram account that said
the league had launched
an investigation. Buzbee
later deleted the post.
NFL spokesman Brian
McCarthy confirmed that
the matter was “under re-
view of the personal con-
duct policy.”
Watson’s attorney and
agent did not immedi-
ately respond to requests
for comment Thursday.
“I have never treated
any woman with any-
thing other than the
utmost respect,” the
quarterback said in a
statement posted to Twit-
ter Tuesday.
According to the suits,
the women live in Texas,
Oregon and Georgia and
work giving massages. .
Texans spokesman
Omar Majzoub released
a statement on behalf of
the team Thursday saying
it had been informed by
the NFL about its investi-
gation.
— Associated Press
KOBE BRYANT
Widow reveals
names of deputies
Vanessa Bryant on
Wednesday named the
Los Angeles County
sheriff’s deputies who al-
legedly shared grim pho-
tos of the helicopter crash
that killed her husband,
Kobe Bryant, their daugh-
ter Gianna and seven
others.
The disclosure came
after a legal fight with
L.A. County lawyers who
sought to keep the identi-
ties of the deputies secret.
A federal judge this month
sided with Vanessa Bryant,
saying that the names of
police officers accused of
misconduct should not be
kept from the public.
Bryant’s attorneys
filed an amended copy
of a lawsuit Bryant has
brought against the
county and the deputies
that includes the names of
four deputies whom Sher-
iff’s Department officials
investigated for allegedly
taking or sharing photos
of the crash site. Bryant’s
legal team based their
new claims on an inter-
nal affairs report the L.A.
County Sheriff’s Depart-
ment turned over.
According to the law-
suit, the deputies involved
are Raul Versales, Rafael
Mejia, Joey Cruz and Mi-
chael Russell. The deputies
did not respond to emails
requesting comment.
The lawsuit alleges
that Versales obtained
multiple photographs
of the crash scene while
stationed at a makeshift
command post that was
set up at the crash site
and shared them with
members of the Sheriff’s
Department, including
Mejia and a detective.
— Los Angeles Times
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
ALL
4 IN
Ducks, Beavers land men’s,
women’s teams in NCAA
Tournament for 1st time
BY JOE FREEMAN
The Oregonian
T
here have been
championship chases
by the Tall Firs,
flops by the Orange Express,
captivating runs for Sabrina and
Al Powers via Pac-12
Co., and six combined Final Four
appearances.
But for all the history-making
NCAA Tournament moments sur-
rounding the men’s and women’s bas-
ketball programs at the University of
Oregon and Oregon State University,
the four teams have never qualified
for the “Big Dance” in the same sea-
son. Until now.
Thanks to the continued brilliance
of both women’s programs, a stunning
Pac-12 Conference championship
run by the Oregon State Beavers men
and an at-large bid by the regular-sea-
son champion Oregon Ducks men,
the state’s oldest Division I basketball
programs will make history this week
when — for the first time — they all
Oregon State men’s basketball coach Wayne Tinkle celebrates with players Ethan Thompson (5) and Zach Reichle (11) after the Bea-
vers upset Colorado in the Pac-12 Conference tournament championship game on Saturday night in Las Vegas. The Beavers’ un-
likely victory helped clinch NCAA Tournament berths for all four Oregon and Oregon State basketball teams.
“It’s really cool for the state of Oregon. I think both teams are really just
honored and excited to rep the university.”
— Aleah Goodman, Oregon State women’s basketball player
will play in the 2021 NCAA Tourna-
ments.
“It’s really cool for the state of Ore-
gon,” Beavers guard Aleah Goodman
said, referring Oregon State’s achieve-
ment. “I think both teams are really
just honored and excited to rep the
university.”
All four programs have had mem-
orable runs and even extended
stretches of excellence, but rarely at
the same time.
The Ducks, then dubbed the Tall
Firs, won the first men’s champion-
ship played in 1939, riding the tal-
ent of three All-Americans — Urgel
“Slim” Wintermute, Laddie Gale and
Bobby Anet — to a 46-33 victory over
Ohio State in the title game. But Ore-
gon reached the tournament just four
more times the rest of the 20th cen-
tury, before becoming a regular and
qualifying 12 times since 2000. More
recently, the Ducks have become a
MOTOR SPORTS | NASCAR CUP SERIES
mainstay under coach Dana Altman,
reaching the tournament seven times
since 2013. Along the way, they have
advanced as far as the Elite Eight
(2016) and Final Four (2017).
The NCAA did not host a women’s
tournament until 1982, and the Ore-
gon teams quickly joined the fray, as
the Ducks played in the first event, the
Beavers did so a year later and both
qualified in 1984. They combined for
nine appearances in the 1990s — six
by Oregon and three by Oregon State
— and Oregon had an eight-year run
of tournament berths from 1994-
2001.
See Tournament / B5
MLB
Harvick reflects on anniversary
of emotional Atlanta victory
BY JENNA FRYER
AP Auto Racing Writer
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The
first three weeks following
Dale Earnhardt’s death were a
whirlwind for Kevin Harvick,
the driver suddenly tasked
with carrying a race team reel-
ing from grief.
Harvick was slated to race
for the 2001 championship in
NASCAR’s second-tier series
but Richard Childress needed
him to fill Earnhardt’s seat.
Harvick, admittedly “young
and dumb” at the time, told
Childress he’d do both jobs.
Attempting to replace Earn-
hardt was an unenviable ask of
any driver, let alone a 25-year-
old at the start of his NASCAR
career. By committing to that
frantic two-series schedule,
Harvick created a shield from
the intense scrutiny of an
emotionally draining season.
His Cup Series debut came
seven days after Earnhardt’s
death and then Harvick was
off to Las Vegas for his wed-
ding — it had been built into
the NASCAR schedule before
the season began — and the
start of a year spent primarily
in race cars and airplanes.
The standout moment of
that tumultuous season came
in his third Cup race when
Harvick held off Jeff Gordon
by 0.006 seconds — the edge
of his front bumper — to win
at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Harvick returns to Atlanta on
Sunday for the 20th anniver-
sary of that victory. He says
he wishes he “would have re-
alized then how big this mo-
ment was.”
His memories of that emo-
tional win two decades later
are scattered. He recalls the
Charlie Riedel/AP file
Seattle Mariners’ Kyle Lewis during spring training practice on Feb. 25
in Peoria, Arizona.
Mariners’ Kyle Lewis ready for
challenge after rookie honors
BY TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
Ric Feld/AP file
Kevin Harvick holds up the trophy in victory lane after winning a NA-
SCAR race at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia.
five-car battle over the final 10
laps, the fans lining the fence
along the back straightaway
and the backward victory lap
when he flashed three fin-
gers out his window to honor
Earnhardt.
The rest is a bit of a blur.
“It was obviously a mo-
ment I don’t think any of us
expected, but there are a num-
ber of things that obviously
changed in the weeks before
that,” Harvick said. “It took me
a long time to really get com-
fortable, to really even think
about things that happened
that day. There were so many
things that happened back-
wards in my career.”
Harvick won two Cup races
that year and beat Kurt Busch
for top rookie honors. He
won another five times in the
Xfinity Series (then called the
Busch Series) and the cham-
pionship.
See Harvick / B4
During a normal offseason,
Kyle Lewis would have enjoyed
traveling around and being cel-
ebrated after becoming just the
third Seattle Mariners player
to be named the American
League rookie of the year.
Instead, some of Lewis’ most
cherished moments of the off-
season came when he spent
time hanging around his old
high school in Georgia.
“I went over there just to con-
tinue to show my face and show
the high schoolers that there are
people who were in the same
positions and have been able to
accomplish great things,” Lewis
said. “That to me was definitely
a point I made to go back home
and be around, be accessible to
some extent as much as I could.”
As the Mariners enter the
next stage of their rebuild-
ing plan, Lewis is one of Seat-
tle’s foundational players. He
showed enough in last year’s
60-game truncated season for
the Mariners to believe they
have a burgeoning superstar on
their hands and for the rest of
the American League to take
notice.
Lewis wasn’t great for the
entire 60-game season, but he
was good enough to be the best
rookie in the AL. His mix of
raw power to all fields, hitting
for average, and proving he can
handle the demands of playing
center field were major revela-
tions for the Mariners as they
plot out the next steps for be-
coming a contender in the AL
West in 2022.
But as much as Lewis proved
last season, he has still played
just 76 total games in his ma-
jor league career. His first taste
of the majors didn’t arrive un-
til September 2019. And while
he was great last season, Lewis
played against only the AL and
NL West.
So while there is optimism
about just how good Lewis
could end up being as Seattle’s
center fielder, he understands
being successful in a full season
this year may be more import-
ant that what he did last year.
See Lewis / B4