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2001: A season of ‘almosts’ Basketball Previews The expectations are higher — now it’s up to Oregon State to live up to them. After struggling through a misfortune-filled 2001 season (10-20 overall, 4-14 Pacific-10), OSU’s men’s basketball team is looking forward to a new start for 2002, with the goal being a spot in a postseason tournament. The Beavers return four letterwinners: senior guard Adam Masten (8.4 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists per game in 2001), junior forward Brian Jackson (9.7 ppg, 4.2 rpg) and junior guards Jimmie Haywood (8.9 ppg, 1.8 apg) and Mike Cokley. Masten had his best season as a Beaver in 2001, Jackson was hampered by injuries and foul trouble, and Haywood’s strong final half of the season made him one of the most improved players in the Pac-10. Oregon State is deceptively experienced, though, due to a pair of players who redshirted last season but practiced with the Beavers. Senior guard Brandon Payton — brother of all-time Beaver scoring leader Gary Payton — played three years for California-Santa Barbara before transferring. Junior forward Phillip Ricci was one of the most-sought frontcourt players on the West Coast while in junior college but was recovering from a knee injury in 2001. The Beavers also regain freshman center Derek Potter, who redshirted last season due to injury, and add a highly-touted recruiting class. Women’s Basketball Oregon State is looking to build on its successful 2001 campaign (16-13 overall, 8-10 Pacific-10), when it reached the Women’s NIT. Now the Beavers are shooting for a place in the NCAA Tournament, led by returning Pac-10 Player of the Year Felicia Ragland. Ragland (19.7 points, 7.4 rebounds, 1.9 assists per game in 2001), a senior guard, was third in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage (.463) en route to All-District first-team honors. She’s one of seven players back. "Our returning players are really our big strength," seventh-year head coach Judy Spoelstra said. "They’ve put in a lot of effort to get better." In the backcourt, Ragland will team with sophomore guard Leilani Estavan (4.3 ppg, 4.8 apg), who earned Pac-10 All-Freshman honorable mention, and junior Michelle Estell (3.4 ppg). Senior post Ericka Cook (12.7 ppg, 6.0 rpg) leads a frontcourt group that includes junior forward Kristina Rukstelyte (2.4 ppg), sophomore forward Hollye Chapman (5.4 ppg) and sophomore center Brina Chaney (4.7 ppg). One Man’s Humble Opinion By Kip Carlson It seemed like such a pleasant way to spend a day. Go for a walk through the Italian hills at the base of the French Alps, show your daughter and granddaughter where your mother had grown up, stop in a little town for some refreshment … that was what Paul Valenti had planned for Sept. 11. Things changed when the six-decade fixture in Oregon State’s athletic department and several members of his family reached the town of Bobbio Torre Pellice after their morning of exploring. "It was warm; a nice day," said Valenti, who has been a Beaver men’s basketball player and coach, men’s tennis coach, and athletic administrator since the fall of 1939. "We went into this little bar to have a drink, and there it was on the TV screen." "It" was the pictures of the terrorist attacks in the United States. Valenti saw the events of the day through a far different lens than most Oregon Staters, watching from halfway around the world and gleaning information from news reports delivered in an unfamiliar language. "We couldn’t figure it out because it was all covered in Italian," Valenti said of the first few moments of watching the bar’s television. But his cousin’s son, who was along for the day, was soon able to tell them they were witnessing damage in their home country. "They were all watching it, and they were concerned, too," Valenti said of the Italians in the bar. "You couldn’t believe it — just like you couldn’t here. And you’d rather be home, like everybody would. There were a lot of people stuck over there, from everywhere." Valenti and his wife, Fran, had planned on returning to the United States on Sept. 15. United Airlines told them they thought it might be possible to get a trans-Atlantic flight out of London on Sept. 21; with his daughter’s family having rented a villa on Lake Como until that date, that left Valenti with a week to stay updated through Italian television reports and the English-language International Herald-Tribune newspaper. "It was strange, if you really wanted to think about it," Valenti said. "Here you are in a foreign country — where’s your money, and what’s going to happen — it was a little bit of an eerie feeling if you really wanted to dwell on it." One thing the aura of war brought to Valenti’s mind was that the area — still home to some of his family — had been occupied by Nazi Germany for about three years during World War II. "I asked people around Lake Como, ‘Were you under occupation?’ ‘Oh, yeah.’ So that kind of brought that out of me, too," Valenti said. Valenti, who served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, felt some similarities between hearing of the terrorist attacks and hearing of Pearl Harbor, but for him the likeness between the events ended there. "This bothers me more than the Pearl Harbor thing did," Valenti said. "It’s so different. We knew what we had to do there. You know what we have to do here, but what a more complex thing. All we had to do was get ready to go, and everybody was fired up to go, anyhow." Now, Americans are still fired up and ready to go — they’re just not sure where, or after exactly whom. |
