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There are three constants in Eugene, Ore.: The rain; the steadfast belief of the natives that hero to American runners/local demigod Steve Prefontaine was not drunk the night he flipped his convertible sportscar; and the rain.
But there is more to "Track Town USA" than soggy weather and the lasting legacy of "Pre," the swarthy, rebellious protagonist of not one but two movies viewed by virtually no one not possessing at least three pairs of track spikes and embarrassingly short shorts. Amidst the perpetually soaked, ivy-and-brick buildings of the University or Oregon campus, a college prominently featuring green-and-gold hues that would make Charley Finley proud and a mascot commonly associated with L'Orange, a tradition is growing. While Eugene certainly isn't near as flashy a town as Los Angeles, Seattle, or Tucson (it's a hell of a lot flashier than Palo Alto, where kids celebrate their 21st birthdays at Denny's, but that's beside the point), coach Jody Runge's women's basketball program has amassed enough talent -- local and otherwise -- to knock off just about anyone. And that includes Pac-10 powers UCLA, Stanford, Arizona and Washington.
Of course Oregon's success isn't new to anybody -- except the pollsters who crank out the AP and USA Today/ESPN Top 25. Locating a poll voter without a serious East Coast bias is about as easy as turning up an IOC member who isn't sweating bullets, but the Ducks have been so outstanding this season that they've made themselves impossible to ignore. Runge's squad has rolled out to 18 victories in its first 22 games, including an impressive 9-2 mark in the super-duper competitive Pac-10. Featuring arguably the best team in school history and a young nucleus with infinite possibilities the Ducks -- ranked 23rd by AP and 24th on the coaches' poll -- are all but booked for their sixth-straight tournament appearance. So where's all the publicity? Not in Eugene, that's for sure.
"I guess it's frustrating, but polls aren't really that important to me personally," says Runge, whose career record at UO stands at a gaudy 113-49 in the middle of her sixth season. "It's nice to receive that (recognition), but to get into the tournament, rank is not as important as the RPI and what the committee thinks."
Though liars frequently figure, figures rarely lie. Accordingly, the statistics Oregon has racked up this season paint a clear picture of the factors behind the Ducks' success. "Best Defense" may have been a lousy movie, but it's a strategy that works well for Oregon. The Ducks' scoring defense holds opponents to a piddling 56.2 points per game -- the fourth-lowest total in the nation.
"That's easy," says freshman point guard Shquala Williams when asked why UO is so tough. "It's the defense. Defense is where we start. We try to create a lot of turnovers and force teams into bad shots. One shot and a rebound. Our defense is so smothering it allows us to beat other teams."
Of course Oregon has good reason to D-up with such ferocity that opponents barely hit 35 percent of their shots. If they didn't, they'd hear it - in a big way.
"Every day we go to practice and (assistant coach Fred) Litzenberger yells and screams about defense," says Williams half-jokingly. "If we don't want to hear it the next day, we have to play good 'D.' We know if we don't play good 'D' we'll lose."
Hitting for 14.3 points and eight assists a night, Williams is good for more than tough defense, however. The freshman is part of an alarmingly young and talented group of players that certainly has the Pac-10 elites hearing footsteps -- running right over them.
The Ducks feature only four upper-classmen: Seniors Lisa Bowyer, Sonja Curtis and Natasha O'Brien and junior Nicole Strange. Oregon's front line of 6-3 Angelina Wolvert, 6-2 Brianne Meharry and 6-5 Jenny Mowe -- who Runge tabs as "probably the next Olympic center" -- are all just sophomores.
Five straight tourney appearances, the most powerful squad in school history and the makings of an even brighter future -- in Eugene, no less -- all point to the $64,000 question: How?
"I think the problem with recruiting talent in Oregon is that we've had to build our own tradition here," says Runge, who played her college ball at the traditional basketball Mecca, Kentucky. "In the meantime, kids grow up thinking they want to go to Stanford or someplace that has had traditional success in women's basketball. Now a new group of kids think maybe they'll play at Oregon as opposed to somewhere else. It takes time to get kids to start thinking in the other direction."
According to Runge, it also takes consistency. In her time at UO's helm, the Ducks have never won fewer than 17 games or missed the Big Dance. Oregon's marqee players have come and gone, but winning has never left.
"We've lost 80 percent of our scoring and rebounding, and we're still doing well," points out the coach. "The kids are doing well academically and we play a lot of players, we don't just play five. There are ways to cut through the attractiveness of other (schools)."
While still facing understandable difficulties when trying to land SoCal recruits away from UCLA and USC, Oregon has shored up its own backyard nicely. While Oregon prep standouts Laurie Milligan and Ashley Smith signed with Eastern powers Tennessee and Villanova, respectively, Runge hopes local stars Mowe, Meharry and Williams established a trend when they chose to play in-state. On the national front, the team traveled to Western Kentucky two years ago, Kansas' tourney last year and beat Colorado in its tournament this season.
In between shoring up the West Coast, Oregon was blessed with a wealth of players from the very West Coast -- Australia, to be exact.
A few years back an Australian hoops star visiting an American friend took the SAT on a lark. Out of school for a few years and without any preparation, Renae Fegent hit 1,000. A friend of Runge's had seen the Aussie play, and the Ducks did need a post player, so the 6-5 Australian center more or less fell into Runge's lap. By the time Fegent graduated in 1997, she had cracked the top-10 in four of UO's career records lists.
"(Fegent) knew somebody else who knew somebody else who knew somebody else ..." recalls Runge. "In recruiting, when I didn't think I'd be able to compete for the best talent in the region, then I'd fill the gaps with Australians. I've still never been over there on a recruiting visit. Recently our success (recruiting locals) has improved, so I haven't felt the need to go over there. But if there are any Australian players out there, be sure to send a tape."
Currently UO sports two members of the Aussie Connection, seniors Bowyer and O'Brien.
Of course recruits from Perth to Portland have more reason to choose Oregon than recent success, an endearingly moist climate and a licensing deal with Disney that allows the use of Donald Duck as the school mascot. Duck players are guaranteed something most women's basketball players would kill -- or at least lie under oath -- for: Large, wild, raucous crowds.
"My senior year in high school I came up here for the Civil War game back when Oregon State was in the top-25. We had over 9,000 people," recalls Mowe. "It was amazing to go out there and sit in the crowd and listen to people get so crazy. (Now) the crowd is amazing, you can't hear out there. It gets you going, gets your blood pumping."
In fact, the 9,738 fans who filed into McArthur Court along with Mowe on March 8, 1996 witnessed more than a 69-60 upset victory over OSU: They constituted the largest crowd to ever witness a Pac-10 women's basketball game. Playing in front of the second-largest crowds in the conference, perhaps it's no coincidence that UO has won nearly 80 percent of its home contests since 1981.
With all the Ducks' recent success and a stable of young stars who won't accept anything less than victory, the mood in Eugene is never dreary even if the weather is. Coaches and players hope to win out the rest of UO's tough schedule and keep the pressure on UCLA for the league crown, and can only wax optimistically when it comes to the long-term.
"We've got a young team here with a lot of talent. We could go far," says Williams. "There's not any other team in the Pac-10 that can give you something we can't make sure you get if you come here."
2/15/99
