The Oregon football team has lost four of its past five games, three of those at home and one in rainy, dismal conditions.
What a perfect time for the start of basketball season.
The Ducks men’s basketball squad is coming off a Pacific-10 Conference title and plays all its home games in warm, friendly McArthur Court. The Ducks scored 135 points and 132 points in their first two exhibition games. There’s a strong possibility that they’ll score 100 in the two games of the season-opening John Thompson Challenge on Sunday and Monday at Mac Court.
But forward Luke Jackson said the hoops squad is in no way trying to steal football’s November thunder.
“We don’t compete with them, we root for our football team,” Jackson said. “We know the fans will come out and watch us no matter what.”
Still, the crowds at Oregon’s two preseason games were noticeably larger than the crowds that witnessed the Ducks’ exhibitions last season. Oregon is close to selling out its season opener, and if it does, it will be the first non-conference sellout since 1984.
“A lot of people are excited to watch us play,” point guard Luke Ridnour said. “It’s good for us. Every game is important.”
Meanwhile, Jackson said he and the Ducks will support their football counterparts in Saturday’s Civil War. He even had a few words of consolation for the football team.
“Hey, they have a winning record, that’s really good,” Jackson said. “You can’t win the national title every year.”

Jordan on track
One week removed from his decision to redshirt the 2002-03 basketball season, Jordan Kent is fine with the choice.
“It’ll give me a chance to get to know the system, get in the weight room, get in training,” Kent said.
For Kent, a two-sport athlete, the redshirt season will help him adjust to playing two sports at the Division I level. When the spring track and field season rolls around, Kent will start slowly focusing his attention on the activities at Hayward Field.
“That’s fine for me,” Kent said about splitting time between track and basketball. “It’s the same thing as in four years in high school, once I was done with basketball I went straight to track.”
One person, at least, will be trying to keep Kent in Mac Court: his father, Oregon head coach Ernie Kent.
“With Jordan and Adam (Zahn, also redshirting), our main focus will be to help them get better at basketball,” Kent said. “They’ll work on shooting skills, get in some weight room work and still work with us in practice.”

Ticking ticket time
Three weeks ago, student tickets to the two basketball exhibition games went quicker than tickets to the Oregon-Washington football game.
Thursday, Pit Crew president Nate Jolly was mobbed outside of Mac Court when he announced he was going to sell student seats to next month’s Papé Jam for $5 each.
The next hot ticket is for the Dec. 4 home game against Portland — the date that Jolly will distribute Pit Crew shirts to the people who sit in the Pit that night. Those shirts will get wearers into Mac Court five minutes early for the season’s remaining home games.
As for the regular people, only 150 tickets remain for Sunday’s game against Grambling State. One hundred of those were returned by Grambling State. For Monday’s John Thompson Challenge championship game, there are only 325 seats left.