Every Sunday, The Emerald sports staff will collect their favorite quotes from the previous seven days. Athletes, coaches, media or anybody with a quote pertaining to Oregon sports can be included. Below are The Emerald’s favorites from the week of Feb. 10-16.
Acrobatics and tumbling
“We told Rachael when she came here, ‘We don’t want you to come here as Erin’s little sister. We want you to come here as Rachael Block and become Rachael Block, and be whatever that means.’ She has no pressure to live up to her sister or anything. We just want her to be Rachael and keep doing what she’s doing.”
— Head coach Felecia Mulkey on freshman Rachael Block fitting into the team.
“I was honestly really nervous. At first it was hard to relax, but the hardest thing was just getting used to the format and knowing what I was going to do at what time and where I needed to go.”
— Freshman base Krista Phillips after Oregon’s 280.075-274.380 win against Baylor on Thursday. It was Phillips’ first collegiate meet.
“I’ve never lost since I’ve been here. So, as a team, I’ve never had to go through losing one yet. It’s bound to happen sometime, but we’re hoping not this year.”
—Junior base Tara Lubert, after Thursday’s win against Baylor. The win was Oregon’s 22nd straight win.
Baseball
“His stuff is big league ready already. His slider’s been compared to the Jimmie Sherfy slider from the left side. And when a lefty’s bringing 94-95 with that kind of slider, it’s tantalizing.”
—Third baseman Scott Heineman on freshman pitcher Matt Krook.
“Your confidence is nowhere close. If you’re a normal athlete and something tweaks or feels iffy, you kind of stop doing it. But when you’re coming back from surgery, it feels tweaked the entire time.”
—Former Oregon pitcher Christian Jones on the mental toll of the Tommy John surgery rehab process.
“I remember Kerry Wood telling me it felt like his hand wasn’t attached and that’s exactly what it is.”
— Will Carroll, on the loss of proprioception (the body’s ability to sense its position, location and movement) after Tommy John surgery. Carroll, the lead sports medicine writer at Bleacher Report, said this in an interview with The Emerald.
“He’s probably as well prepared for this as anybody. He’s done his research in terms of the whole surgery process. He knows about the rehab process. He’s gone to the finest clinic in the country. So he mentally got himself prepared for this early on and now I think it’s just a matter of supporting him.”
— Pitching coach Dean Stiles, on Cole Irvin’s mental preparation going into the Tommy John surgery rehab process.
Men’s basketball
“It’s been a long but quick four years. It’s my last Civil War, so I definitely wanted this game and to just beat out E.J. in the wins category, feels good because I’m gonna put that in his face. So one more game for me I think and I finally got him.”
— Guard Johnathan Loyd, on tying E.J. Singler as the winningest player in Oregon history on Sunday.
“It kind of gets contagious, I feel like, with our team. For a while there, we were 100 percent and you didn’t want to be that guy to miss, so I feel like we were putting pressure on each other. But at the same time, we have a long week to be in the gym and got to work on that.”
— Forward Mike Moser on the team’s excellent first-half shooting against Oregon State on Sunday.
“I look at the team and I miss (basketball). I don’t want to hang up my shoes.”
— Oregon football linebacker Tyrell Robinson on not getting a call from basketball coach Dana Altman to play this season.
Women’s basketball
“I know when (a double-double) happens that I’m working hard and playing my role for my team. I’d rather have a win than my individual stats. It does suck, and it was fun while it lasted. But that just shows I need to get in the gym and shoot more free throws. Individually it’s not about me. Not getting a double-double showed that I didn’t do what I needed to do to help my team win today. It’s just about getting back in the gym, working hard and coming out with a team win.”
— Forward Jillian Alleyne on her 18-game double-double streak coming to an end this past Monday against Colorado.
“I think we all want to pay tribute and we do it by our dress and our protocol before the game. But I think Kay Yow would say, once they throw the ball up, go play the game. I think we kind of put that aside then and try to win a game. And that’s as much a tribute as the pink we wear.”
— Head coach Paul Westhead on the team wearing pink Nike gear during Friday’s game to honor The Kay Yow Cancer Fund.
“It was just really rough as a kid because I didn’t know what was going on. And so she just wasn’t there a lot and I couldn’t see her, so my dad was the one who basically had to take care of me and my sister when she was sick.”
— Center Megan Carpenter, on her mother being diagnosed with breast cancer twice when Megan was young.
“Everybody on the court knows exactly what the problem is. We break down on the defensive end in the last four minutes of the game. Scoring is not our issue.”
— Guard Chrishae Rowe, after Oregon’s 88-78 loss to USC on Friday.
Club sports
“It’s second nature and it’s not a big deal, at least for us. People watching the game, they say, ‘Oh, that’s a great pass,’ but we’re just so used to knowing where each other are that it’s just normal.”
— Club hockey forward Dan Sulitzer, on the chemistry he has on the ice with his brother and teammate, Alex.
Other
“Hopefully in the grand scheme, and this is the dream, is that basically we are going to create a lot of opportunities for women that are related to U of O in several ways to connect and network and sort of build on the connection to the university and have that emanate out into the professional world.”
— Janell Bergstrom Cook, the director of the Women in Flight initiative.
“Do football players at the college level not play pickup basketball? Why not have them play basketball, if they’re good enough to do it, in a controlled environment where you have coaches (provide) techniques for where you’re less likely to get injured?”
— Wyatt Investment Research editor Chris Preston, on two-sport college athletes.
“If a basketball player is playing football and there may be a certain situation where they think, ‘I can’t get injured here, I need to tip toe gingerly,’ you’re more likely to get injured that way.”
—Preston, in an interview with The Emerald.
“Arik’s a really big teddy bear. He looks like a big tough guy, a big strong kid, but he’s really a tender-hearted kid.”
— John Deponte, the high school football coach of Oregon defensive lineman Arik Armstead, in an interview with The Emerald.
Follow Chris Mosch on Twitter @chris_mosch