– In honor of today being President’s Day, the Pac-12 Networks asked its followers which student-athletes should be on the conference’s Mount Rushmore. The final results revealed two Oregon greats.

Oregon’s Marcus Mariota and Steve Prefontaine join Arizona State’s Pat Tillman and UCLA’s Jackie Robinson on the hypothetical mountain.

You spoke, we listened. Your Pac-12 student-athlete Mt. Rushmore. #PresidentsDay pic.twitter.com/aPwJTEPHsP

— Pac-12 Networks (@Pac12Networks) February 16, 2015

– The Emerald releases its “GameDay” basketball issue issue today. The cover story from sports reporter Josh Schlichter: Oregon men’s basketball attempts to break the bracket.

– Sports reporter Anne Yilmaz wraps on Oregon club hockey’s season in this post.

– The Oregon women’s basketball team fell to visiting No. 12 Arizona State last night, 72-52. Junior Jillian Alleyne recorded 19 points and 10 rebounds in the loss to the Sun Devils.

– The Oregon women’s tennis team beat Iowa on Sunday at home.

– Oregon baseball fell to Hawaii 10-1 on Sunday. The final game of the series is set for 3:05 PM (PT) today in the Aloha state.

– Edward Cheserek and Brittany Mann broke Oregon track and field records this weekend at the Husky classic.

– Oregon women’s golf came away with a victory down at Stanford in the Peg Barnard Invitational.

– Oregon women’s lacrosse won 9-8 over High Point on a late goal from Hayley Milner.

Follow Joseph Hoyt on Twitter @JoeJHoyt

When I first heard the news about a $430,000 project to fix the trail leading up to the summit of Spencer Butte, I was shocked. My first question was how in the world could a trail cost such a staggering amount, and also why do we even need a new trail?

I just hiked up there last week and it was easy for me. Yes, after I got out of the tree line I had to find my own path up to the summit, but so what, right? Anybody can climb a few rocks and step over a few bushes; I mean come on, it is called a hike for a reason.

As I started researching the project I realized that I had only been thinking about it from an arrogant, young college student’s perspective. I wasn’t thinking about the unique plant life that I could be disturbing, I wasn’t thinking about people causing unnecessary erosion and I wasn’t thinking about the safety of other hikers.

Trevor Taylor, project manager and natural areas restoration supervisor, has three main goals for this project: habitat protection, safety and accessibility.

“The rocky outcrop at the top of Spencer Butte is an extremely unique and very fragile habitat, not just for plants and animals, but there are also a lot of rare species of lichen,” Taylor said. “One wrong step on the rocks can step off decades old lichen population.”

Every day there are as many as 300 visitors hiking the butte and once the marked trail ends, the hikers trudge their way up to the top however they can. While it is relatively easy for many of us to make it to the summit, some cannot.

“There isn’t a clear route to the top and people often aren’t expecting it to be as much of a scramble as it is,” Taylor said. “Several times a year we have search and rescue go and do helicopter rescues up there.”

Through public surveys and forums the city got input on the project, giving them a pretty good direction of what people wanted to see. The current project plans call for the rebuilding of about 300 feet of trail that is in the forest immediately below the tree line and then 733 feet of new trail to be built from the tree line to the summit. The new trail will provide a clear route to the top and will have short sections of constructed rock stairs.

Kianna Vestuto, a freshman social science major, enjoys the challenging hike to the summit as it is.

“I would rather there not be a trail up there, I like how the rocky part is fun and adventurous,” Vestuto said. “Once the trail ended everyone just found their own way along the rocky path, even older people could do it.”

Carrie Morton, a graduate student in arts management, understands why some people need a better trail to the top.

“Personally, I like the steep rocky part because it’s challenging and it’s a thigh burner,” Morton said. “But I can see how a new trail would help some people, especially those who aren’t as mobile.”

The entire project is now expected to come to a total of $528,000. The funding comes from a variety of different sources, one of the biggest being the Recreation Trails Program Grant from the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department.

There is not a set date for building to begin because a contract has not yet been finalized. Current plans for the project call for building to begin sometime in March and are expected to be completed by the end of July. Constructing the new trail will be a challenge due to the lack of accessibility for large equipment. In order to preserve the existing ecosystem, the current rock will stay in tact and all the rocks needed for the project will be imported using helicopters.

“This is a new territory for us, we have been learning a lot about other projects like this,” Taylor said. “The only other place where this kind of work happens is high elevation national parks; there aren’t very many contractors that do this.”

Although the project does seem to cost a good amount of money, what restorations and renovations don’t? I mean the University of Oregon just spent $50 million on the new student recreation center. We should welcome such an awesome revamp to one of the best hiking trails in Eugene.

Follow Tanner Owens on Twitter @T_Owens21

With the Oregon club hockey team’s season ending last week, here’s a recap of what happened this season:

– Oregon won the I-5 Cup against Washington. Oregon won the Cup two years ago, but UW had it the year prior. I-5 Cup games are usually extremely competitive, but this year the Ducks won the four-game series 9-5, 7-2, and 9-3.

– The team made it to the Pac-8 Championship Finals. No. 3 Oregon played No. 1 Utah who eliminated them 5-1. It was Oregon’s second time in four years making it to the finals and both times the Ducks fell to the Utes. The championship match had 47 penalties in the game, 31 of them belonging to Oregon. There were 134 penalty minutes total.

“I think the boys really came together,” forward Chris Campbell said. “We played our hearts out, but the refs stole it from us. Is Utah a phenomenal team? Absolutely. I’m not taking anything away from them. But can we skate with them? Absolutely. Long story short, I don’t know how much you can do when you’re playing against Utah and the refs — so it was a tough loss — but the boys did play phenomenally.”

– Forward Nick Sciabarra and goaltender Danny Cockriel will be playing on the third team for the Pac-8 All-Stars. Players are nominated for the All-Star team by coaches in the the Pac-8.

“It feels great that I can go represent my team and maybe play some good hockey,” Sciabarra sad. “And if others don’t go (due to dropping out), maybe Trevor Shott and Alex Sulitzer can come with us. That would be cool.”

Follow Anne Yilmaz on Twitter @anneyilmaz.

At 18-8 with a Pac-12 record of 8-5, Oregon has turned out to be a good-not-great team in a bad conference — putting it in a bit of a predicament when determining the team’s tournament resume.

Oregon has gone 0-2 versus the RPI top 25 and 2-5 against the top 50, with victories over No. 40 UCLA and No. 45 Illinois. Some analysts concluded that Oregon’s lack of strong non-conference wins could be the key factor to the Ducks not receiving an at large bid.

After No. 7 Wisconsin beat Illinois on Sunday, the Ducks have zero non-conference wins over potential tournament teams.

Inside the Pac-12, UCLA is the only team Oregon has beaten that has a chance to improve its RPI standing – should the Bruins beat No. 6 Arizona in Tucson.

The lone factor Oregon has is the fact that it still controls its destiny.

(Data via TeamRankings)

After simulating the entire season countless times, TeamRankings determines that the probability of a team receiving an NCAA Tournament bid drastically increases after picking up its 21st and 22nd wins. To get into that threshold, Oregon must go at least 3-2 over its final five games.

College basketball analyst Ken Pomeroy gives Oregon the following odds for its remaining schedule:

(Data via KenPom)

The Ducks are expected to handle their business against Colorado at home, suffer a double digit loss to Utah, win against Cal and then lose decisively to Stanford and Oregon State.

With that data, we can calculate the likelihood of each of Oregon’s possible records.

(Data via KenPom)

Pomeroy believes Oregon’s final record will most likely be 20-11, just shy of TeamRanking’s target win mark of 22. On the other hand, beating No. 9 Utah or No. 41 Stanford would immediately flip the odds on the graph, as most of the unfavorable percentages come from those two games.

Outside of the Colorado game, there isn’t a favorable game for Oregon left. Utah is a very different team away from home, but still boasts a significant edge in efficiency metrics. Cal has been playing its best basketball of the season as of late, Stanford is a tough matchup for any Pac-12 team and Oregon State has been virtually unbeatable in Corvallis this season.

Oregon’s chances of making the NCAA tournament aren’t looking very bright.

TeamRankings currently gives Oregon a 20.1 percent chance at making the tournament, with an 18.8 percent chance to receive an at large bid and put 4.2 of those percentage points on Oregon receiving a No. 11 seed from the committee.

If the Ducks end on the wrong side of the bubble on Selection Sunday, they’ll be in the prime position to claim a high seeding from the National Invitation Tournament (NIT).

DRatings.com projected that Oregon will receive a No. 1 seed in that tournament, giving the Ducks a shot at hosting a few more games at Matthew Knight Arena and extending the official contact time for coaches and players before the offseason. Fellow Pac-12 members Arizona State, Colorado, Washington and Oregon State are expected to receive NIT bids as well.

Even if the NCAA Tournament wasn’t part of this team’s destiny, Oregon head coach Dana Altman proved that if he gets enough time, he’ll make a winning team out of just about anything.

Follow Josh Schlichter on Twitter @joshschlichter