Some historical perspective on the Washington Sweep

The TV crew said the last time Oregon won in Seattle was 2002. That didn't sound right, so I hit the books.

In fact, Oregon (ranked 19th) lost on Jan 26 2002 to Washington, 97-92.

The last win over the Huskies in Seattle was in 2001, when a Duck team that peaked early (5-13 in conference after going 9-1 OOC with wins over UMass and Louisville) avenged an earlier overtime loss at home to win at HecEd, 85-73. Oregon was led by Freddie Jones with 22 points; freshman Luke Jackson became only the second Duck to record a triple-double in a game, and the only player to pull off the feat in a Pac-10 game. Jackson had 14 points, 11 boards and 10 assists. (Ron Lee was the first, against Montana St in 1972.)

More impressive about the "I-90 Sweep": It's been 10 years since Oregon pulled off the sweep, and it's only happened twice in the last 20 seasons.. in 2000, when Ernie Kent's first NCAA-bound team won both games in overtime, and in 1994, when Jerry Green's team -- led by sharpshooting guard Orlando Williams --  broke a long road losing streak.

      Orlando Williams, G, 1994

Jerry Green took a weak squad north after an overtime loss at Oregon State. It was a "battle for the bottom", as Oregon, OSU and UW were knotted in the conference cellar, with only two wins each.  (The outlier: Kelvin Sampson's WSU Cougars would eventually earn an NCAA bid, at 20-10, losing in the first round to Boston College.)

The Ducks first faced a Washington team, led by Bob Bender, that would go on to be the worst in school history, winning only 5 games all year and going 2-16 in conference. Before an announced attendance of 2,459 "occasionally vocal" fans, Oregon beat UW 86-71, snapping a 27 game conference road losing streak; it was the Ducks' first road win since the Cal game in 1991. Duck junior Orlando Williams led all scorers with 25 points, and broke Kevin Mixon's all-time Duck 3-point record during that game -- a record not broken until this season by Tajuan Porter. (Of course, the record wasn't all that firmly established -- the 3-point rule was enacted in 1986.)

Two days later, Williams hit the record books again, going for 40 in the Palouse; at the time, only Greg Ballard, Ron Lee and Stan Love had scored 40 or more points in a game. Oregon beat a decent WSU team 98-87, shooting almost 66% from the field to knock off the Cougs, who had stomped OSU 101-64 two nights earlier. The Ducks lead by 20 early in the 2nd half, and withstood a furious Wazzu comeback that trimmed the lead to 3 with under five minutes left.  

Williams was named Pac-10 Player of the Week for his efforts during the road trip.

Orlando Williams was a four-year starter at shooting guard for Don Monson and Jerry Green. Out of Portland's Benson Tech, Williams led the Ducks in scoring during his junior and senior seasons, making the All Pac-10 team both years. He still ranks 5th on the all-time Duck scoring list (1,674), 8th in career field goals (567), 2nd and 8th in single season 3-pointers (81 in 1993-4, 94 in 1994-5), and is tied with several players for most 3-pointers attempted in a game (15 -- he did that twice).

One of only two Ducks to play for the Harlem Globetrotters, Williams eventually earned his MBA from Oregon, and is President and CEO of a management staffing agency based in his hometown of Portland.

Orlando Williams, in 2009, CEO of Motus Recruiting (www.motusrecruiting.com)

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