EUGENE – Near the end of her senior year at Bend High School in 2004, Whitney Malkin faced a tough decision:

Sign on at a small, private college and play Division III basketball, or opt to pursue a degree in journalism at the University of Oregon.

Malkin chose academics over sports.

”If I’d have played anywhere it would have been at (the University of) Puget Sound,” she recalls. ”They finished eighth that year in the nation in Division III, and I really liked the coaches and players.”

Although she was recruited to play ball by Puget Sound and other small Northwest schools, Malkin was destined to become a Duck.

”I grew up coming to Eugene for football and basketball (games),” said Malkin, 19, before last Saturday’s big game against rival Oregon State. ”I wanted big lectures and huge sporting events. I wanted the big-school atmosphere. The big push was the journalism school, and I ultimately knew I wasn’t going to be doing basketball for the rest of my life.”

But it wasn’t so easy to give up the sport she’d been playing competitively since the sixth grade.

During her freshman year at UO, the 2004 Intermountain Conference first-team all-league player found she missed basketball terribly.

”I didn’t realize how much I would miss it,” she reminisced.

Luckily, basketball was still in Malkin’s future.

Only this time, she wouldn’t be scoring points or grabbing rebounds for the team.

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Malkin, now a sophomore, is one of two managers for the University of Oregon women’s basketball team, a scholarship position she landed last summer.

Coaches on the team liked the fact that Malkin had basketball experience and immediately fit in well with the 12-woman squad.

”It’s a big concern that the managers blend well with team because you travel so much together,” Malkin explained. ”They fired the last manager because she didn’t get along well with the girls.”

Her responsibilities include admininstering towels and practice jerseys and preparing water coolers for players at practices and games. She operates a clock to time drills during practice and charts shots during games. Basically, she performs any task that helps the players and coaches stay focused on the business of playing good basketball.

At first, Malkin was a bit star-struck around the Oregon players and head coach Bev Smith, a former Duck All-American and a basketball celebrity in her own right.

Three members of the UO women’s team are former Oregon prep standouts, players who Malkin had once competed against and idolized.

”The first week I lived in fear of disrupting practice,” recalled Malkin, who was asked to jump in a time or two to participate in drills. ”I was really intimidated by the girls. When I was in high school, these were the girls everyone was talking about.”

Although she’s not considered a Division I athlete, in almost every way other than playing time, Malkin is part of the team. She spends four hours a day attending practice, watches film, travels with the team, and attends game-day group meals.

Last Friday, with keys to McArthur Court in hand, Malkin scurried into the Ducks’ training room to gather fresh towels and fill up water buckets to lug to the gym. There, she shot around with the team’s four-man practice squad before the players hit the court.

The next morning – game day – Malkin was at an 8 a.m. practice, then off to a local restaurant for breakfast with the team. An hour before tipoff, she was mixing Gatorade and filling water bottles for both the Duck and Beaver benches. This time, clad in a black dress shirt and gray slacks, she’ll sit at the end the UO bench, keeping a shot chart and passing out towels and water bottles during breaks in the action.

For her efforts, Malkin earns a full-ride athletic department scholarship plus a housing stipend. At 17 credits this term, she continues to attend school full time and maintains a solid 3.71 grade-point average.

For Malkin, working with the Oregon Duck basketball program is an opportunity she takes seriously.

”It’s a Division I school,” emphasized Malkin, who stands 6 feet tall and, when wearing full Oregon Duck gear down to her size 11> green Nikes, is commonly mistaken for a player. ”We’re considered to be a pretty big program, and they expect the managers to take their job seriously. I need to do the best job I can do.”

Reflecting on a typical college experience of chowing on Top Ramen noodles while staying up too late at night to do homework during her freshman year, Malkin said she never imagined eating in the nicest of restaurants and staying in the fanciest of hotels while traveling with the basketball team around the Pac-10 Conference.

Playing H-O-R-S-E on the court at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion? Not in a million years.

”It’s hard to get up early when you’re not the one playing, but I think the work is worth it,” she said. ”It’s the sort of job that if you’re doing it well, nobody notices.”

The coaches agree.

”We, as coaches, need to focus on practice,” said UO assistant coach Peg Swadener following the Ducks’ 54-45 victory over Oregon State on Saturday. ”We expect the managers to focus on everything else to allow us, and the players, to do their jobs.

”With the good ones, you never notice something missing,” added Swadener. ”If you don’t notice them, they’re doing a great job. She’s always one step ahead of us.”

Swadener noted that it’s not always easy to find the right personality for the manager’s job. Managers must be able to integrate themselves as part of the team, while at the same time remembering that their purpose is ultimately to serve the players and coaches.

Malkin has the green light to continue as the team’s year-round manager for as long as she’s a student at the University of Oregon.

”Last year (2004) at Christmas, I was really upset that I wasn’t playing (basketball),” recalled Malkin just before she dashed from a campus coffee shop back to her dorm room through a downpour of rain. ”It’s hard to play basketball all your life and then all of the sudden not do that.”

Malkin noted that the players have embraced her as a teammate and friend.

”It’s great to be a part of a program,” she said, ”for a sport I really love.”