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SOU men won't dip with Chipps By RANDY HAMMERICKSEN Southern Oregon began what it hopes is a turnaround in men's basketball last year when it cashed in on the talents of freshman shooting guard Tom Chipps. This season, the Raiders will play the same hand. Chipps, a muscular 6-foot-2 sophomore with a velvet-soft shooting touch, will be counted on heavily in year No. 3 of coach Brian McDermott's rebuilding. "I'm really not worried about how much I score, even though that's supposed to be my main job," says Chipps, who last year led the Raiders with a 12.2 scoring average. He was named one of the top newcomers in the Cascade Conference en route to honorable mention on the all-star team. Chipps was ninth in the conference in 3-point field goals made with 54. "I want our team to win," he says. "I don't care how many points I score, as long as we win." Chipps believes winning will come more readily than in McDermott's first two seasons. Southern Oregon labored to a 2-29 season in 1996-97. Last year, it was 15-18 and made the conference playoffs. Southern Oregon also defeated 1997 NAIA national runner-up Oregon Tech in a league game last season. "I can truthfully say I think we're twice as good as we were last season," says Chipps. "That's the exciting thing. We have a lot more confidence, and some of our younger players have gained a lot of confidence, including myself." Chipps is hoping SOU can post its first winning season in eight years and make a run at its first Cascade Conference title. "I think both of those goals are realistic," he says. "We're that good. We just need to go out and execute every night. "When we do that, I think we're capable of beating any team in the conference." McDermott, 17-47 in two years, says the Raiders have clearly improved. "We're not as good as we were last February, but we're definitely a lot better than we were last November," he says. "I'm happy about that. But we still have a lot of things to work on to get back to the level we were playing at during the last half of last season." SOU opened the season last weekend, defeating Simpson, 76-42, and falling to California-Baptist, 80-69. The Raiders play Menlo College tonight at 7:30 at Atherton, Calif., and face Cal State-Stanislaus Saturday at the same time and site. Their first home game is Tuesday against Puget Sound Christian at 7:30 p.m. Chipps scored 28 points against Cal-Baptist after scoring six points on 2-of-8 shooting against Simpson. "Tom is stronger physically and a bit more confident this year," says McDermott. "He's in more familiar surroundings this year. "But he definitely needs to play better defense than he did last weekend. I've been harping on him about that. He's so strong and physical, he takes the ball to the basket as well as he shoots it. He's going to get better and better." So much better, McDermott projects Chipps to break Ryan Harbert's school career scoring record of 1,538 points. Chipps and Harbert are both Marist High of Eugene graduates. "I met Ryan in Eugene when he was playing for Marist," says Chipps. "He was my idol when I was growing up because he could shoot so well and he was so good. I wanted to be like him." McDermott says he will tinker with his starting lineup in this weekend's games. "I want to get a look at certain kids more this week," he says. "In most situations, we can start at least one or two kids at each position. That's nice depth to have." Expected to start for the Raiders tonight are 6-3 sophomore forward Barron Lacy, 6-8 senior center Ryan Valley, 6-6 senior wing Amos Baker, 6-0 senior point guard Don Guy and Chipps. Guy will replace former Grants Pass player Obie Strickler. Strickler started both of SOU's games last weekend while Guy was out with a sprained ankle. Lacy replaces former Illinois Valley player Shavon Haynes. Haynes, a 6-3 sophomore, started both games last weekend for the Raiders. McDermott said both Strickler and Haynes will play this weekend. Depth is important to the Raiders. "We try to have our kids beat on somebody defensively for 20 minutes in the first half and 10 in the second half," says McDermott. "Hopefully, we will have worn them down with our depth and we can win at the end." He wants his reserves to be better than the opponent's reserves. "I'm not saying we don't have good talent among our starters," says McDermott. "We do. But so do all the other schools." Other returning players expected to get major minutes are 6-2 senior wing Dave Arbow, 6-7 senior forward-center Scott Logue of Grants Pass and 6-3 senior guard Chris Schmerbach of Klamath Falls. The Raiders can also go to 6-5 Tim Williams, a former Grants Pass player who transferred to SOU from Linfield, and former South Medford player Ryan Ilten, a 6-8 junior post player. Other newcomers to the team are 6-3 former Crater High player Mark Hunter and 6-7 Nick Klemenhagen of North Bend. Jacques Francis, a starting point guard last year, opted not to play his senior season for personal reasons. Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford,