Leunen's Favorites

Favorite Food: Food: Italian

Favorite Movie(s): The “Saw” Series

Favorite Actress: Halle Berry

Favorite TV Show(s): I like the reality shows like “Flavor of Love”, “I Love New York”, and “Hogan Knows Best.” Pretty much all of them.

Favorite Sport Other Than Basketball: Baseball

Favorite Athlete: Shaquille O’Neal

Thing To Do For Fun: Golf

I’d like to be stranded on a desert island with…I’m going to pass on this question.

Favorite O-Duck: Aaron Brooks

Most Inspirational Teammate(s): Malik Hairston and Bryce Taylor

Funniest Teammate: Well, I’m the funniest guy on the team, but the second funniest has to be Churchill Odia.

Favorite Place to Play other than Mac Court: I’ll say UCLA, because we need a win down ther

You could say that Maarty Leunen is consistency personified. The 6’9 senior forward from Redmond has been the steady hand on an Oregon Basketball team that has been hot and cold this season…averaging 15 points and 9 rebounds per game.

A perfect example of Maarty Leunen’s reliability was on display last week against the Bay Area schools. In last Thursday’s 79-70 victory against the Cal Bears, Leunen scored 18 points and grabbed 10 boards…his tenth double-double of the season.

Three days later when Stanford came to Mac Court, Maarty led the way with 16 points…as the Ducks pulled out a gritty 71-66 win over the Cardinal.

TWO HARD FOUGHT WINS

DI: What kind of statement did it make to win a couple gusty games last week?

ML: It’s huge. I mean, we kind of expected that they’d be tough, and we have to make sure we get our home games…by playing very well to get those wins. Because we know how tough it is out on the road, and hopefully we can get a couple wins this weekend, too.

DI: What were you thinking during that Stanford game when you were going against the two seven-foot Lopez twins? I mean, Robin and Brook both have a couple inches on you…but you still came away with nine rebounds and led your team in scoring.

ML: I go into every week seeing a different challenge…and I’ve just got to make sure that with my effort and my energy…that I know I’m going to have a hard time guarding them…but they’re going to have a tough time guarding me, too.

MAARTY’S BIGGEST AREA OF IMPROVEMENT

DI: How would you say that you’ve improved the most since your freshman year?

ML: “I would say confidence-wise…and just playing a bigger role on the team. Because our success is determined by how well I play. So I just know I’ve got to come out with every game and play the best I can.”

TEAMMATE TALK

There is no question that Maarty Leunen is well respected by his fellow Ducks…particularly guard Malik Hairston who may know him better than anyone else on the team.

“Maarty was my roommate for three years, and we’re close friends,” says Hairston. “It’s been great to see him come out of his shell the way he has. Maarty didn’t say a lot his freshman year…but as he got older, he’s got a lot more vocal and actually got a lot more personality to him.”

TWO BIG GAMES UP NORTH

DI: Your team has two big games against the Huskies and Cougars this week. Do you guys prepare differently for a tough road series like that as opposed to playing them here?

ML: “No. We’ve just got to come together as a team…knowing that on the road, you don’t have the fans and the energy that they bring. So, you just have to make sure that we’re together as a team through those tough droughts that we have during the game…and that we can get big stops or scores.”

PLANS AFTER OREGON

DI: You’ve already graduated with a degree in economics…so what are your plans when your final season is over?

ML: Hopefully, I can play basketball somewhere…so I’m going to try and make it professionally somewhere. We’ll see how it goes after the season.

For more of the Maarty Leunen interview, pick up your free Ducks Illustrated today!!

Comments

Add New