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Alexa PhilippouESPN
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- Covers women’s college basketball and WNBA.
- Previously covered UConn and the WNBA Connecticut Sun for the Hartford Courant.
- Stanford graduate and Baltimore native with further experience at the Dallas Morning News, Seattle Times and Cincinnati Enquirer.
Prior to the NCAA Tournament, the 2021–22 season for the Oregon Ducks was characterized by inconsistencies.
At first it was understandable, because several key players were injured at the beginning of the season. But even after the Ducks recovered in January, they were never able to fully transform into a juggernaut, some thought they had the potential to become.
That unevenness backfired on them when it mattered most, as No. 5 seed Oregon (20-12) suffered its earliest elimination from the NCAA Tournament under Kelly Graves to No. 12 seed Belmont (23-7). 73-70. Saturday in double overtime in Knoxville, Tennessee.
After the game, Graves took responsibility for the team’s failure to pull everything together and pull the “right triggers”. But as Oregon is still looking for itself in the post-Sabrina Ionescu era, he also said he feels something is missing from his players.
“I think at times our players acted and performed correctly,” Graves said. “I mean we had a good result. We’ve made it to at least Sweet 16 every year since 2017. First exit from the first round in a long time. This group won nothing. We didn’t win Pac. -12. We didn’t win the NCAA Tournament with great depth.”
The Ducks advanced to the Elite Eight in 2017, Ionescu’s freshman year, and also in 2018 before making it to the program’s first Final Four in 2019. The team was a contender for the 2020 national title until the NCAA Tournament was canceled due to COVID-19. 19 pandemic.
After Ionescu and fellow stars Satow Saballi and Ruthie Hebard left for the WNBA during the off-season, Oregon lost to Louisville in the 2021 Sweet 16. Only two players remained from the 2019-20 squad, and both were in red shirts that year: Nyara Saballi and Sedona Prince.
Things took a turn for the worse this season when Nyara, freshman Te-Hina Paopao, and USC transfer Andia Rodgers suffered injuries that kept them out of most of Oregon’s non-conference roster. On his return, Oregon showed their potential when the Ducks beat last season’s national champion Arizona and traditional UConn strength in three days.
But signs of a potential early exit from the NCAA Tournament have been there since, especially as Oregon struggled in an area that Kelly Graves’ teams usually figured out: offense (see: consecutive under-50 performances in early February). The Ducks lost five of their last 10 regular season games before losing to Utah in the Pac-12 tournament semi-finals.
In Knoxville, Oregon, they were six down in the middle of the fourth and managed to fight back and force overtime thanks to Paopao 3. But once the Ducks were ahead six early in the first overtime and four early in the second overtime, they couldn’t. ‘t save the last lead. Oregon scored no points in the last two minutes of the game, which culminated in Prince’s desperate three-point run on the last buzzer that didn’t fall.
“I think we should come back and work even harder and harder,” Graves said. “I think at times we are not cool. I think there was a time tonight – at some point you just say, “Hey, brace yourself, let’s go. I know that you are broken. you.’ I just think it’s happening and I think it’s a way of thinking. I think we should come back hungrier because we are no longer being hunted. We hunt like everyone else.”
Nyara played her part on Saturday, posting 31 points (12 of 24 shooting), 12 rebounds and 7 blocks, while sophomore Te-Hina Paopao added 18, but no other Oregon player scored more than 9. Oregon scored just four 3s compared to Belmont’s 12 and 17 assists compared to Belmont’s dozen.
“We lack that alpha and often if it comes from the coach, that leadership, then we’re in trouble,” Graves said. “We have leadership qualities, and leadership is shown from time to time, but the point is consistency.
“If I had to boil the entire season down to one word, it would be ‘inconsistencies’. Daily efforts, game production, leadership, training. I didn’t do my job very well. I was also inconsistent. It’s the same with my staff.”
Oregon will not need to start from scratch to turn things around and have a deeper tournament next season. While Nyara is eligible for the WNBA draft, the rest of the starters could return, including Prince, who said she would return to Eugene.
Graves also has ESPN’s second-highest-ranking recruiting class.
“We just need to somehow nurture it, recruit it, empower it,” Graves said. “We just have to work better.”