If it was bad, it happened to the Oregon women’s basketball team this season.
From a September injury of Shaquala Williams, the 2000 Pacific-10 Conference Player of the Year, to the surprising team meeting last week with Athletic Director Bill Moos regarding Jody Runge’s coaching techniques, Oregon has been through it all.
But in this tumultuous season of ups, downs, flips and spin cycles, Oregon’s current four-game winning streak comes as the team prepares for its eighth straight NCAA Tournament appearance, this time in Salt Lake City to face Iowa at 6 p.m. Saturday.
Oregon’s Williams-less leadership core, with the experience of consecutive Pac-10 titles, had no doubts about the team’s potential this season.
“I think we’re going to be OK, we’re just going to have to work harder, that’s what it comes down to,” senior center Jenny Mowe said prior to the season. “I think there’s going to be people stepping up, and that’s never a problem. We’ve got five seniors on this team, and that’s going to help a lot.
“It’s going to be a great year.”
Sophomore Kourtney Shreve was given the ball on opening day as starting point guard. She led the team to a 4-0 start in both the preseason and Pac-10 play. But as Shreve’s shots began to fall short, so did the Ducks’ hopes of another Pac-10 title.
In a Feb. 10 loss at California, Shreve was just 1-for-12 from the floor in 27 minutes. Since then, sophomore Alissa Edwards has taken on greater responsibility at the point and helped the team get to the NCAA Tournament.
“Alissa Edwards has pulled this team together and run the team at the point guard position,” head coach Jody Runge said.
The road has not been kind to the Ducks this season. The Ducks lost three straight to ranked opponents on the road in December, including a loss at Utah, the place they’ll be playing Saturday.
But home is where the heart is. After turning the season around some at McArthur Court, the Ducks entered Pac-10 play 8-3 overall. The success ran into conference p lay, where the Ducks jumped out into first place and looked to be on their way to a third-straight Pac-10 title.
But then, suddenly, the bottom fell out.
The Ducks went to Washington on Jan. 18 and eked out a win against the Huskies, but at a majo r cost.
Injuries dropped seniors Angelina Wolvert (knee) and Lindsey Dion (ankle). Two days later, the remaining Oregon seniors did something they’ve never done before — they lost to Washington State.
For more than a month, the Ducks struggled t o regain their confidence and lost five straight and six of seven. The Ducks dropped as low as sixth place in the conference standings during the slump.
When Oregon seemed to finally turn things around with a home victory against first-place Washingto n, it went back on the road and lost to last-place UCLA, all but killing its NCAA hopes.
“We’ve had some adversity, and we just need to fight through it,” Runge said after the UCLA game Feb. 23. “We really have no margin of error for winning out our last four games.”
And the Ducks did just that — winning at USC and coming home to sweep first-place Arizona State and Arizona.
Just one day after the Arizona win, eight players met with Moss to request that Runge be fired at the end of the season. The week leading up to Saturday’s Civil War game was an emotional one for Oregon, and Runge described the experience as “surreal.”
But, through it all, the Oregon seniors still have one last chance to dance their way into the spotlight.