The saga continues.
Despite the seniors’ grand goodbye and an eighth-straight NCAA Tournament berth, the recent controversy surrounding head coach Jody Runge’s coaching tactics continued to mount throughout the weekend.
All seemed well just before tip-off at Saturday’s Oregon Civil War victory, as each senior embraced Runge during the traditional senior-night ceremony.
However, forward Angelina Wolvert said not all was well before the game.
“Coach Runge pretty much said, ‘Put your arm around me or you don’t play,’” Wolvert said in several published news reports.
A whirlwind of support and criticism has surrounded Runge since last Sunday, when eight unnamed players met with Athletic Director Bill Moos and recommended that Runge be fired.
Neither Runge nor the players would say that any reconciliation took place over the weekend. However, at least one Duck said that Runge’s coaching through the past week helped lead Oregon to its 72-60 victory against Oregon State.
“This week in practice we were a little emotional, and coach finally had to say that we need to focus our emotions on the big game, don’t waste your energy in practice,” guard Jamie Craighead said. “We did that, and I think that helped us today.”
After beating Oregon State, Runge told reporters that the recent controversy hadn’t distracted the team from reaching the NCAA Tournament, which it did Sunday afternoon. The Ducks will face Iowa at 6 p.m. Saturday in Salt Lake City.
But Runge also said she doesn’t want the controversy to become a distraction, which is why she’s decided to continue her player lockdown from the media. According to Oregon media service representatives, Runge doesn’t even want her players questioned about the NCAA Tournament.
“My focus has been to keep them as far away from that as they can be, and to just keep them focused on practice and the task at hand, and on the opponent coming up,” Runge said at a Sunday press conference regarding the NCAA berth. “Right now they need to be focused on their books, and that’s been my intent as far as keeping them from the media.”
Runge said she hasn’t talked to players individually, but said she addressed her whole team about the coaching controversy last Tuesday.
“I gave them some brief thoughts about how I thought about things,” Runge said. “I apologized for hurting their feelings if that’s what my motivational techniques did to them.
“It’s not easy. My major concern was to make sure that they had a chance to go to the tournament, that when we had 5 of 7 at home in the second half of the season, that they could rally and have a chance with our tough preseason to go to the tournament.
“That’s what was really important to me as far as getting them to have that opportunity.”