Now that an invitation to the Big Dance is almost out of sight, the Oregon women’s basketball team could soon be faced with a big question:
To WNIT, or not to WNIT?
After losing on the road to Stanford and California earlier this month, head coach Jody Runge said that she wouldn’t accept an invitation to the Women’s National Invitational Tournament.
But Runge softened her stance when Oregon beat Washington at McArthur Court on Feb. 17. She said that while she’s still not interested in the WNIT, the decision to participate in the consolation tournament rests with the players.
Those players showed mixed emotions before Tuesday’s practice when talking about the WNIT.
“The consensus for the team, I think, is to not go,” junior guard Jamie Craighead said. “I’m just going to speak for myself though — we haven’t really talked about it — but I don’t want to go. I feel like if you don’t get to the tournament, I don’t really know what postseason play means to be the 65th best team in the country if you win the NIT.”
Then, like her coach, Craighead put her opinions aside when she thought of her five senior teammates.
“If the seniors want to go though, I’ll be willing to go,” Craighead said. “If they want to continue the season, then by all means. We still have a year to come back and play, so I don’t see this as an end; I see this as a beginning for next season.”
At this time, the seniors don’t seem to have any firm decisions made about a possible WNIT appearance.
“I personally do — well OK — no, well yes — OK,” said senior forward Angelina Wolvert, trying to collect her thoughts. “I think it’s kind of bad that our coach doesn’t want to go to the WNIT. I know she doesn’t; she thinks it’s the ‘losers’ tournament,’ and that’s fine, and it’s cool because it’s her opinion, but I think it’s kind of uppity to say to anybody, even me, anybody, to say that we’re too good for that tournament.
“Obviously we haven’t had that great of a season, and it’s not like we can talk. We can say, ‘well the past couple years,’ but this isn’t the past couple years right now. This is this year, and we didn’t do well. The NIT is probably where we belong, although I’d rather be in the NCAA’s.”
Even senior center Jenny Mowe, usually willing to give her take on any topic, felt uncomfortable talking about the WNIT.
“It doesn’t really matter to me. I’ll play anything if they want me to,” Mowe said.
With three home games remaining against the Arizona schools and Oregon State, there is still a slim-to-none chance that Oregon could go to the NCAA Tournament.
If the Ducks win out, Oregon would finish the season 17-11 overall, a number good enough for the Big Dance.
However, none of the Ducks are slapping high-fives after watching their RPI plummet from No. 51 to No. 67 after last weekend.

“Maybe if we would have beat UCLA and lost to USC, or won both of those games and lost to [Arizona State],” Craighead said, “But since we dropped to UCLA, I really doubt we’ll get into the tournament.”
Still, at least one Duck has yet to give up.
“I’m not giving up hope. I don’t want them to give up hope,” Runge said. “We have three games at home and still an outside chance, and the teams we have left to play are still good wins for us.”

Given a fair ‘shake’?
Wolvert still isn’t happy about being temporarily suspended for not shaking the Bruins’ hands after they beat the Ducks 70-68 at Pauley Pavilion Friday .
After Oregon’s last-second inbounds pass was intercepted, Wolvert said that the UCLA bench cleared onto the court as the Bruins celebrated beneath the far basket.
What happened after that is clear from all sides: Wolvert walked to the locker room without congratulating the victors.
But Wolvert claims that she waited with her teammates at halfcourt for awhile and only when she thought the Bruins were too busy celebrating to shake hands did she walk away.
“It’s my fault, and I’m taking full responsibility for what I did,” Wolvert said. “I just don’t think that the punishment fits the crime right now.”
“Ange still has some feelings about it, but my thing is don’t complain when you get pulled over and the police write you a ticket,” Runge said. “I think she’s complaining, and you know, that’s her choice in how she handles things. I think we’ll deal with that discipline-wise in a different way, and I felt like that was fair so I let her play.”
Wolvert did get to play on Sunday, leading the Ducks to a 74-66 win with 25 points in 23 minutes. She would not have played if senior teammates Lindsey Dion and Brianne Meharry hadn’t approached Runge and asked that Wolvert be reinstated.
Nobody asked the two seniors to confront their coach, Craighead said.
“I think you could see the looks on our faces when she told us about suspending Ange that none of us agreed with that,” Craighead said.
“I’m grateful that our seniors went and talked to coach Runge,” Craighead continued. “I don’t know how much coach Runge thought about what she was doing before she decided to suspend Ange, but I did really think it was going to be a punishment for our team, rather than the individual who needed to be punished.”
Wolvert will be punished. Part of that punishment includes writing letters of apology to the Bruins, and part of it will include extra running — maybe 40 miles before spring break, Wolvert said.