One after the other, three members of the Oregon women’s basketball team made their way to the podium for postgame interviews following Saturday’s loss to Arizona State. They expressed frustration, having lost for the fourth time in six Pacific-10 Conference games, but appeared no less disheartened with the task ahead of them.
And they shouldn’t be.
Oregon is the midst of a difficult stretch. Its 80-70 loss to the Sun Devils Saturday night left the Ducks 10-6 overall, 2-4 in the Pac-10 Conference. The record is commendable considering the personnel losses experienced at the beginning of the season.
Merely surpassing expectations is little relief to a senior-dominated team. Oregon has a reasonable chance at a winning record and I believe they’ll achieve it. If the Ducks can find their way into .500 territory and a possible berth in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament, it leaves room for optimism.
Oregon’s incoming recruiting class is nationally ranked and offers relief with five seniors graduating, including leading scorer Eleanor Haring.
Oregon is finding ways to be competitive with the players it has now, never more evident than its recent trip to Los Angeles to face USC and UCLA.
Few fans witnessed it. Oregon players realize it. Point guard Tamika Nurse has expressed the sentiment multiple times. Oregon is close to being successful and is capable of winning any game it plays.
Against USC, Oregon stood within an inbound pass of scoring a well-earned win in the Trojans’ Galen Center. Two days later, a six-point Oregon halftime lead disappeared in a Bruins second-half flourish
“We’re here and people have to respect us at least,” Nurse said following the USC loss. “A lot of people didn’t respect us before the season.”
Nurse is one of the season’s surprises. She’s made last season a distant memory with averages of 9.4 points, 3.5 assists and 1.1 steals. She’s spurred an Oregon offense that has a chance to break the school record for three-pointers made in a season.
Oregon’s road to a winning season continues this week in Northern California. Stanford is ranked No. 9 and its record is 19-1 when hosting Oregon in Maples Pavilion. California sits at No. 21, fresh off a rout of Washington.
BYU did upset Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif. and Oregon beat BYU at home over the holidays. So hypothetically, there is hope.
Oregon then arrives home for a crucial four-game stretch – two against rival Oregon State (home and away) – and match-ups with UCLA and USC. All four games are winnable and should give a strong indication of where this team is headed.
By then, Oregon will be heading out on a difficult Arizona road trip and returning home to find the Bay Area schools at McArthur Court.
The way this tight knit Oregon team has handled itself leads me to believe it will avoid a collapse. Oregon is not in the running for a Pac-10 title or an NCAA Tournament berth.
What they do have is a chance to surpass last season’s win-loss ledger. Considering Oregon lost Gabrielle Richards and Kristen Forristall before the season, this is no small accomplishment.
“I think any game we’ve played pretty much so far has been there to be had,” Nurse said. “We haven’t been in any many games where we’ve been blown out or where we didn’t have a shot. As long as we come into games with the idea that we have a shot in every game, I think every game will be there for the taking.”
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