On Friday, Feb. 6, the Oregon women’s basketball team was teetering on the proverbial precipice after a tough road loss to Arizona State, the season in grave danger of becoming lost. From that point, the Ducks would go on to lose eight of their last nine games and watch as head coach and Oregon legend Bev Smith was fired, along with the rest of the coaching staff. An NBA and WNBA champion in Paul Westhead would take her place and assemble a coaching staff in short succession. One chapter opened as soon as the other closed.
That day, I was conducting a phone interview with Oregon freshman guard Darriel Gaynor, a promising young player pressed into action with fellow freshmen Jasmin Holliday and Amanda Johnson. Gaynor, however, was barely receiving playing time behind Micaela Cocks and Taylor Lilley, and for all her natural gifts she needed extensive practice time that she was not going to get.
Smith, of course, had no choice. Nia Jackson was out for the year with a torn ACL. Rita Kollo had a broken foot, and wouldn’t play a game all season. Gaynor, ready or not, was thrown into the fire.
I asked her if she wished she were redshirting the season, as opposed to playing it out the way it had gone.
“Honestly, I kind of wish they had,” she said. “I feel like, no one wants to waste a year of eligibility. Now that Nia’s out, I want to step in and help the team. They said for me to come in and work hard and try to play.”
They are the Oregon coaching staff, and they had no idea at the time that Oregon players would miss 84 games because of injuries during the season. Gaynor would miss eight of them with a sprained ankle and various ailments.
“For me, it’s not about the quantity of minutes. It’s about the quality of minutes,” Gaynor had said earlier in the interview. “It’s hard for me to swallow sometimes.”
It was a refreshing moment of honesty for me. I had watched Gaynor in practice, where early-season moments of frustration – hands flung over her head, impatient body language – gave way to moments of absorption, display of skills and tangible results.
I probably should have anticipated, then, her transfer from the women’s basketball team. She and forward Ellie Manou officially announced their intent to leave the team on Friday; Manou had left before the spring, returning to her native Australia. Gaynor will finish her academic term, return home to Las Vegas, and evaluate her options.
Gaynor spoke to me about homesickness, and “crying days” during the preseason. She spoke of the international travel of her sister Sequoia Holmes, a professional basketball player, and how much she missed her. She also expressed disappointment with the offense that Smith ran this season.
“Unfortunately, before, it was kind of like what I was used to, playing with two big post players,” she said. “I liked the way that Taylor and Micaela and Tamika Nurse did that. She changed her offense from previous years.”
Gaynor, who averaged 1.3 points and 1.0 rebounds in 10.4 minutes this season, would be Oregon’s third point guard in next season’s rotation, behind Cocks and Jackson – pending any other injuries. Still, I believe the Ducks are losing out on a potential great one. The shy, polite Gaynor is a speed demon whose ball handling and decision-making improved steadily over the course of the season. Her skill set fits well into Westhead’s transition offense, where the point guard must push the pace, organize the team and make quick decisions.
Make no mistake about it, though; Gaynor is absolutely making the right decision in one respect: Any transfer to a Division-I school will require Gaynor to take a year off, which will do wonders for her. She can focus on improving her game without worrying about her team’s performance. She’ll be able to develop relationships with her teammates, watch their tendencies and adapt herself quickly.
I last spoke with Gaynor after the team’s final spring practice. She was the last one on the court, and after bidding her goodbye I watched her dribble through a maze of cones. Working on her game.
I’ll be interested to see where that work gets her in two years.
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