The Oregon women’s basketball team has accepted an at-large bid to compete in the 2010 Women’s National Invitational Tournament, which begins on Wednesday.
The Ducks will take on Eastern Washington Thursday night at McArthur Court in the tournament’s first round, preserving the 83-year-old gymnasium for one more game.
“Anytime you lose the last game of your season and all of a sudden there’s a little opening, I’m happy. I’m looking forward to it,” Oregon head coach Paul Westhead said. “We actually practiced today in hopeful anticipation that it wouldn’t be a wasted practice. We’re excited and looking forward to it.”
“The value (of a postseason tournament like the WNIT) is in the playing. You get a group of young ladies who have put in over the past year some hard practices and games and travel, and this just gives them another opportunity to display their ability and their wanting to play basketball.”
Oregon finished the year with a 16-15 record (7-11 Pacific-10 Conference) before falling in the Pac-10 Conference Tournament’s quarterfinals against USC, the Ducks’ seventh-straight loss. The Eagles are a familiar opponent – they fell to the Ducks, 86-48, at Mac Court on November 16, the first official game of Westhead’s tenure. Eastern Washington went on to finish 19-11 (12-4 Big Sky Conference) but lost in the Big Sky tournament semifinal to Montana State.
“I think it’ll be good for us,” Westhead said of the matchup, “because it’ll just allow us to play a more normal press-and-run game rather than an adopted one for Pac-10 opponents coming around the second time.”
“You just need to be sharp enough to win it. Obviously, the other team is coming in feeling and thinking that same thing. A lot also depends on how the enthusiasm and excitement for the game can stretch for your personnel, and I don’t think we’ll have any problem with that.”
The Ducks’ practice today was geared toward its pressing defense, which had been beaten up in the past seven games, all Oregon losses.
“I addressed it a little bit with them already – we’ve been tinkering with our presses, trying to get clever and re-do them for different opponents,” he said. “Overplay some people, underplay other people, left hand side against this team, right hand side against other team. We went back to October for our normal press approach.”
Oregon is one of three Pac-10 teams in the field of 64, including Cal (automatic bid) and Arizona State (at-large bid). (USC, in line for an automatic WNIT bid, declined its invitation.) Should the Ducks advance beyond Thursday’s contest, the will compete against the winner of SMU-New Mexico, which takes place Wednesday in Albuquerque. Whether the Ducks would be in line to host another game at Mac Court is unknown at press time.
The Ducks won the NIT in 2002 and 1989 (called back then the National Women’s Invitational Tournament) and participated in the 2007 tournament (a third-round exit) and the 1979 tournament (a semifinal exit). They have earned one last chance at adding another banner to the rafters of Matt Court, but their attention now lies on keeping the dream alive against the Eagles.
“I said it to our players going down to the Galen Center (for the Pac-10 Tournament) – any time you get into these kinds of tournaments, the first game is so pivotal to kind of get your bearings to get a win, to feel that you belong,” Westhead said. “It’s like the start of the season. It’s a crucial game. I’m very happy to be re-opening Mac Court one more time.”
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