After a blazing 3-0 start to the Pacific-10 Conference season, the sky appeared to be the limit for the women’s basketball team. Excited fans began to ask, “Just how far can this team really go?”
Twelve days and two losses later, those talks have simmered. The Ducks’ offense has yet to sputter, but their full court press was exposed against Arizona, giving up 119 points on 62.3 percent shooting.
“Nobody likes to lose, but I don’t think we’ve let it affect us too much,” junior guard Tatianna Thomas said. “We know we can play basketball, we know we’re a highly improved team.”
Much of Oregon’s positive attitude stems from head coach Paul Westhead, whose own career has endured many ups and downs.
“Our players are really good at what they do,” Westhead said. “So for me to try to make 15 corrections, that really isn’t the way to go with this group because they’re good at it.”
Also reassuring is the fact that the Ducks have already pinpointed some of the problems they had in Arizona. The defensive press was particularly troublesome, and the guards know they will have to step up in the next few games.
“A lot of times we were letting (Arizona) out of the trap too quickly, and not chasing back fast enough,” Thomas said. “So all the pressure was on our post players to defend two or three people, and that’s hard.”
As such, the team has been working hard in practice on containing opposing players and keeping the ball out of the paint. Westhead’s teams can only go as far as the press will take them, and the Ducks are well aware of this.
“We work on our press every day,” junior forward Nicole Canepa said. “We try to perfect that as much as possible.”
Of course, Oregon isn’t just focusing on the press. Though the offense has been running at a tremendous pace, it is not without its flaws.
“Coach touched on the fact that we were just shooting a little bit too quickly,” Thomas said. “Individually we were rushing our shots, pulling back our follow throughs too much and not focusing on layups 100 percent.”
They may seem like minute details, but no one questions Westhead’s knack for coaching offense. If the team is able to eliminate a few more kinks, the team could eclipse the 112-point mark.
“It was just a little lack of that one extra step in the games against the Arizona schools,” Canepa said. “I think that if we just put forth our full effort in these next games, we should be fine.”
The Ducks have struggled on the boards throughout the season, but did manage to outrebound Arizona by two on Saturday. It was an encouraging, if small, step forward. Now Oregon is well aware that in order to keep winning, the rebounding margin will have to increase.
“Rebounding is going to be a really big key,” Thomas said. “Both (California and Stanford) have really tall players all around … so we’re going to have to rebound.”
The buzz surrounding Oregon may have died down a bit, but it has done little to distract the team.
“We have such a stronger attitude than we did last year,” Canepa said. “We’re really looking forward to these next two games.”
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Ducks need only minor changes
Daily Emerald
January 19, 2010
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