In 2010, Paul Westhead’s first season as coach, the Oregon women’s basketball team won 18 games — the most by a Duck team since the 2004-05 season.
That was due in large part to the stellar play of then-seniors Micaela Cocks and Taylor Lilley. The two guards, who ranked first and second on the team in scoring, three-point baskets made and minutes played, combined to average 31.9 points per game.
Together, they made up 39 percent of the Ducks’ overall scoring output.
Lilley and Cocks’ graduation raised several questions pertaining to the 2010-11 team. Which players would step up and replace their scoring? How would the Paul Westhead-led squad handle the absence of senior guard leadership? And, most importantly, would the Ducks be able to build upon the success of last season’s NIT team and post back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons?
Heading into this weekend’s Civil War rivalry game, precisely one-third of the way through the Ducks’ Pacific-10 Conference season, several answers have emerged.
First and foremost, it’s become apparent that Oregon has plenty of players that are capable of putting up points in bunches. Nia Jackson and Amanda Johnson, who combined to average 23.2 points per game last season and were the third and fourth-leading scorers on the Ducks, have increased their production this year.
Johnson leads the team with 16.4 points per game, while Jackson is a close second at 16.3. In all but one of Oregon’s games this season, either Jackson or Johnson has been the team’s leading scorer.
While Jackson and Johnson have emerged as Oregon’s two primary scorers this season, the roster is littered with players capable of having big nights. Nicole Canepa, Jasmin Holliday, Victoria Kenyon, Ariel Thomas, Deanna Weaver, Ashley Buis and Kristi Fallin have all scored at least 15 points in a game this year.
As it stands now, the Ducks are 11-6 on the year and 2-4 in conference.
And, outside of No. 4 Stanford and No. 8 UCLA, every team in the Pac-10 is beatable on any given night. But in order to rack up wins with more consistency, the players on Oregon’s roster will need to be more consistent.
Take Johnson, for instance. She was arguably the Pac-10’s top player during the non-conference part of the Ducks’ schedule.
But recently, she has struggled. And that might be putting it politely — in Oregon’s six conference games, Johnson is shooting 28 percent from the field and averaging 10 points per game. In fairness, Johnson was battling a chest infection for much of that time, which undoubtedly affected her play and endurance.
The same goes for the team’s complementary players. Buis, while capable of making three-pointers in bunches, is shooting only 32 percent from the field this season. Canepa, who averaged 14.5 points per game in the first four games of the Pac-10 conference season, has been held to five points or fewer on numerous occasions this year. And the list goes on.
I don’t mean to single any player out, but instead to show that while the Ducks have struggled as a whole lately, the potential is there for Oregon to put together a dynamite second half of conference play.
Consider, if Jackson keeps up her current level of play (she’s averaged 17.7 points, 6.0 assists, and 4.7 rebounds per game in conference play) and Johnson plays the way she’s capable of (a double-double machine), Oregon will have one of the best one-two punches in the conference.
Add in more consistent play from Canepa, who provides much-needed rebounding and interior scoring when she’s playing well, more consistent shooting from Buis, and continued improvement from true freshmen Weaver and Thomas, and there’s no reason the Ducks can’t be one of the Pac-10’s elite.
It’s apparent they have the talent to be that. At this point, it’s just a matter of consistency.
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