Moving on is the theme of the week for the Oregon women’s basketball team. Head coach Bev Smith and her players want to learn from – then completely forget – everything that transpired down in the desert. They have now lost five of their last six games, including five straight Pacific-10 Conference games.
“There isn’t a lot to be said about the games (against Arizona State and Arizona),” junior guard Micaela Cocks said. “It was disappointing and there wasn’t that 110 percent effort there should have been. You can never have a game back, but I really wish we could get the Arizona one again, because it was a really ugly performance on our part, and we can’t afford to do that. All you can do is forget about it.”
Disappointing, ugly and lackluster are words everyone has thrown out there, but senior guard Rita Kollo inserted her optimistic view to spin a positive side to the weekend.
“We can definitely take the experiences from the games,” she said. “We can learn so much. We get all the DVDs and every single one of us went home and watched them, and we came in today ready to fix them. We’re ready to get back on the right track.”
Kollo’s attitude is exactly what Smith is looking for. Smith says the team has just hit a rough patch, and is tired. That’s why she gave the team Sunday and Monday off.
“Since we started the Pac-10 season we haven’t had that many days off,” she said. “We’re a little bit tired and a bit dinged up, and two days will not hurt us. In fact, it might help us. We have a young team that is struggling in the middle of the season. We have to understand that we are in control of how we play, and we are better then we played at Arizona. The thing is you can’t just say that, you have to do it.”
But it might not be the team’s physical skills that are the problem. Cocks and Kollo say that the mental issues are stopping them now.
“All the games we have lost are because of us,” Kollo said. “We have to control our preparation and our execution. It’s definitely a mental thing. You have to push yourself over the limit every day. We have to treat every offensive and defensive set as the last one, and we haven’t exactly been doing that.”
“It’s about effort and playing as competitive as we can,” Cocks said. “Things like being physical, diving on loose balls and playing hard on defense. If we can be really aggressive on defense and get stops, then our offense will come and we won’t have as much pressure on us.”
One stat that has been a consistent reminder of the team’s struggles is turnovers. Thursday the Ducks had 26 turnovers, then another 24 against Arizona on Sunday.
“There isn’t a quick fix to it,” Smith said. “We have to coach up both the passer and the receiver. Then it’s just being smart and taking care of the ball.”
Cocks agrees.
“We aren’t as focused and sharp as we need to be,” she said. “It’s about being competitive and aggressive, and making better decisions with the ball. But I think having the two days off helped in clearing our heads and refocused us. We still have seven games left, and we just need to get back to doing the little things like we did against UCLA. If we can get back to playing like that I think we will play well.”
Something that might help lift the spirits of the team is the imminent return of Kollo, who for the second week wasn’t wearing a protective boot. She’s looking to play in the next week or two.
“I’ve been saying I’m gonna be back this week or that week, and it just hasn’t happened yet,” she said. “I’m just trying to really, really get back as soon as possible. We have the Washington schools, then Cal and Stanford, and I want to play in one of those games.”
Junior guard Taylor Lilley, who received a severe concussion in the first half against Arizona State Thursday and didn’t play against Arizona, is also probable for this week’s games.
That’s good news, because the Ducks want to be at full-strength if they want to shake their losing streak against Washington State on Thursday.
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