Same windowless press conference room. Same long faces. Same result.
Oregon lost Sunday afternoon, marking a game that had been played out many times before.
The Ducks started slow, going down as many as 17 in the first half.
And it didn’t get much better from there.
Phillipina Kyei, Chance Gray and Grace VanSlooten combined for 36 points, keeping Oregon competitive enough for head coach Kelly Graves to champion his team’s effort.
“I’m proud of our team,” Graves said. “I thought we did a lot of good things.”
But the Ducks ultimately fell.
Rinse and repeat.
Graves began his post-game press conference in a manner he had all season, just this time there was no next game to look forward to. No easier opponent to embark on. No more hope the tides would turn.
The Ducks’ (11-20, 2-16 Pac-12) 13th-straight loss mercifully ended their regular season. A forgettable end to a historically unremarkable slate of games.
The conclusion was deafening. The season was nobody’s fault but everybody’s reality.
“It’s been tough,” Graves said. “It’s been a tough season…kind of just a perfect storm all the way around.”
Are there things Graves could’ve done differently this season? Sure. He occasionally raised eyebrows, but there were no blatant blunders that come to mind.
It would have been impossible to have predicted star-transfer Peyton Scott’s season would be cut short, same with Sofia Bell’s.
Few teams could have survived Oregon’s schedule which included seven games in a row against ranked teams.
But that doesn’t change the fact that the Ducks won two games in conference play. Oregon’s loss to No. 4 Stanford (26-4, 15-3 Pac-12) was one of its most competitive effort-wise in weeks, and the Ducks still lost by 20.
Now, Oregon’s season isn’t fully over as a Pac-12 tournament game in Las Vegas against No. 13 Colorado still awaits. But 13-straight losses don’t exactly scream “sleeper” now does it?
“We’ve got nothing to lose at this point,” Graves said of his team’s tournament chances. “We can go down and play free and easy.”
Pregame, the team’s Twitter account tweeted a post celebrating the team’s end-of-season banquet. The bottom of which read “one more at MKA”.
They could have easily been talking about a loss.
And that left Graves in that same windowless room reminiscing on another lost season. Oregon will miss the NCAA Tournament for the second-straight year. Barring a miracle in Vegas, it’ll miss the NIT too.
“It’s hard to justify,” Graves said, admitting his team’s performance was likely not good enough to warrant postseason play. “My guess is our season is over after whatever happens in Vegas.”
Graves is a remarkably likable coach, and he’s consistently remarked on his team’s morale being high despite the onslaught of losses. His post-game speech thanking fans for their continued support despite the cumbersome season was admirable.
But feel-good stories don’t always result in wins, at least not for Oregon.
And for the second time this season, Graves deflected questions regarding his job security, citing past success as the primary reason for his belief in his ability to restore the team.
There are possibilities, but no clear answers to revive the program.
Incoming freshmen Katie Fiso and Faith Ehi Etute look promising, as does the return of Scott and Bell. The Big Ten isn’t nearly as competitive and features a more forgiving slate of games and if players don’t depart the program, the Ducks could be decent or at least improved in 2025.
“Hopefully we keep the band together,” Graves said “We’re definitely going to have to add some pieces. We’ll be active in the portal, there’s no question.”
“Our staff is going to work hard. I think we have a brand that people still want to be a part of, and we’re going to work our tails off.”
Graves has coached well enough in the past to lead teams to the Elite Eight and beyond, and remains adamant Oregon will get back to that peak. Only he can prove he can adjust well enough to compete with the ever-present NIL implications that flood offseason moves.
Of late the Ducks’ biggest offseason moves have been subtractions. Te-Hina Paopao — one of the five 5-star recruits from the top-ranked 2020 class — is gone. So is Endiya Rogers.
“The Oregon brand is still a brand people want to be associated with.” Graves said.
The Oregon brand used to mean dominance: now after 13-straight losses, those times seem oh-so-distant. Only time will tell if and how Graves turns around a program looking to climb back not into dominance, but relevance.
