A sports team’s spiral to the bottom can come in many different forms.
Maybe the team just wasn’t built well, and further injuries have only worsened it’s evident flaws.
Or a lack of secondary production can doom a team, with its stars unable to carry the entirety of the slack.
Perhaps, the team’s coaching isn’t up to par, with the recipe to defeat them remaining the same despite being more than halfway through the year.
All of these could apply to the now 11-11 Oregon women’s basketball team which after its most recent loss to Colorado (17-3, 7-2 Pac-12), it’s officially official; the Ducks are spiraling and there is no end in sight.
This particular rendition of green and yellow mediocrity came with an all-time slow start.
Oregon went a whopping 14 minutes without a field goal at half-time the Buffs had 13 offensive rebounds, the Ducks had 11 points and trailed by 20.
“We didn’t really compete in the first half,” said forward Grace VanSlooten.
The second half brought increased intensity as the Ducks cut the lead to as few as seven. But late turnovers and a lack of killer instinct once again were fatal.
“I feel a lot better, obviously I don’t like to lose ever, but I feel better about this game after the way we played in the second half, that shows we played with some character,” head coach Kelly Graves said.
The thing is character doesn’t (or hasn’t) resulted in victories for the Ducks who are now in second to last place in the Pac-12.
The recipe to defeat the Ducks remains the same, containing Oregon’s “big three” of VanSlooten, Phillipinna Kyei, and Chance Gray, and the Ducks will have no answers.
The Ducks will have no answers because there hasn’t been a clutch bench performance, or a hot start they have rid to beat a better opponent, or a killer instinct in a team that seems to always be playing from behind, or anything that suggests the Ducks — now losers of four straight — can break this rut.
It’s just been more of the same, control the big three and the Ducks will fall.
The trio of Kyei, VanSlooten and Gray combined for 41 on Sunday, the rest of the team had seven.
Now nine games into Pac-12 play Oregon’s non “big three” players have combined for just one game of ten or more points.
One! Seriously. One!
The Pac-12 slate that the Ducks face gives them little time to recover, but non-conference losses to Utah Tech and Portland have done the Ducks no favors.
And the message seems to remain the same.
“We’ve got to build on that defense, but it’s on the offensive end that we have to find some answers,” Graves said Sunday and seemingly after every game.
“We just don’t have enough firepower offensively. It’s a struggle, it’s a grind to score…We’ve got to find some answers.”
If offensive answers can be found the Ducks star power gives them some optimism, but it just hasn’t been enough thus far in 2024 the slate won’t get easier going forward, Oregon’s next five games come against ranked opponents.
“I told the team, ‘guys it’s not going to get any easier,’” Graves said. “We’re going to see nothing but ranked opponents the rest of the season.”
With this season seemingly a wash, it won’t get any easier for the Ducks in the Big Ten, 2025 point-guard recruit Katie Fiso looks to be a star, but Oregon will have to look to the transfer portal and return of Peyton Scott to bolster its roster.
That isn’t as easy as it seems, Oregon’s biggest portal splashes of late have come with the departures of Te-Hina Paopao and Endiya Rogers both of whom left Eugene for greener pastures.
If things don’t change down the stretch, it’s hard to imagine Oregon’s remaining stars won’t do the same.
