Finally.
After five months of anticipation and excitement, the women’s basketball team will hit the hardwood at 5 p.m. today in the season’s first exhibition game against the Basketball Travelers at McArthur Court.
More importantly, though, Bev Smith will make her head coaching debut, looking to lead the Ducks to their ninth-straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
“The expectations are very high, and we’re looking to fill those expectations,” said Smith, the former Canadian national team coach. “I think that one thing that is really important is that we need to be the best team we can be. Every day we step on the practice floor and on the competitions floor we have to be a little better each time.”
Tonight’s game will also mark the return of Shaquala Williams, the 2000 Pacific-10 Conference Player of the Year who missed all of last season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee. Williams, a junior shooting guard, has not played at Mac Court since March 17, 2000, when the Ducks lost to Alabama-Birmingham in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
In preparation for this season — which would have been her senior year if not for the injury — Williams played with the national team in the World University Games, where she helped the United States win a gold medal in China.
“It feels great to get back in the gym,” Williams said. “I’ve worked hard all summer, and I feel like I’m in great shape.”
Shaq will probably be the only non-senior in Oregon’s starting lineup. In a guard-heavy formation, Edniesha Curry, a transfer from Cal State-Northridge, will take the point and three-point specialist Jamie Craighead will, fittingly, take the No. 3 spot. Forward Ndidi Unaka and center Alyssa Fredrick will likely round out the starting five in the team’s first appearance of the year.
“We’re going to play an up-tempo game, not necessarily because it’s our coaching staff’s sort of style, but I think our philosophy is that we need to play to the strengths of our athletes,” Smith said. “Certainly our quickness, shooting and running are going to be solid strengths that we’re going to do at both ends of the floor.”
The Ducks are coming off a 2000-01 season that saw them finish 17-12 overall (10-8 Pac-10), including a first-round overtime loss to Iowa in the NCAA Tournament.
The team was wrought with turmoil with one week left in the season, when eight players met with Athletic Director Bill Moos to request that then-head coach Jody Runge be fired.
On May 1, Runge resigned from her post.
Now, with a fresh start under Smith, the Ducks hope to create turmoil for their opponents.