Next Friday can’t come soon enough for the Oregon women’s basketball team.
After a week-and-a-half of practices under first-year head coach Bev Smith, the new-look Ducks are eager to get back on the court with their first exhibition game against the Basketball Travelers on Nov. 2.
“We’re picking up the offense really well,” said senior point guard Edniesha Curry, a transfer from Cal State Northridge who sat out last season. “We’re just excited to get the season going and excited about where we’re going to be. I think we’re going have a real special group of girls.”
The 5-foot-6 Curry and the 5-foot-6 Shaquala Williams, the 2000 Pacific-10 Conference Player of the Year and a candidate for the Naismith Player of the Year Award this season (given to the country’s top player), will anchor a back court that features three other returnees and three freshmen.
Williams redshirted last season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee, but after helping the U.S. collegiate team earn a gold medal at the World University Games in China this summer, she is back to full strength.
“(Williams) is one of the most talented basketball players to ever step onto this floor,” Smith said.
Senior Jamie Craighead, Oregon’s shooting guard last year, will likely move to the No. 3 position with the Ducks going with a smaller, quicker lineup. Seniors Ndidi Unaka, a 6-foot forward, and Alyssa Fredrick, a 6-foot-3 post, will likely round out the starting lineup.
“We have a very small, quick team, but that’s not going to be our problem, it will be our opponents’ problem,” said Smith, an All-American in her playing days at Oregon from 1978-82.
Although the Ducks have made eight straight NCAA Tournament appearances and have won or shared two of the last three Pac-10 Conference championships — and won at least 10 conference games every year since 1993-94 — Pac-10 coaches predicted Smith’s Ducks will finish in a tie for fifth place this season.
Stanford, a co-conference champion with Washington and Arizona State last year, was projected to finish first.
“We’re not really worried about that. We still think we’ll be at the top,” said Craighead, who set a school record with 81 three-pointers last season. “We always anticipate good things. Coach Smith has set into place a great philosophy here.”
Sophomore forward Cathrine Kraayeveld is expected to see significant playing time this season, as will freshman Andrea Bills, a 6-foot-3 post, Amy Parrish, a 6-foot-2 forward, and guard Catherria Turner, a Tucson, Ariz., native who averaged a triple-double her senior year of high school.
“Usually in this program you don’t get the chance to play until your junior year,” Williams said. “But some of these freshmen are going to have to make an immediate impact.”
Getting back on top will not be easy for the Ducks this year, especially with a tough schedule. Along with Texas Christian, a team that advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year, the Ducks will square off against Texas Tech on Nov. 26 at McArthur Court in a rematch of last season’s overtime thriller in Lubbock, Texas, where the Red Raiders won 79-75. Utah, a sweet-16 team last year, comes to Eugene on Dec. 8. The Utes beat the Ducks 63-48 in Salt Lake City last December.
Pac-10 play begins Dec. 28 when Washington comes to town. Oregon also hosts the first-ever Pac-10 Tournament this season, beginning March 1.