Taylor Lilley calmly nailed three-pointer after three-pointer in the few minutes prior to the start of media day for the Oregon women’s basketball team on Tuesday afternoon.
In that short time, Lilley offered a preview of Oregon’s next long-distance threat along the lines of Chelsea Wagner and Brandi Davis.
The freshman’s 5-foot-6-inch frame may be the only thing small about the Newhall, Calif. native. One of three new additions to the Oregon women’s basketball program, Lilley brings a winning background to a program seeking a return to the NCAA Tournament.
“It’s definitely been a lot more intense than high school – the whole atmosphere – but I love it,” Lilley said. “I always dreamed of playing this way and playing up-tempo with this kind of intensity. It’s only going to make me better.”
Lilley comes to Eugene from Hart High School, where she won a CIF Southern Section Division I-A Championship. Lilley is expected to provide perimeter scoring along with Kaela Chapdelaine and Cicely Oaks.
“Taylor (Lilley) is unbelievable in her understanding of the game,” coach Bev Smith said. “Both her and Micaela (Cocks) have picked things up very quickly.”
While it’s taken them a little while to pick up different facets of the Oregon system, their defensive prowess and conditioning have been outstanding, Smith said.
“Because they haven’t had a large learning curve, they’ve added an incredible intensity to practice,” Smith said. “We’re not waiting for them. We’re not ever struggling with them to catch up to things.”
Coaches are working with Lilley on expanding her offensive skills, recently having a defender run at Lilley, who had to make a pump-fake and go by for a dribble jumper.
Lilley is matching up with taller, more physical guards in practice. Going against the 5-foot-7-inch Oaks, for example, is giving Lilley her first experience with Division-I competition.
“She is a really tough player,” Lilley said of Oaks. “She uses her body really well, and I’m a smaller guard so it works for me because I get a taste of what it’s going to be like.”
Lilley averaged 18.8 points, 2.7 assists and 3.2 steals as a high school senior. She is prepared to make an impact when called on, she says.
“You have to work hard every single minute you’re on the floor, and not only just for the sake of it, but also just to make you better as a player,” Lilley said.
As a freshman in a new city, adjusting to life away from her family is a challenge in itself.
“It’s definitely tough and then being away from home is also tough, but you end up dealing with it and it gets better each day,” Lilley said.
Making the leap
The drive between Lane Community College and Oregon is short; they are maybe 10 minutes apart. But the physical distance between Lane and Oregon’s campuses pales next to the difference between their men’s basketball programs.
Lane is a community college that plays the likes of Linn-Benton, Mount Hood and Chemeketa. Across town, Oregon plays in the Pac-10 Conference, matching up with prominent programs including UCLA, Washington and Arizona.
No problem, says Josh Akwenuke, who believes he can make the transition from leading scorer at Lane for the last two years to a role player at Oregon. Oregon coach Ernie Kent agreed and announced on Oct. 2 that the 6-foot-5-inch, 200-pound guard had been added to the Ducks roster as a walk-on.
Akwenuke’s arrival from Lane, where he averaged 22.1 points and 7.8 rebounds last season, is the culmination of a journey from Westview High in Portland through the University of Puget Sound to Lane and finally, the Ducks.
“It’s something I’ve dreamed about – playing (Division-I) basketball in the Pac-10, especially here at Oregon,” said Akwenuke, who remembers watching Fred Jones and Luke Ridnour. “I think it’s a real good opportunity for me.”
Akwenuke says Division-I teams overlooked him out of high school. He decided to attend Puget Sound, where he played nine games before requiring surgery on a separated right shoulder. Akwenuke earned a medical redshirt and left for a new beginning with Lane.
Oregon assistant coaches Scott Duncan and Mark Hudson watched a couple of games. They expressed interest and Akwenuke sat down with Duncan, Hudson and Kent to discuss what he wanted out of college and what they expected of him.
Already, Oregon has one walk-on in Adrian Stelly, who played sparingly but enjoyed his best performance in the Pacific-10 Conference Tournament.
“I’m a real team-oriented guy and I want our team to do as well as we can,” Akwenuke said. “Bryce (Taylor) and Malik (Hairston) and Champ (Oguchi) – they’re all great players and they’ve proven that they should get the starting spots or the most playing time but when my number’s called … I’m just going to go 110 percent whether it’s for two minutes or it’s for 20 minutes.”
Two Division II schools – Western Washington University and Chaminade University of Honolulu – offered him scholarships.
“I think that it was hard in that sense to make people understand why I chose Oregon but at the same time it was just a better situation, better experience,” Akwenuke said.
Akwenuke said Oregon offers more academically, and his mother emphasized to him that there is life after basketball.
Akwenuke’s only regret is that he isn’t closer to his 13-year-old brother, who is an eighth grader in Portland.
“I wish I could be there with him more to help him out and teach him some things on the basketball court but at the same time I’m just glad that he can tell his friends, ‘My brother plays for Oregon,’ and can look up to me in that sense,” Akwenuke said. “That makes me feel good.”
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