Paul Westhead fumbled his words. He appeared insecure, lacking his usual charm. He stopped and started repeatedly. He grasped for answers where he himself had not developed them.
The Oregon women’s basketball team had just been handed a 72-62 defeat by the California Golden Bears in a game where it could not capitalize on opportunities. The contest was very physical, with Nia Jackson having to change jerseys at one point after someone bled onto her uniform. Cal’s most important halftime adjustment was grinding the pace of the game to a halt, stifling the Ducks’ yearnings to run and gun.
The game was Oregon’s third Pacific-10 Conference loss in a row. When Westhead was hired to take over the program, it was inferred he would keep them competitive, loosely defined as within the top half of the Pac-10 standings. The man who set that precedent, who hired Westhead as coach, is former athletic director Pat Kilkenny. He was in attendance for the game and the Thursday night postgame press conference.
After Westhead discussed the game with the assembled media, Nicole Canepa entered the media room to take his place. Before sitting down, Canepa noticed Westhead had left his reading glasses on the interview table.
Most people would call this a senior moment. The less forgiving would call it a moment of weakness. For Westhead, who will turn 71 next month, the moment seemed almost humanizing within the context of the Ducks’ alien transformation as a team.
Oregon has been consistently entertaining and inconsistently productive this season. Sometimes the fast-break offense doesn’t get going against teams actively trying to counter the Ducks. Sometimes the pressure defense gets beaten over and over, or the half-court defense (the matchup zone is Westhead’s flavor of choice) is slow to react and stop the opposition. The women have a lot to learn about Westhead’s offense, but they have also shown a promising learning curve.
Westhead does not have the ideal personnel for his offense. The system requires a willingness to pull the trigger for long-range shots, but the Ducks’ shooters are mostly inconsistent outside of Taylor Lilley. Nia Jackson has far and away the fastest wheels on the team, Micaela Cocks the most endurance and Amanda Johnson the most post skills. The current personnel mesh well but tend to come up short when one of those four has an off-day, as Westhead’s current rotation of eight players begins to log heavier minutes.
What transpired during Oregon’s contest against No. 2 Stanford on Saturday, then, was nothing short of excellent coaching. The Ducks were in tune with one another, memories of bad games gone like water off a duck’s feathers. For 20 minutes, a loud, proud crowd at McArthur Court believed in the impossible, and a 54-50 halftime deficit looked highly surmountable.
Stanford entered the game with bigger and more skilled players than the Ducks, and the size and skill combined with the Ducks’ poor second-half shooting in a lethal combination in the 100-80 loss. The attitudes of Westhead and his players postgame was significantly lighter. Oregon was back in control of itself despite its fourth consecutive loss, and while the result wasn’t ideal, the Ducks’ minds found the right place.
Westhead had never coached women’s college basketball before and had been out of the college game in general for over a decade. Against Stanford, he showed he knew exactly the right buttons to push, beyond substitutions and scheme adjustments. The loss will eat at him, but it will make the next win that much sweeter.
Yet another minor event marked Westhead’s Saturday postgame press conference. As he made his customary opening statement, someone along the room’s back wall accidentally bumped into a switch and turned off the overhead lights.
“Lights out means thank you very much. Good night,” Westhead deadpanned, to resounding laughter.
Perfect timing. Perfectly charming.
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