The start of the New Year has been rough for Oregon women’s basketball. After enjoying a perfect run through non-conference play — 11 straight wins — the Ducks have dropped their last four to open Pac-12 play.
To be fair, the start of conference play had Oregon matched up against some of the premiere teams, including the Los Angeles schools and a doubleheader against rival Oregon State. All three represented better talent than the Ducks faced during a relatively cushy slate of opponents to open the season.
“If there was a betting line in Vegas, they would have been considered favorites,” Oregon head coach Kelly Graves said.
That the Ducks have been outscored 273-214 in the past two weeks, speaks more to the toughness of the Pac-12 than any sort of indictment of Oregon.
“The winner of the conference may have four loses, its looking like that kind of year,” Graves said. “I feel, and our team feels, that we can beat anybody.”
To do that, Oregon needs to address some issues.
The team has to find a consistent second scorer who can step up and fill in production behind star Jillian Alleyne. This team is too one dimensional on offense, allowing opponents to send double and triple teams against her. This severely limits Alleyne’s ability to make an impact.
Sophomore guard Lexi Bando is the most obvious candidate to take on the role. Despite her current shooting woes, Bando has proven her ability to score from multiple areas on the court. She has the best shooting percentage from three-point range (.424) and has the skill to create open looks off the dribble. The Ducks need more from Bando than her two most recent scoreless outings.
The seniors need to be more active during games to insure things stay on track. Oregon has a bad habit of going through slumps during games where the focus and intensity seems to slip. The coaches can only do so much from the bench, so the onus is on the veterans to take on more of a leadership role. Lexi Petersen, Jordan Loera and Kat Cooper are experienced players who can help their younger teammates understand what it takes to succeed at the collegiate level. The ultimate goal is to avoid slow starts and make sure the team doesn’t let up late in the game — both of which are crucial when the level of competition is raised.
Some of the answers may be on the Oregon bench. Redshirt senior Liz Brenner has played well all season, while junior Mar’Shay Moore has been a surprise source of energy in the past two games. Moore had trouble getting time on the court early in the year, but has used her speed and relentless defense as a way to carve out minutes. The option is there for Graves to mix things up, and players like Moore can be a good way to create new problems for opposing teams to deal with.
In many ways, the perfect start was fool’s gold, as the level of competition was always going to create an inflation of expectation the team could never hope to match. This losing streak isn’t an anomaly, but more a regression towards the mean for a program that is continuing to grow.
“I always tell the team ‘a good team with nothing to lose is dangerous’,” Graves said. “So I think we can be a dangerous team.”
Follow Chris Keizur on Twitter @chriskeizur