The similarities are scary.
First, the records: Oregon enters Saturday’s 1 p.m. women’s basketball Civil War at McArthur Court with a 5-3 mark in the Pacific-10 Conference (10-7 overall). Oregon State is also 5-3 (9-9 overall).
The Ducks boast one of the conference’s best backcourts in Shaquala Williams and Edniesha Curry. The Beavers could say the same about their flashy guards, Felicia Ragland and Leilani Estavan.
Ragland was the 2001 Pac-10 Player of the Year. Williams won the same award in 2000.
Oregon’s Bev Smith and Oregon State’s Judy Spoelstra are the head coaches at the schools for which they played. Both were All-Americans in the early 1980s, competing against each other for the state’s bragging rights.
Then there are the weird, are-these-even-real? statistical similarities.
Entering this week, Oregon has shot 285 three-pointers this season (making 92). Oregon State has attempted the same (making 94).
The Beavers commit 17.8 turnovers per game, the Ducks 17.9.
Oregon averages 15.24 assists per game (fourth in the Pac-10), Oregon State 15.65 (third).
Both teams are fourth in the conference with 63 blocks in 17 games (3.71 blocks per game).
Both teams have two players from the state of Washington.
OK, enough.
There is this one little difference — yes, something that separates the two programs — one that seems to stick out ever-so-slightly: Oregon has not lost to Oregon State in six years, a span of 11 games. Even more, the Beavers have not won at Mac Court since 1993.
But none of that matters, right?
“Anytime you talk about the Civil War, you have to throw all those things out the window,” Smith said.
Right. Throw it all out the window, but don’t forget about Williams and Ragland — they alone will prove to be worth the price of admission.
Before bursting for 36 points against UC-Santa Barbara on Wednesday (a game the Beavers lost), Ragland was second in the Pac-10 with 19.9 points per game. Williams is fourth with 16.8 per game.
While the guard play will be the most exciting, it seems they will cross each other out.
“That’s a great, marquee matchup,” Smith said of Williams and Ragland. “(But) something that is going to be important for us is the inside game. When we play well on the inside — when we balance the scoring and keep the rebounding margin close — we’ve usually had a pretty good chance of being successful, even against Stanford.”
Oregon State boasts experience in 6-foot-3 Ericka Cook, a three-year starter in the paint. Oregon’s starting center, Alyssa Fredrick, is in her first year in the starting lineup, but will get help from sophomore Cathrine Kraayeveld and freshman Andrea Bills.
You could analyze and compare all day, but it wouldn’t matter. Just throw it all out the invisible, rivalry-clichéd “window.”