Early in the New Year, I have already found a story that is both compelling and heartening.
No, it’s not the men’s basketball team after losing to the Beavers — who lost by 51 points to Seattle University a few days prior.
No, it’s not Team Stunts and Gymnastics (although it was cool to see them out there doing flips and other crazy things for the first time).
And no, it isn’t Lady Gaga being spotted wearing normal clothes for once instead of her usual “What were you thinking when you dressed this morning???” garb.
The story of the winter so far is the women’s basketball team and its resurgence from the bottom of the Pacific-10 Conference. Because don’t get me wrong, the Ducks were flat-lining in a ditch somewhere at the end of last season due to a stagnant offense, poor defense and even worse management.
But just like it takes a defibrillator to revive a cardiac arrest patient, the Ducks were put to the paddles by head coach Paul Westhead. His instant shock therapy of lightning fast offense has excited fans and revived both Taylor Lilley and Micaela Cocks from Bev Smith’s boring offense last year.
Oregon is 12-3 and 3-0 in the Pac-10, and even if the Ducks finish on the outside looking in at the NCAA Tournament this year, the season is already a success. They already have three more wins than all of last season (no, this is not a typo), and are averaging a NCAA-best 87 points per game scoring.
Last season when I covered the women’s team, teams were averaging 67.2 points per game against Oregon and the Ducks were scoring just 56.6 a game. Cocks averaged 13.5 a game and Lilley just 10, and interviews with players became harder and harder to do just because they were out of answers.
They knew what was happening was unacceptable and they knew, unfortunately, Smith was on her way out.
This season, Lilley has been revitalized (and relatively injury-free, knock on wood), averaging a team-high 16.7 points per game, while Cocks is at 15.2 a game. The emergence of sophomore Amanda Johnson as a rebounding machine has also helped. Johnson is averaging 10.1 rebounds a game — second most in the conference behind Ify Ibekwe of Arizona — and is pouring in 14.7 points per game as well.
To cut a long story short, Westhead has been a shot in the arm to a sick program. A fan base that was turned off by last year’s struggles is slowly coming around this year. The attendance numbers are still not that great (only 2,255 showed up to see Oregon beat Washington State on Jan. 3), but as Oregon continues to succeed down the stretch, fans will come out in more numbers.
The women face a stiff test this weekend in Arizona against the Sun Devils and Wildcats, followed by an even tougher task next week at home against Stanford and California. They won’t be the lame ducks they were against these teams from a season ago.
I know it’s still early in the conference schedule, but I can’t help but be excited for the rest of the season. I’m sure Cocks and Lilley are ecstatic that they have the free-range to pull up and shoot whenever they want. Those two are just as fun to watch as anyone on the men’s team just because of their pure shooting ability, and I’m glad for them that they are going out on a better note than last year.
This is truly one of the more remarkable turnarounds we’ve seen at Oregon; the bad vibes around the team last year were unmistakable.
Let’s just hope that the resurgence isn’t finished.
It would be terrible to see the Ducks again in the ditch, in need of assistance.
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