Paul Westhead begins his 3rd season as Head Coach of the Oregon Ducks. His coaching style is pure run and gun and outscore the other team. With great three point shooting in Westhead’s first year the Ducks were 18-16, but last season the Ducks were 13-17 overall and 4-14 and 9th place in the Pac 10.
Dan Muscatell returns for his 3rd year an Assistant after being Head Coach at Sacramento State for 6 years. Keila Whittington also returns for her 3rd year as an Assistant Coach. Shandrika Lee is new to the staff, coming from coming Army to replace Kai Felton who is now at Cal.
Losses:
It’s a bit amazing that a team can lose 7 players like Oregon did from last year’s team thru graduation and yet not have big losses. However Oregon while losing 7 returns 5 of their top 6 scorers. Players with few minutes who graduated, Ellyce Ironmonger who only played one game, Candyce Flynn who averaged 3 minutes per game and Tatianna Thomas, once HoopGurlz # 31 PG who averaged 3 points in 11 minutes per game.
The other 4 losses must be replaced by a good Frosh class. Nicole Canepa averaged 5 points in 15 minutes and 3 rebounds. Ashley Buis averaged 6 points in 15 minutes. Victoria Kenyon averaged 5 points and 4 rebounds in 21 minutes. Kristi Fallin averaged 7 points and 3 rebounds in 19 minutes.
Returning Players:
Nia Jackson is a 5-7 Sr and returns as the starting Point Guard. She was injured and missed the last 9 games but hopefully is 100% for the start of the season. Jackson averaged 17 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds per game. She was also All Pac 10.
Ariel Thomas is a 5-6 Soph who started when Jackson couldn’t, although I would guess they both are starters this year especially after Thomas ended the season so well. Over the whole season, despite being mostly off the bench, Thomas averaged 8 points per game, 3rd on the team. When starting the last 5 games Thomas averaged 14 points and 4 assists.
Amanda Johnson is a 6-2 Sr and was the leading scorer, 16 points per game, and rebounder, 8 per game, for the Ducks. She also had the most 3’s, 49, although at only 28%. Johnson graduated last year after less than 3 years. She is getting her Masters now.
Jasmin Holliday is a 6-0 Sr, who started most games last season while averaging 7 points, 5th on the team, and 5 rebounds per game. Her brothers are and have been excellent college players.
Deanna Weaver is a 5-11 Soph from Wilcox High School in Santa Clara. Weaver was 6th on the team in scoring, 7 points per game, and 4th in rebounding, 4 per game.
These 5 players should be the starters, barring a Frosh taking over. 2 other returnees are 6-2 Soph Danielle Love who averaged 3 points and 3 rebounds per game, starting 9 games. Also 6-2 Soph Chynna Miley who played sparingly last season returns.
New Players:
Meagan Carpenter is a 6-4 Frosh Center from Colorado. Last season in High School she averaged 15 points, 13 rebounds and 4.5 blocks per game. She was the # 243 player in the country.
Amanda Delgado is a 5-7 Frosh Guard from Nevada where she was the State Gatorade Player of the Year. She averaged 16 points and 4 assists last year in High School and Westhead recruited her for her 3 point shooting. She was the # 248 player.
Jordan Loera is a 5-9 Frosh combo Guard from Washington. A personal note, I first saw her play as a 7th grader, holding her on an excellent Travel team with Redmon, Kingma and WSU’s Noyes. And she fit right in. Loera was a 4 year starter in High School scoring almost 2,000 points. She averaged 18 per game last season. She was the # 102 player in the nation last year. She is also a track performer, and is super athletic with a great 3 point shoot.
Janitah Iamaleava is a 6-2 Frosh Center from Long Beach, CA. As a Sr she averaged 13points and 9 rebounds per game. Was the # 13 Post player and # 163 overall. A good three point shooter.
Lexie Peterson is a 5-11 Frosh Wing from Washington. 2nd place 2 years ago at the State Track Meet in the Triple Jump. Like Loera, Peterson is very fast. She had a great offer list and chose the Ducks. A Point Guard on her Travel team, and she is an excellent three point shooter, she was the # 143 player.
Schedule:
A pretty weak schedule with Illinois and Fresno State being the highlights. Oregon doesn’t travel to the Arizona schools or host the LA schools.
The Season:
4 of 5 starters return and they add at least two fine frosh in the backcourt. They did a Frosh post to step up. With the weak non conference schedule, and their Pac 12 schedule, this could well be a winning team, even a team with 20 wins.
No comments:
Post a Comment