Pac 12 Preview: Oregon

Pac 12 Preview: Oregon

Last Season: Oregon was 24-11 last season and 9-9 in Pac 12 play. The Ducks won 4 games in the WNIT before losing in the semi-finals. Oregon averaged 8 threes per game at 42%.


The Coaches:
Kelly Graves returns for his 3rd season. Graves has had great success coaching with St Mary’s then Gonzaga where he won the WCC title in all ten of his seasons.
Mark Campbell returns for his 3rd season as an assistant and is the Associate Head Coach. Mark is a fine recruiter as evidenced by the great incoming frosh class.
Jodie Berry is in her 3rd season as an assistant having been with Graves his entire time at Gonzaga.
Former Stanford and WNBA great Nicole Powell is in her 3rd season as an assistant


Losses:
The Ducks lost six players to graduation, including three of their top five scorers. The six played 52% of all minutes.
Jillian Alleyne is one of the greatest players in Oregon history. Last season Alleyne averaged 19 points and 14 rebounds per game. Sadly she missed the last 7 games with a knee injury. Still she’s a huge loss.

Lexi Peterson averaged 13 points, making 63 threes at 45% and started all but one game.

Kat Cooper averaged 7 points in 17 minutes and made 73 threes at 43%.

Liz Brenner averaged 4 points and 2 rebounds in 11 minutes.
Jordan Loera averaged 2 points and Katie Gruys [played just 31 minutes.


Additions:
What an incoming class. Maybe the tops in the nation, it’s a class of 7 plus a transfer and many will have to contribute right away.
Sabrina Ionescu is a top 5 player and should start from Day 1 at the Shooting Guard. She was the Player of the Year in several publications, scored a record 25 points in the McD game and even had 10 rebounds to go with 7 threes in that game. Sabrina is 5-10
Guard.
Mallory McGuire is a 6-5 Post who is the daughter of former NFL QB Dan and the niece of Baseball great Mark McGuire. She is very aggressive and moves extremely well. Mallory will be a star.

Sierra Campisano is a 6-3 Wing or a 4. Sierra has a good three shot and is aggressive. Sierra is an excellent offensive played having averaged 30 points per game last season in HS.

Jayde Woods is a 6-1 Guard. She played HS for Vanessa Nygaard then travel for Cal Swish, home of the Samuelsons, Pohlen and Harmon. Jayde is an excellent defensive player.

Ruthy Hebard is a 6-4 Post or Power Forward from Alaska. Ruthy is still another top ranked player and played for the recent 18U National team.
Morgan Yeager is a 5-9 Guard from Australia. Morgan played on several Youth National teams for Australia and is very quick.

The final and 7th member of this great recruiting class is 6-6 Post Lydia Giomi. Lydia was also a fine Volleyball player in HS.

Another newcomer is 5-10 Jr Guard Justine Hall who has transferred from Purdue and will sit out this season. Justine was the # 74 player out of HS. Her father Darryl played Football for the 49ers.



The Schedule: The non-conference schedule includes Michigan State, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Clemson, but overall, much lower teams not in Power 5 conferences.
The Ducks play only at ASU and Arizona and only at home vs Washington and Washington State



The Team:
The two top scorers back for the Ducks are both Guards. Maite Cazoria is a 5-10 Soph from Spain and Lex Bando is a 5-9 Jr. Cazoria averaged almost 12 points per game hitting 52 threes at 39%. Cazoria is the Point Guard and averaged 6 assists per game with a 1.6 assist to turnover ratio. She had an outstanding Frosh year.
Bando averaged 11 points per game hitting 72 threes at 45%.

Jacinta Vandenberg is a 6-5 Sr who averaged 6 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks in 22 minutes per game. Jacinta could play the 5 or the 4. She played her first two seasons at Fresno State, and is from Australia.

At least four Frosh, Ionescu, McGuire, Campisano and Hebard will play well and see a lot of action. Another Frosh or two could join them.
Oregon has four other players returning although none played as many as 10 minutes per game. Morgan Trinder is a 5-7 Jr Guard who missed last season with a knee injury after transferring from JC.

Mar’Shay Moore is a 5-8 Sr Guard who also played her first two seasons at a JC.

Lauren Yearwood is a 6-3 Post who is from British Columbia and has played on four Canadian National Jr Teams.

Oti Gildon is 6-1 Frosh Forward and while she didn’t play much last season ESPN had her ranked # 37 in the nation.



Prediction: Lots of talent and it’s mostly young. It’s probably a perfect non conference schedule for the Ducks. It’s a top 6 in the league team in my mind.


2017 Recruiting:
Aina Ayuso, 5-9 Guard from Spain