Remember the women too!🙏 Preseason ranked #20 in the country. By all accounts I have read...Graves has done a reset of the program.

Jiffy Jeff wrote:

After the first round exit from March Madness as a #5 seed, Graves left nothing to hide with his disdain for his team's general lack of effort and focus immediately in his postgame interview.  Not surprisingly, many players hit the portal as a response to the criticism.  Parents of past players wrote an open letter in support of Graves and he has been able to cobble together a good team of recruits and transfers who hopefully have a good understanding of what is expected of them at UO.  

Another part of his reset is limiting the number of higher caliber players to be fewer moving forward.  Knowing he cannot stroke every ego with 30 minutes of PT per game, he needed to find solid role players to complement the "stars."

The thing is, our best years were the Sabrina-Sabally-Hebard years, so three all stars, and we did real well, and might have won a championship. I think coach Graves has missed on some of these so called "stars" recently. He really hyped up Sedona, but she never played like I thought she would, and Paopao has not yet reached a level Kelly said she would when she first got here. I do think he has a solid roster right now, but sure hoping we can avoid the injury bug. 
Something not often mentioned is how much Mark Campbell meant to this team. Losing him was a major blow, imo.
 

So bummed about the injury situation with Danas squad. I was so dearly hoping we would be strong coming out of the gates this year to avoid the typical slow starts his teams usually have. Now Dana sounds the same as most years. lamenting the fact that guys are "behind", out of shape and haven't had enough time to practice. Sigh...really hope the guys can recover quickly.

I like what Graves said in the article published in the Oregonian. What doesn't get mentioned often is the "Big Three" of Ionescu, Hebard and Sbally were also strong leaders. I have no doubt they ran the locker room from a player perspective in addition to being "coaches on the floor"...especially Sabrina. That kind of player leadership has been missing and it begins with the type of players recruited. So it is not finger pointing at the players per see although they do hold some responsibility.

https://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/2022/10/oregons-kelly-graves-hopes-rigorous-offseason-inspection-of-program-returns-ducks-to-womens-basketball-prominence.html

As for the men, last season they were one of the most selfish Oregon teams(men) I can recall watching...ever. Two statistics define being selfish or not...assists and rebounds. Oregon was 8th in assists...with the same per game average as Oregon State which had one of its worst seasons in school history. In rebounding(defensive) they were tied for 9th. Go look at the top teams in the conference in those areas...Arizona, USC and UCLA...the teams with the best records.

I have always felt Will Richardson is underwhelming. He looks the same physically as he did his freshman year. I remember how Payton Pritchard redefined his body over his 4-years. To me, Richardson comes out, goes through the motions of playing and that is about it. It is not surprising he came back as I have a good idea of what NBA personnel told him. I know he ended the season with mononucleosis but he has played the same his whole career.

 

I thought to myself a while back that the team is due for a healthy season. To say things are off to a rocky start is an understatement.

At the end of the season Dana said it was the first time ever in his coaching experience that he had to ask players to try and show up for workouts and practices. Graves called out effort on the women's side too. Both teams have a lot of new players. You'd like to think effort would be headed in a better direction.

Despite the injuries the Ducks are big favorites at -29. Florida A&M is apparently a really bad basketball team.

I'll try to tune in later. I'm with Blazers fans and will have to watch their 5:30 game first.