Oregon
Bill Oram: The steep decline of Oregon women’s basketball raises big questions about Ducks and Kelly Graves
Oregon women’s basketball head coach Kelly Graves during the matchup between the Ducks and the No. 18 Beavers at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Oregon on Sunday, February 4, 2024.Sean Meagher/The Oregonian
Where is the bottom for Oregon women’s basketball?
Perhaps this doesn’t feel like the day for such a severe examination. The Ducks played their hearts out on Sunday and pushed their ranked rivals to the brink, losing 64-60 to No. 18 Oregon State.
It was their best performance in weeks.
But if now is not the time to ask the big questions about coach Kelly Graves and his team, when will be?
The Ducks have lost five games in a row by an average of 12.2 points per game. Their 2-8 Pac-12 record puts them in a tie for last in the conference. Their next four games are against teams ranked in the top 25.
Predicting wins and losses can be a fool’s errand, but a nine-game losing streak not only is not out of the question, it is the likely outcome.
How did they get here?
Last summer, Graves told me that his program, which boasted the best team in America prior to the shutdown in 2020, was still viewed as “one of the elite programs” in the country.
Would anyone agree with that now, with the Ducks, now 11-12 overall, facing the prospect of finishing with a losing record for the first time since Graves’ first season in 2014-15?
“We’re not used to being in this position,” Graves admitted. “All we can do is try to win the next one.”
It should be stressed that he could have easily been talking about a victory on Sunday.
The Ducks tied the game at 41 early in the fourth quarter and on four more occasions cut the Beavers lead to one. They could have done it again with 12 seconds left, but Phillipina Kyei, who scored 16 points and pulled down 18 rebounds, split a pair of free throws, giving OSU an opening to seal the win with two free throws from Talia von Oelhoffen.
Kyei, Chance Gray and Grace VanSlooten combined for 45 points. Do that more and they’ll lead the Ducks to some wins.
But weird things happen in rivalry games.
Oregon and Oregon State have a way of delivering thrillers, year after year. This was the first time OSU swept the season series since 2010. If the game had swung the other way, it would have relieved some of the pressure in the short term. But it would have only been a blip on what has been a steep decline.
There are no clear answers.
Last season, the Ducks missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since Graves’ inaugural season in Eugene, when Oregon finished 13-17 and 6-12 in conference play.
“Our first year here we didn’t win a ton,” Graves said Sunday, “but obviously it was our first year. So that’s to be expected in a program that hadn’t won a lot.”
It’s hard to digest because Graves has been such a consistent winner throughout his career. He won 10 straight conference titles at Gonzaga then took over a Ducks program in shambles and by his third year had it in the Elite Eight, an achievement that not for nothing coincided with the arrival of Sabrina Ionescu.
With Ionescu, the Ducks reached another Elite Eight, then a Final Four and were the favorites to win an NCAA championship in 2020.
“We obviously built something pretty special and we kind of let that go,” Graves said. “There’s a lot of different reasons.”
The Ducks are young, they’ve had injuries.
But it’s become an annual rite that Oregon’s top players jump into the transfer portal. Last year it was Endyia Rogers, Sedona Prince and Te-Hina Paopao. All five of the decorated five-star recruits who signed with Oregon in 2020, including Paopao, transferred and will finish their careers elsewhere.
The momentum of Sabrina and her magic is all but gone.
Graves is positive by nature. He spoke Sunday of still believing that this year’s team was capable of “good things,” although it’s not clear what that would even mean at this point after having dug such a significant hole.
“We’re still working to win this year,” Graves said, “but I’m confident we’ll get the program back to where we want it to be.”
Graves has a career record at Oregon of 223-102. His track record would indicate he should get a lot of latitude to figure things out. He’s built up plenty of goodwill.
But he is 61. Coaching and recruiting in college basketball are tougher than they’ve ever been. He’s already rebuilt Oregon basketball from the ground up once. You can’t help but wonder if he really has the desire to do it all over again in the Big Ten.
In a college sports landscape more competitive and cutthroat than ever, will he even get the chance?
There’s a lot to consider right now in Eugene, but that might be the biggest question of all.
MORE FROM BILL ORAM
BLUE RIVER, Ore. (KATU) — The founder of a former disaster relief nonprofit is being sued for allegedly diverting nearly $837,000 in donations and grants for personal gain.
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield filed the lawsuit Thursday against the founder and executive director of Cascade Relief Team (CRT), Marcus Brooks. In the complaint, Rayfield calls CRT “a sham.”
Brooks is accused of stealing donations and government grants meant for disaster relief following wildfires and flooding in 2020, and using it for personal expenses including casino visits, travel, vehicles, and more.
CRT was founded in 2020 and was hired for cleanup and relief services following the Labor Day Wildfires that burned over 1 million acres across Oregon.
In Blue River, an unincorporated community in the McKenzie River Valley, the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire destroyed nearly 800 homes and burned more than 173,000 acres.
I am angry that my community was taken advantage of
Just months after the fire, long-time Blue River resident Melanie Stanley said CRT stepped in and promised help to the community.
“For us, it was…like a savior at that point,” Stanley said.
Stanley was the manager for the Blue River Resource Center and worked for Brooks to help facilitate recovery efforts. She said CRT operations slowly became questionable.
“None of us knew the level at which all of this stuff that finally came out was at,” Stanley said. “We knew that there was some stuff that had started to look hinky or feel hinky, or there was just some lack of communication that was happening. There were some other things that were happening, and so we just all were kind of guarded.”
In fall of 2023 the nonprofit was reported to have run out of money, and Brooks allegedly fired staff without disclosing the organization’s financial conditions and did not notify donors or beneficiaries. Stanley was one of those people fired.
The state now claims the funds that were meant to go towards communities like Blue River, never made it out of Brooks’ hands, including donations given by Blue River neighbors.
“I am angry that my community was taken advantage of, and I am angry that they now have to worry about trusting when something else happens, because we know something else is going to happen,” Stanley said. “We hope to God it’s never anything as big or as bad as what has happened, but you know, we also have learned that groups like Locals Helping Locals…they are our foundation, and they are because they’re us.”
The state is seeking to recover the money, permanently bar Brooks from serving in a leadership role at a charitable organization and dissolve the nonprofit.
Stanley said Brooks’ actions have tainted reputations.
“We as a community and as the people from the community who helped kind of put all of these things together, we did what was asked of us,” Stanley said. “We did help clean things, and we did help get things to provide, you know, more progress and get things moving forward, and we did good work, and so I just really hope that this is not overshadowed.”
According to Stanley, Blue River’s recovery now stands at 50%.
“We will be very picky from here on out about who and what groups gets let in to help with anything,” Stanley said. “And sadly, it may be to our detriment, but he did more damage now, as far as reputations go, and for that I’m angry. I’m very angry.”
The Oregon Ducks have been progressing through the class of 2027 with hopes of landing some of their top target’s commitment on both the offense and the defense.
With many names left on the board, the Ducks have started to receive some great news, including some news from someone they have been targeting since they offered back in January of 2025.
Darius Johnson Releases His Top Four Schools
One of the Ducks top targets’ in the 2027 class at the cornerback position is Darius Johnson. Johnson recently released his top schools with Hayes Fawcett, as he is entering a crucial part of his recruitment. The four schools he has listed at the top include the California Golden Bears, Michigan Wolverines, UCLA Bruins, and the Oregon Ducks.
Johnson is one of the better cornerbacks in the country. He currently ranks as the nation’s No. 178 prospect in the country, No. 20 player at the position, and the No. 14 player in the state of California, according to Rivals. Landing his commitment would be major for any of the schools, as he is someone who could see the field early due to his size, and his growing ability to lockdown a side of the field all by himself.
More About Darius Johnson
Johnson currently measures in at 6-1 and 155 pounds, and will be someone who continues to add weight through his high school program, and will eventually have the chance to really improve his frame when he gets to college. As of now, each of the four schools has a solid chance to win its recruiting battle, but there seems to be a clear leader at this moment.
The leader for the Ducks target seems to be the Michigan Wolverines, who have the only scheduled official visit at this moment. It seems likely that the talented prospect will schedule his other official visits sooner rather than later now that he has officially cut down his list. If the Ducks want to land his commitment, they will need to get him on an official visit because they are likely trailing at this point.
What If He Committed to Oregon Today?
If he were to commit to the Ducks today, he would be the ninth commitment for the Ducks in the class of 2027. He would also be the third cornerback commit for the Ducks in the class of 2027, which is a position they have been recruiting heavily. The cornerbacks the Ducks have at this moment are four-star Ai’King Hall from the state of Alabama and four-star Josiah Molden from the state of Oregon.
Some of their other commits at this moment include four-star EDGE Rashad Streets, four-star defensive linemen Zane Rowe, and four-star EDGE Cameron Pritchett. This class is shaping up to be another top-five class if the pieces continue to fall into place for Oregon coach Dan Lanning and his staff.
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