Oregon
Oh My! Oregon WBB: It Couldn’t Get Any Worse? | FishDuck
Well, now we have NO Chance…or Grace, or Kennedy or Priscilla. (My granddaughter gets credit for that opening NO Chance line.) Just when I was getting ready to write a piece that I was going to headline, “In Defense of Coach Graves,” another mass exodus of players hits. For those of you who have read any of my three-part series on the state of women’s basketball, it might surprise you that I would be writing a piece in defense of Coach Kelly Graves.
I will explain that in a moment, as even Mr. FishDuck, when pulled away from his fun at https://sportbet.one was startled by my reasonable rationale below…
It is getting increasingly difficult to suggest there isn’t something going on inside the Oregon Women’s Basketball program. There is no denying that Coach Graves has recruited talented players to the program over the years. Obviously, one of, if not the storyline here is, the inability of the program to retain those same players. It will be interesting to hear what Coach Graves has to say about all of this, if indeed he speaks to the issue publicly.
I have the good fortune to be able to send my pieces off for editorial review to a childhood friend who still resides back in the Hawkeye state. Before his recent retirement, this individual’s career was in journalism as a sports editor for a newspaper in a mid-size town in Iowa, and wrote a column five-days a week. This individual has true writer’s chops, as the phrase goes, as opposed to a wannabe writer like me.
My friend’s feedback on my last piece was that it was a bit of a hit-job not untypical of your standard knee-jerk fan-in-stand rant. He phrased it a bit kindlier than that. Here is the exact quote…
Don: So, a lot of good players came and then transferred. A lot of smoke, but what’s the fire? Is there a common denominator? Did they go somewhere to play more, for a different style of play? Was the coaching too hard (and counter to Graves’ good-guy, Papa Bear image?) Has this forced Oregon to rethink how it recruits, and whom it recruits? (Because obviously Graves recognized talent, just couldn’t hold it, and maybe the superstar’s chemistry became toxic?) What was the Mark Campbell factor?
Grace VanSlooten and Chance Gray are no longer Ducks. (Screenshot from GoDucks.com Video)
As a fan in the stands, you’re not really in position to answer those, but those are the questions raised. Not sure Graves would have a response, but he probably deserves the chance
Not hard to spot the difference between a real writer’s take and mine. So, though it has gotten a bit tougher given the recent events, let me try to take a more dispassionate perspective.
Clearly Coach Graves can coach. He was an assistant coach for the St Mary’s Gaels when it appears there was a bit of a players’ revolt against then head coach Terri Rubenstein following the 1996 season. Graves became head coach in 1997 and turned a mediocre program into an immediate winner and did that for three seasons before moving on to Gonzaga where he not only turned that program around, but he also made the Zags a player on the national stage.
Graves coached the Zags for fourteen years and ended up with a winning percentage of nearly .700. (Interesting side note here. Graves assistant at the time was Lisa Fortier and she became the next head coach, and her current winning percentage is .810. She also was the recruiting coordinator under Graves and is given credit for mentoring Courtney Vandersloot.)
Graves took over at Oregon in 2014 and resuscitated the program when it was on life-support following the Paul Westhead debacle. Graves not only brought the program back to life, the Lady Ducks, led by Sabrina, Ruthie, Satu et al were on their way to a possible/probable national title until the pandemic struck in 2019-2020.
It is worth nothing that at least three assistants under Graves have gone on to become successful head coaches. There is already mentioned Lisa Fortier who succeeded Graves at Gonzaga. There is J.R. Payne who has turned around the Colorado program. And of course, there is Mark Campbell who immediately turned Sacramento State into a winner and looks to be doing the same at TCU.
Graves had a ton of success at Gonzaga. (Screenshot from Gonzaga Bulldogs Athletic Dept. Video)
As stated above, it’s clear Coach Graves can identify and recruit talent. Yes, I know. Some give credit to Mark Campbell for some of the recruiting success, but Graves, as the head coach, must get the credit in the end. The obvious elephant on the hardwood floor here is that, while Graves clearly was able to bring in talented players, he has been unable to keep them in the fold.
My journalistic friend back in Iowa raises legitimate reasons on why folks may have decided to leave. Maybe too many talented players and not enough playing time to go around. Maybe some players just wanted to play closer to home. Maybe Graves had the bad luck to not have a true leader emerge. Maybe the style of play didn’t work for some folks. A lot more maybes we could list here.
It had to have been a gut-punch to miss out on the opportunity to play for a national championship in the 2019-2020 season. Closer to the end of his coaching career than the beginning, Graves must have pondered if he would get another chance at grabbing that golden ring.
In Graves’ defense, it’s fair to acknowledge that the world Coach Graves lived in and succeeded in for many years has changed dramatically. Graves has expressed his concerns about how much things have changed with the arrival of the transfer portal and the freedom/choices that provides for student-athletes. My hunch is that is much easier for a younger person like Coach Dan Lanning to adapt and adjust to this new world than perhaps someone the age of Coach Kelly who, as of this writing, is 61.
Graves has been in coaching since 1988 and has been a head coach since 1996. That’s a long time to be doing anything. Considering his track record over the longer term–does he deserve more time to turn it around?
Don Marsh
Eugene, Oregon
Top Screenshot from GoDucks.com Video
Share your thoughts about this team in the only free, “polite and respectful” Oregon Sports message board, the Our Beloved Ducks forum!
I am a transplanted Hawkeye who loves the Ducks because they realize there is more to football than just defense. Owner of Emerald Bridge Club with wife Sherri, and is a past State Champion in Horseshoes.
The Oregon Supreme Court has overturned the conviction of a Lane County man who once photographed child beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey and was convicted in 2021 on several child pornography charges.
Randall DeWitt Simons, 73, of Oakridge, was charged in 2019 with 15 counts of first-degree encouraging child sex abuse. He was later convicted on every count and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Simons was first arrested after authorities began investigating a report from a restaurant in Oakridge that someone had been using the restaurant’s Wi-Fi to download inappropriate and concerning images.
Law enforcement officers directed the business to track, log, and report all of the user’s internet activity to the investigating officer for more than a year, without a warrant.
Police tracked the computer’s IP address from the restaurant’s Wi-Fi system, which led officers to a man who lived near the restaurant and had given Simons a computer, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Lane County Circuit Court. Investigators obtained a warrant to search the laptop in Simon’s home, relying on information they had collected over time. He was subsequently arrested.
On March 26, the court ruled warrantless internet surveillance on public Wi-Fi violates privacy.
In an opinion written by Justice Bronson D. James, the court held that the Oregon Constitution recognizes people have a right to privacy in their internet browsing activities and the right is not extinguished when they use a publicly accessible wireless network. It’s even true in cases where that access is conditioned on a person accepting a terms-of-service agreement that says a provider may monitor activity and cooperate with law enforcement, James wrote.
During criminal proceedings in the Lane County Circuit Court, Simons moved to controvert the warrant and suppress the evidence obtained by police, arguing the business was a “state actor for purposes of Article I, section 9, and that its year-long warrantless surveillance was an unconstitutional, warrantless search attributable to the state,” the Supreme Court opinion said.
The Circuit Court denied Simon’s motion. The Oregon Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision in part and stated Simons had no cognizable privacy interest in his internet activities performed on a third-party network.
The Oregon Supreme Court rejected the state’s argument.
“The mere fact that a person accesses the internet through a public network does not eliminate their Article I, section 9, right to privacy in their online activities,” according to James. “Even when access is expressly conditioned on a user’s acceptance of terms-of-service provisions purporting to alert the user that the provider may monitor activity and cooperate with law enforcement.”
Justice K. Bushong suggested in a partial dissent the Court should reconsider its approach in a future case to what constitutes a “search” under the Oregon Constitution. The court’s decision reverses the Court of Appeals and sends the case back to the Lane County Circuit Court for further proceedings.
Simons has maintained his innocence since he was arrested in 2019.
Simons had been a photographer for 6-year-old Colorado beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey a few months before her still-unsolved 1996 murder, the Associated Press reported in 1998.
In October 1998, Simons was arrested on a charge of indecent exposure in Lincoln County, Colorado. According to the book “Perfect Murder, Perfect Town” by Lawrence Schiller, Simons was arrested in 1998 for allegedly walking nude down a residential street in the small town of Genoa, Colorado. Simons allegedly offered to the arresting deputy unprovoked, “I didn’t kill JonBenét.”
Haleigh Kochanski is a breaking news and public safety reporter for The Register-Guard. You may reach her at HKochanski@gannett.com.
Umatilla, Morrow counties establish Young Republicans of Oregon chapter
Published 8:00 pm Wednesday, March 25, 2026
IRRIGON — Young Republicans living in Umatilla and Morrow counties now can join a local chapter of the statewide Young Republicans of Oregon organization.
The Umatilla Morrow Young Republicans will advance Republican values and leadership in young residents through political training, networking opportunities and connection to Republican leaders. The group is focused on young adults, generally attracting college-aged people, though it includes people aged 18 to 40.
The five Young Republicans of Oregon members living in Umatilla and Morrow counties elected three officers to lead their new chapter. Irrigon’s Evan Purves was elected chair, with Connor Roberts of Hermiston as his vice chair and Kaelyn Moore of Milton-Freewater serving as secretary.
“I am super grateful for this opportunity to lead my neighbors,” Purves said. “It’s going to be really fun. We have some good events planned.”
Purves, 19, is a student at Blue Mountain Community College who eventually hopes to pursue a four-year degree in public administration. He initially became interested in the Young Republicans during an internship with Oregon state Rep. Greg Smith, of Heppner. He said it was an experience that showed him how the legislature works.
The internship also inspired him to step into a leadership role with the Young Republicans and help establish a local chapter of the organization. The newest chapter of the Young Republicans of Oregon, which was announced Monday, March 23, has been in the works since November 2025.
The Young Republicans of Oregon State Chair, Tanner Elliott, said the new chapter — the fourth chapter statewide — indicates momentum for conservative values.
“In less than a year, we’ve continued expanding because young conservatives are stepping up and getting involved in their communities,” Elliott said. “I want to congratulate the chapter’s leadership team on their election and especially commend their new chair Evan Purves for taking on this role. I’m confident this group will make a meaningful impact in Eastern Oregon and help drive our organization forward.”
Future plans in Umatilla, Morrow counties
The leadership team of UMYR already is making efforts to effect change.
In early May, Purves said, Umatilla Morrow Young Republicans will host a door knocking campaign in support of Smith’s reelection campaign. There also will be an official kickoff event the same weekend celebrating the new chapter and outlining priorities for the future.
“If there’s anything that we might struggle with is membership,” he said. “The recruiting part is us going out there and hosting events and socials, having opportunities for people to come out and do something fun that anybody’s invited to.”
Regarding other priorities, voter engagement is important to Purves,
“Even though we live in a big conservative area, there’s not a lot of politically engaged people, especially in my generation,” he said. “We want to get them involved.”
He said one of his concerns is businesses leaving the state due to policies that aren’t friendly to corporations, a common issue raised by Republican lawmakers. The decisions being made impact every community, he said, and he wants to have a say in what the leaders are doing.
“These bills affect all of us,” he said. “It’s just important to get people involved and get people to vote and be a part of it.”
People interested in updates on the efforts of the Umatilla Morrow Young Republicans can follow the group on Facebook or Instagram or become a member at yro.gop.
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