Oregon

Bill Oram: The steep decline of Oregon women’s basketball raises big questions about Ducks and Kelly Graves

Published

2 years ago

February 5, 2024

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.

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Oregon

Texas man wanted for child sex crimes, theft arrested in SW Oregon

Published

2 hours ago

June 23, 2026

Press Room

Texas man wanted for child sex crimes, theft arrested in SW Oregon

CURRY COUNTY, Ore. (KPTV) – A Texas man wanted for child sex crimes was arrested in Curry County on Tuesday afternoon.

The Curry County Sheriff’s Office says Kenneth Leatherwood of Bastrop, Texas, was arrested with the help of Oregon State Police and U.S. Marshals just after 12:30 p.m.

Kenneth Leatherwood(Curry County Sheriff’s Office)

Leatherwood, who is accused of sex-related crimes involving a child in Texas, was reportedly found camping in a heavy wooded area near Lucas Lodge in Agness.

Investigators say Leatherwood has been on the run from Curry County law enforcement since June 16 after reports that he had been seen with a stolen car in the Agness area.

Leatherwood was also believed to have stolen weapons with him.

His dog was also found and returned to the suspect’s family in good shape, according to the sheriff’s office.

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Fireworks on sale in Oregon until July 6

Published

12 hours ago

June 23, 2026

Press Room

Fireworks on sale in Oregon until July 6

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) – Fireworks are on sale in Oregon until July 6, but state and local rules limit where they can be used and what types are allowed.

In Portland, fireworks use and sales are banned year-round.

Fireworks are also banned on beaches and in state and national parks.

Statewide, fireworks that fly into the air, explode, act unpredictably or move more than 12 feet horizontally are illegal. Banned fireworks include sky lanterns, missiles, rockets, Roman candles, firecrackers, cherry bombs and M-80s.

Fountains, sparklers, ground spinners and smoke devices are among the fireworks allowed under state rules.

Officials said people should not call 911 to report illegal fireworks. They said reports should go to the non-emergency line for the area.

First responders said there were 263 fires across Portland during last year’s fireworks season, and 27 were caused by fireworks.

For more details about fireworks regulation in Oregon, click here.

In Washington, fireworks sales legally begin Sunday and run through July 4.

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Oregon

Gray whale carcass washes ashore in Gearhart on Oregon coast

Published

23 hours ago

June 23, 2026

Press Room

Gray whale carcass washes ashore in Gearhart on Oregon coast

GEARHART, Ore. (KATU) — Another gray whale washed up on the Oregon coast last week, this time in Gearhart, according to Seaside Aquarium.

The 41-foot-long male had been dead for months before washing up on the beach, Seaside Aquarium general manager Keith Chandler said.

He noted that there have been 19 total whale strandings or carcasses washing up on beaches just this year on the Oregon coast region.

The Cascadia Research Collective is reporting at least 30 on Washington coastline alone. | TIMELINE

Of those deaths, more than half were at least partially attributed to malnutrition. That could have been the cause in more strandings, however, necropsies were not performed in roughly a dozen of the 30 strandings.

Chandler said strong wind from the west this year has been contributing to why coastal towns are seeing a lot of whales and other things washing up on shore. However he also noted that many of the Grey whales washed ashore were emaciated with necropsies showing signs of malnourishment.

“The food sources have been compromised. The warmer water means the nutrients that they’re getting aren’t as good, so the whole food chain is kind of not as healthy,” Chandler said.

He pointed to the warming waters with climate change as the main reason noting that warm water plankton–Grey Whale’s main food source–is thinner and has fewer nutrients than plankton in cooler waters.

Chandler says this whale will not have a necropsy done because of its level of decomposition.

“The fresher ones, the team from Portland State [University] will come down and they’ll go in and do measurements, take samples and stuff, measurements of the internal organs. But on one this decayed, you won’t gain anything from it scientifically. And it’s just kind of a mess to do when they’re this rotten,” he said.