Sabrina-Era Becomes Sedona-Era: Oregon Women's Basketball Season Preview
Some Oregon legends may be gone, but some new faces may help bring upon a more physical, powerful era of Ducks basketball.
The 10th-ranked Ducks open the season tonight (11/28) at hope against Seattle U, and follow that up with a Monday night (11/30) trip to Portland to face the Pilots. The non-conference slate is small and local, but it’ll have to be enough to usher in a new era of Oregon Women’s Basketball.
I don’t need to tell you what the Ducks lost when Sabrina Ionescu, Ruthy Hebard, Satou Sabally, and Minyon Moore moved on last year.
Ionescu will go down in Oregon history as a legend. A legend that gave everything to build this program, and deserved to cut down the last nets of the season.
But, like with many Oregon daydreams, we’ll always ask, “what if?”
Hebard, Sabally, and the gone-as-soon-as-she-arrived Moore, leave gaps all over the floor as well, but let me tell you, Kelly Graves has been building this thing to last.
Here’s who’s coming back (that got playing time last year):
Erin Boley, F; Lydia Giomi, F; Taylor Chavez, G; Jaz Shelley, G
That list looks thin on their own, but they all bring their own strong suits to the table, and other than Shelley—who might have the biggest ceiling of any returning player—they’ve all been key contributors for the Ducks before.
Erin Boley is the veteran of the group. Due to personnel, the 6-2 Boley has floated somewhere between the 3 and 4 spots, and when the Ducks went small they really needed her to be a true 4—even when she wasn’t quite ready to be.
But she got stronger and improved little by little both defensively and on the boards.
This year the Ducks may be guard-heavy (once again), but Sedona Prince and Giomi (and Nyara Sabally) present one of the deepest frontcourts Graves has had in his tenure.
While other players step up down low, this may be the perfect playing situation for Boley’s 3/4 hybrid nature. She can utilize all the power she gained playing big, but now she has new permission to hang in the wing offensively and do what she has always done best: drill threes.
Kelly Graves coaches what he calls a “positionless” form of basketball, but even he admitted that Lydia Giomi is pretty locked in at the 5.
Giomi has always been one of the tallest players on the roster, but after two years of work I think she has started to grow into a 6-6 version of Ruthy.
Solid screening, pinpoint passing, and aggression on the boards is Lydia’s bread and butter, and it’s going to win us some games.
Sure, Taylor Chavez can play off the ball—she did a lot of that when things ran through Sab—but she really shines as a true point guard.
This year she finally gets her chance to run the show. The way she facilitates and also pushes the issue herself reminds me a lot of Payton Pritchard.
Kelly sees echoes of Sabrina herself, too. “[Taylor] can pick up where Sabrina left off in terms of mentality,” praised Graves, “they’re wired the same.”
Chavez will be PG1, but she’ll have a huge weapon right next to her in Jaz Shelley. I see Jaz making the biggest leap of any player both in responsibility and production. She shot 42% from three last year, and can really do it all, but she might be poised as one of the truest scorers on the court with Chavez as the facilitator.
So, who’s “new”?
Sedona Prince F; Nyara Sabally, F; Taylor Mikesell, G; Arielle Wilson, F
Prince, Mikesell, and Wilson are all transfers, so they’ll be able to pick right back up on the pace of college ball. And Nyara has been on the roster for the last two years, battling injuries and watching her sister year shit up.
It took me long enough to mention her name, but Texas transfer Sedona Prince is probably the clearest All-American on this team. She was wrongfully denied a waiver from the NCAA last year, but now we get at least two years of the Sedona-era, which is nice.
Graves can’t say enough great things about Prince, but he thinks the 6-7 forward can have the offensive versatility of Nikola Jokic. With a lineup of Sedona-Giomi—or even better, Sedona-Giomi-Sabally—we’ll see an offense run through Prince at the post in a way that Graves’ Ducks have never seen.
Maryland transfer guard, Taylor Mikesell, was the 2019 Big Ten Freshman of the Year, and First Team All-Conference. With a career 12.3 ppg, 42% from 3PT, and nearly 3 assists per game, Mikesell is day one ready at guard. Graves is big on her leadership and experience too, I expect her to drift around the second or third guard in the lineup at any given time.
Nyara Sabally was the top international recruit when she came to Eugene, just like Satou was. But two straight years of preseason injuries have kept her from the court, and now she’ll be blazing her own path. The last on-court action she had was the 2018 U18 FIBA Euro Cup—where she was named tourney MVP, for the second straight year.
She averaged nearly 10 & 10, drove from the top of the key, made great interior passes, and on tape she genuinely floated around with the same smoothness as her sister. The comparisons between the two are inevitable and way too easy, but here’s hoping Nyara stays healthy and we can see that BIG three lineup I mentioned earlier.
Arielle Wilson is a junior college transfer that serves to add depth and length to the frontcourt. She has averaged almost two blocks per game, and even though I don’t see a gigantic role for her, having a 6-6 shot blocker in your back pocket is never a bad thing.
If all that wasn’t enough, we’ve also got a ton of young incoming talent, too. Kelly Graves brought a legendary recruiting class into Eugene this year with five (5) five-stars, but he admits that, “there’s going to be a lot more teaching this year.”
Freshmen:
Te-Hina Paopao, G; Maddie Scherr G; Sydney Parrish, G; *Kylee Watson, F; *Angela Dugalic F
Te-Hina Paopao is the name you probably already know. She may be game-ready—just like Sabrina was coming in. Paopao might be the freshman we see the most of, especially among the guards. Scherr and Parrish are right behind her though, promising to play huge support roles for each other throughout their careers as Ducks.
Graves has specifically emphasized Watson and Dugalic in some of his preseason interviews, leading me to believe that he 1) thinks highly of them, duh, but 2) that he also knows how much offensive usage he wants to get out of the post this year, and that they’ll be called upon to execute at just as high a level as Prince and Co.
In summary, the season of Sedona is upon us.
You can still expect dynamic guard and perimeter play—this is a Kelly Graves team we’re talking about after all—but I have a feeling that this is going to be a markedly more physical and punishing Ducks team than we’ve seen before.
And I cannot wait to see it all play out.
Go Ducks.