Women's Sweet Sixteen Preview: Prince & Sabally are The Real Tall Firs
The Ducks embrace their size at exactly the right time, and find themselves in the Sweet Sixteen for the fourth straight NCAA Tournament.
This was all part of the plan, I promise.
First, a Ditch Rich WBB Bracket Challenge update:
Pete is at the top at the end of weekend one, but it’s still very much anyone’s $50 Visa Gift Card, I’d say.
Apologies to all the UCONN-servatives on the board, Iowa’s Caitlin Clark exists.
The Madness goes on…
Kelly Graves stepped into the Post-Sabrina era with a much different team than he was used to having at Oregon.
Graves’ teams under Ionescu’s leadership were known as offensive juggernauts, and they leaned heavily on their guard play. In 2020, for example, Sab was such a focal point for opposing defenses that every other talented guard with anything resembling a jumper (Chavez & Shelley and—to a slightly lesser extent—Moore & Yaeger) could flourish off-ball.
This year, the plan was to account for that dip in opportunities at the guard position by leaning on the frontcourt.
Sedona Prince and Nyara Sabally are quite literally all-world talents, and when they’re healthy and rolling, the two end up becoming the engine that makes the Ducks move.
And that’s what we saw on Tuesday afternoon as Oregon knocked off three-seeded Georgia to head to the Sweet Sixteen.
Don’t know when it happened but our Ducks followed the plan. We’re a Forward School now.
Prince scored a season-high 22 points vs UGA, while also going on to block four shots and grab five boards. Her teammate down low was right behind her, too, as Sabally went for 15 & 9.
Both of them shot over 50% from the field, and beyond any statistical markers, they were just flat-out the emotional core of this team.
They both looked beyond the absence of their phenom point guard. They looked beyond all the covid pauses. And they looked beyond a lackluster end to the regular season—instead choosing to see the tourney as nothing if not a chance for them to eat.
And oh man, did they eat.
The tournament is a lot of things, especially this year. We’ve seen that it’s a gigantic platform for a student-athlete to speak the hell up for what they believe is right and wrong. We have no problem doing that in an Oregon uniform.
And it’s also a place where a team can refocus themselves and take on a whole new identity.
In the Ducks’ case, it has been the decision to embrace their size and passion, while waiting patiently for the smart, high-percentage shots.
One question I do have coming out of the first two tournament games is this:
Where is Angela Dugalic?
She started the year off hot, and I was under the impression that she would at least become a rotational forward throughout the year. However, she only came in late against South Dakota, and has mostly just stayed in her warm-up gear throughout both games.
I want to be clear, I am in no way doubting the big game ability of one Lydia Giomi—and I’m all for Graves’ streamlining of the roster compared to the regular season—but now that the frontcourt is such a heavy part of our team, wouldn’t some promising youth at the 3/4 add some longevity and flexibility to that attack?
I could be overthinking a good thing, but if we have more size, let’s keep piling it on, right?
Louisville is next up. They’re a Two-Seed, but they are a perfect matchup for these forward-forward Ducks.
Their top three leading scorers are all guards under six-foot, and their leading rebounder is a 6-3 freshman forward, Olivia Cochran.
The Ducks are bigger and stronger and more veteran than the Cardinals in the hottest aspect of their game, but they’ll still have to find a way to square off with the nearly-twenty-points-per-game magic of freshman Hailey Van Lith.
Make no mistake, Van Lith is Louisville’s version of Te-Hina Paopao, but with a little extra scoring oomph thrown in there.
Ducks need to be efficient, strong, and disciplined if the Elite Eight is their future.
See you all on Sunday.
Go Ducks.