Three of Oregon’s college basketball teams are set to compete in this year’s NCAA Tournaments, including the Oregon State women’s team. After losing some of their best players to the transfer portal during the collapse of the Pac-12 conference, the Beavers came back to win their first conference championship since 2016. They’re now the 14th seed in the women’s bracket and will take on third-ranked North Carolina on Saturday.
The University of Oregon men’s team is making its second consecutive appearance this year. The fifth-ranked men’s team is set to take on 12th-seed Liberty University on Friday. The 10th-ranked Oregon women’s team will make its first March Madness appearance since 2022 when it takes on seventh-seed Vanderbilt on Friday.
KOIN 6 sports anchor and reporter Brenna Greene joins us to talk about all of those contests and more.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. Three of Oregon’s college basketball teams are set to compete in this year’s NCAA Tournaments. That includes the Oregon State women’s team, who ended up winning their first conference championship since 2016, despite losing some of their best players to the transfer portal during the collapse of the Pac-12 conference. They’ll be joined in the madness by the University of Oregon women’s and men’s team.
Brenna Greene is a sports anchor and reporter for KOIN 6. She joins us now. Welcome back to the show.
Brenna Greene: Hello, thank you for having me.
Miller: It’s good to have you back. Let’s start with the Oregon State women. Can you just give us a sense for how they were affected by the implosion of the Pac-12?
Greene: It was an implosion of their team. You know, thinking back to everyone … They lost about seven key players, seven players who were contributing and giving significant minutes – some more than others, obviously – to the transfer portal. They lost four of five starters, and then they had three players who, at any time, were all giving good minutes for the team off the bench. One of those players would undoubtedly end up having a good game almost every game. So it was really a very, very difficult April for that team, I would say.
Miller: How are the teams that these now former Beavers went to doing?
Greene: The three players who came off the bench, one of them, I believe she tore her ACL, so she’s been out for the year. The other two that were off the bench went to teams who did not have good seasons. But the four starters all went to teams who got a top three seed in the NCAA tournament this year.
Talia von Oelhoffen is at USC, that’s the number one seed. Timea Gardiner is at UCLA, they are the number one overall seed. Raegan Beers is at Oklahoma, they’re a three seed. Donovyn Hunter is at TCU, I believe they got a number two seed.
Miller: So four out of five starters went to teams that now are the best teams in the country, basically.
What was their team like this year, from the beginning of the season to eventually winning the conference?
Greene: I mean, growing pains. They had some good moments, I’d say, especially at the start of WCC play. They got overtime wins against both Portland and Gonzaga, so they were looking pretty good. Then they started dropping some games and they started dropping games to teams they probably shouldn’t have. I mean, the WCC on the women’s side had a lot of parity this year. There were six or seven teams coming into that tournament – OSU being one of them – where it wouldn’t have stunned me if they won.
So there wasn’t a great team in the WCC this year, there were just a lot of good teams. That’s what was really hard for a lot of these teams to navigate. There were all these teams that could get each other at any point, on any night. I forget the stretch, but there was a stretch of like 20 days where University of Portland women did not win a game by double digits because they were fighting, clawing and battling every single night. They won all of their games somehow, but it was a difficult conference. The Oregon State women had a bit of a tough time, and they ended up peaking at the right time, which is what you want.
Miller: Now, though, they are a 14 seed with a tough road ahead of them in the tournament. What about the University of Oregon women? They are a 10 seed. What has their season been like?
Greene: They started the season getting a win over Baylor, which was a big deal because Baylor historically has had a pretty good women’s program. However, especially towards the end of this season, it definitely feels like they’re kind of limping into March Madness. They lost their Big Ten Tournament game. Right before that, they lost to a UW team that was on the bubble to go to the NCAA Tournament, and they were dropping more results than winning results in the Big Ten conference towards the end there.
Miller: They seem to be in a tough position as well. If they do win in the first round against Vanderbilt, then they would probably face Duke, a No. 2 seed, at Duke. What is their road ahead like?
Greene: To be completely frank, I would be very surprised if they’re playing in the second weekend. And that’s coming from someone who’s known their head coach for almost 15 years now, ‘cause I went to Gonzaga and he was head coach at Gonzaga before. I’m very close with his family, so it pains me to say it, but it’s also my job to be a reporter and be analytical. I would be pretty surprised if they made it past Duke.
Miller: Last year’s NCAA Women’s Championship game was a phenomenon. It was the most watched basketball game of any kind in the last five years. For the first time ever, it seemed like there was at least as much, maybe more, societal interest, attention and excitement for the women’s tournament than for the men’s. Has that continued?
Greene: It’s not as strong this year, but I will say the stars on the women’s side are much brighter than the men’s side. That’s due to people like JuJu Watkins and Paige Bueckers – those two players are players that people know. Whereas, on the men’s side, there really isn’t anybody who’s cut through culture like that. And one of the big reasons why is because of the professional rules.
On the men’s side, if you’re good, you’re leaving after year one. Yes, people know Cooper Flagg, but can you imagine if Cooper Flagg had to stay in school for two more years? He would be huge. He would be a phenomenon. Whereas, on the women’s side, Paige ended up coming back because of a lot of injuries, and decided to come and play her senior season. JuJu is now in year two, so people just know her.
People know Cooper because everybody knows that he’s going to be the number one pick in the NBA draft. But it’s different with the women’s side because of the fact that players are kept around longer at the collegiate level. Therefore, I feel like there’s more star power on that side. It’s not as crazy as what was going on last year with Caitlin Clark, obviously, but still, I would say more recognizable than the men’s tournament, overall.
Miller: Let’s turn to the men’s side, though, briefly, before we say goodbye. We’ve got up to about two minutes left. What was the Ducks' first season in the Big Ten conference like?
Greene: Another up-and-down season. They started decently, especially a non-conference in November. They won a big, big tournament down in Vegas where they beat Alabama, it was the No. 2 seed. They beat Texas A&M. They beat San Diego State. So, a really solid group of teams that they beat down there. And then they went into the Big Ten, and at first they were doing well. And then once again, they had a losing streak. I believe it was five games that they lost in a row in the Big Ten, and now they’ve kind of roared back and they’re doing better again. So, it was a situation where they came in hot and then they kind of cooled down a little bit, but they were able to get their mojo back.
Miller: And now they are a 5 seed, the highest of any of the Oregon teams. What is their path to, let’s say the Sweet Sixteen, meaning getting past this first weekend, playing in the second weekend … what would that take?
Greene: They’re probably gonna have to play an Arizona team in the second round. It’s not like they are unfamiliar with Arizona, considering they were in the same conference last year. Different players, obviously, but this Arizona team is one where they’re familiar with the concepts that they run, so that is something that … I don’t know if it’s really an advantage because both teams know each other pretty well, so it’s not going to be unfamiliar territory. That will be interesting. You’re taking on an Arizona team that feels like it’s really doing well at the right time. They made the Big 12 Championship game. So it’s a good Arizona team that seems to really have some momentum behind them right now.
Oregon is gonna have to really hope that their fan base shows up in Seattle and people make that trip up there. I’m very interested to see what that looks like and if they do have any sort of advantage up there, because you just never know. They might not. I don’t know how it’s gonna go. They’ve got to really hope that the crowd is behind them against Arizona. Hopefully for them, they’re able to get that win, but it’s gonna be a pretty tough game, I think.
Miller: Brenna, thanks. That’s Brenna Greene, sports anchor and reporter for KOIN 6.
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