Since this seems to be an increasingly frequent refrain here, I'd like to provide a different perspective by pointing out that context matters.
Oregon has a 9-player roster this year and 4 of the 9 either did not play last year (Boley, Chavez, Yaeger) or played very limited minutes due to injury (Giomi). There are only 4 guards--one of them a freshman (Chavez), another a redshirt sophomore (Yaeger), who was out for all of 2017-18 due to a back injury. They played 29 minutes between them Sunday, with the team that was on the floor for most of the 4th quarter consisting of one veteran guard (either Cazorla or Ionescu) and 4 "newbies." That seems to me entirely reasonable if one wants to develop a bench without inviting chaos on the court. Graves is in fact much more inclined to use (and forgiving of) his bench than Geno
There are also aspects of Ionescu’s situation that probably make it somewhat easier for her to accomplish what she's accomplished. If she played on a team with the talent level of, say, UCONN, or even one full of MacDonald's All-Americans, her minutes would obviously be less and the team less dependent upon her overall. And although she is a terrific rebounder for her size, there would surely be fewer rebounds for her to gather if she were on a team that was stronger on the boards than the Ducks. Her assist totals would likely also be lower if her teammates didn't shoot as well from 3 and/or someone with Ruthy Hebard’s hands and accuracy weren't around inside.
The coaches and fans do keep tabs on her stats—and why wouldn't they? I have a hazy memory of another coach even bringing a star player out on crutches so that she could establish a scoring record. I suspect that same coach might not have done that had his program (at that point) had a longer track record of excellence, but during those (relatively) early years he seems to have felt that it was important to pay tribute in a very public way to what that player had done during her career. At this point Oregon hardly has any track record at all, and giving Ionescu some extra minutes when she’s over the hump in two areas and very close in another (surely a major accomplishment in itself) is one way of saying “thank you” for what she has done/is doing for the program in Eugene.
But the above is finally, I believe, not the whole story. Although there are a lot of players who play a lot of minutes—and in blowouts—there don’t seem to be a lot of triple doubles being recorded. (For example,Asia Durr played 38 minutes in Louisville's recent 19 pt. victory over Boise State.) Ionescu averaged about 35 minutes last year and 33 the year before. That’s a lot, but there were others in the ballpark. During UCONN’s 2017-18 season Kia Nurse averaged 32 minutes--less than Ionescu but also during a season involving a greater number of blowouts--and by greater margins I suspect--than Ionescu’s. Now, before someone jumps in, I don't say this to denigrate Kia's accomplishments and contributions (defense, for one thing, hardly one of Ionescu’s strong suits); there were obviously very good reasons for keeping her on the court for that many minutes. But I do think it's important to recognize that Ionescu has a skill set that is remarkable, worthy of recognition, and, more importantly, crucial to the success of her team.
