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Message: [QUOTE="jonson, post: 2938529, member: 6034"] Re Oregon. Although I do not believe that the team is more hype than substance, I also am quite sure that this is not a championship-caliber team. Someone above mentioned the final four as a possible outcome. That seems to me a reasonable high water mark, and doing so would of course make them better than all but 3 or 4 of the teams mentioned here--also a reasonable, if by no means the only, assessment imo, as long as they stay mostly injury free. The Ducks have a fairly challenging schedule coming up shortly--two on the road (Michigan State and South Dakota State) followed by Mississippi State at home. That should give a better sense of what the team is, or isn't. I agree that the team doesn't look like it did last winter/spring, but I don't think they did last fall either. The stats are good overall, even taking a preseason schedule into account: first in assist to turnover ratio, 5th in shooting percentage--and the latter would be much much higher if you take Boley out of the equation (all of the other starters are shooting over 50%, whereas Boley is below 40%). And, although Hebard has been ill for at least one game and looked under the weather for another, her stats are about where they were last year, except that she's even shooting a bit better (about 70%). A major key to the team's success, as several posters have mentioned, will be working Boley effectively into the mix. It's my sense that Graves is letting her (and the team) feel their way on this, and I remain optimistic, but I don't think the long leash will last past the Mississippi State game. (It was at that point last year that he benched McGwire in favor of Sabally and the team began to take off.) The other will be getting more consistent minutes from Sabally, who has taken some steps in that direction (scoring and rebounding and steals are up), but not enough. [/QUOTE]

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