Totally agree. When Oregon loses, it's usually to teams with savvy coaches and enough players that can execute solidly on defense. It's why they've lost to OSU and Stanford every year that Ionescu and Hebard have been in Eugene - Rueck and Tara are very good at halftime adjustments. Also, Oregon is kind of turnover prone - pressing teams can fluster them into bad passes and sloppy ball handling. That said, they're probably the only rival to Notre Dame in terms of most complete 1-5 lineup - they have an extremely good player in every position, with almost no bench behind them.
While I have no quibbles with the first sentence, I do think there are some things that might be added to qualify the rest a bit. For instance, the loss to OSU last year was in Corvallis (and in overtime), this year in a game (also in Corvallis) in which Hebard went down in the first half and Oregon almost pulled things out by going small in the second. The loss to Stanford this year was just that, but it was certainly influenced by the fact that two starters had injuries, with one of them (Hebard) lacking the rest between games required for her knee to allow her even to approach her play prior to the injury. A third starter had been bedridden with the flu for the four days prior to the beginning of the Pac 12 Tournament, and the roster had been made even shorter by the absence of the player who had been first off the bench for the entire season--and all of this exacerbated by having to play 3 games in three days, with the second an overtime game the night before the final against Stanford. And yet, Oregon was in the game into the fourth quarter. In fact, in three of these losses (the exception is last year's loss to Stanford in Eugene) Oregon came back from an early deficit in the second half and had their chances to win, so one could argue that whatever halftime adjustments there were involved the Ducks, not the Cardinal or Beavers. Finally, Oregon actually averages the fewest turnovers of any team in Division 1 (10, I think), and also leads Division 1 in assist to turnover ratio (about 1.9 to 1). So, yes, savvy coaches and good defenses will always give the Ducks trouble, but I'd argue that the formula isn't always the whole story.
As for Notre Dame, from my point of view they are probably the worst matchup for Oregon among the top teams. Prior to her injury, Hebard might have been able to do a better job against Shepherd than she did last year (at least Duck fans would like to believe that), but now-- with the injury and Turner also playing well--I think she would have very tough going, to put it mildly. And Young would once again likely be a nightmare. If Notre Dame has a badish game and Oregon a good one then Oregon could pull out a win, but if both teams play close to their potential then I think Notre Dame will surely prevail. Everything is to me a bit fuzzier vs. the other top teams, and I can at least imagine a victory (and, of course, a loss).
