UCLA defeats Oregon 82 - 74 Observations

[LwrcasefaN]

• UCLA was up 18 in the 4th and Oregon cut it to 3. Not sure why Close didn't use her timeouts.
• Osborne was in a violent collision and suffered a shoulder injury. She returned to the bench later with ice on her shoulder.
• Oregon is challenged by its short roster. They have some serious talent. Vanslooten is a future AA. Talented at both ends.
• Paopao is talented, but I'm confused by her drives across the baseline where she gets stuck.
• Rice is a serious talent, but she had her freshman moments. Maybe it's me, but her conditioning seemed a lot better at the beginning of the season compared to now.
• Lastly, Oregon has some serious talent at guard, but they don't seem to play well together and they take some bad shots. If they figure that out and control the pace of the game, then I could see them as a serious problem come tournament time.

 

[jake0414]

• UCLA was up 18 in the 4th and Oregon cut it to 3. Not sure why Close didn't use her timeouts.
• Osborne was in a violent collision and suffered a shoulder injury. She returned to the bench later with ice on her shoulder.
• Oregon is challenged by its short roster. They have some serious talent. Vanslooten is a future AA. Talented at both ends.
• Paopao is talented, but I'm confused by her drives across the baseline where she gets stuck.
• Rice is a serious talent, but she had her freshman moments. Maybe it's me, but her conditioning seemed a lot better at the beginning of the season compared to now.
• Lastly, Oregon has some serious talent at guard, but they don't seem to play well together and they take some bad shots. If they figure that out and control the pace of the game, then I could see them as a serious problem come tournament time.

UCLA lead never got smaller than six points. Had Gray not stepped out of bounds (both feet outside the sideline) before sinking the 3 pt shoot it would cut the lead to three.

Oregon has an outstanding core with its three starting guards, star forward Vanslooten and capable post in Kyei. Oregon’s bench has, at best, good not great contributors and its most capable non-starting scorer, Isai, left the team. Not sure why Coach Graves keeps losing highly rated prospects to the portal but the it sure seems the results since the Ionescu, Hebard, Satou Sabally group left haven‘t met expectations.

UCLA doesn’t shoot as well as the Ducks but traveled to MKA, played with no fear and ground out a very solid win on its opponent’s home court. The Bruins played disruptive defense, forcing 20 TO‘s including 15 steals (Oregon averages 11.5 TOs/game) and blocked eight shots compared to Oregon’s six. It has a deeper bench than Oregon and if Osborne returns healthy after her scary shoulder injury the Bruins will contend for #2 in conference with Utah and Arizona. It will make an interesting opponent for Stanford at Pauley Pavilion in two weeks.

 

[Figurehead]

• UCLA was up 18 in the 4th and Oregon cut it to 3. Not sure why Close didn't use her timeouts.
• Osborne was in a violent collision and suffered a shoulder injury. She returned to the bench later with ice on her shoulder.
• Oregon is challenged by its short roster. They have some serious talent. Vanslooten is a future AA. Talented at both ends.
• Paopao is talented, but I'm confused by her drives across the baseline where she gets stuck.
• Rice is a serious talent, but she had her freshman moments. Maybe it's me, but her conditioning seemed a lot better at the beginning of the season compared to now.
• Lastly, Oregon has some serious talent at guard, but they don't seem to play well together and they take some bad shots. If they figure that out and control the pace of the game, then I could see them as a serious problem come tournament time.

Not sure I understand Graves reasoning on a short roster (seven at the end) even with Basham not expected back until next week, Prince leaving (actually a team chemistry improvement) and Isa leaving (truly for personal reasons).
He was asked the question tonight and he said the roster will stay as it is this season.

The roster for UCLA is at nearly 15 players so I expect it is like weeding carrots planted in a garden. That many will portal out after this year due to lack of playing time. Rodgers is better than Paopao and freshmen Gray will be better than senior Paopao next year as a sophomore. 19 total turnovers and 5 by Paopao does not give you much success in the end. Still a couple of players short on talent this year at Oregon but if this group can stay together watch out.

 

[jake0414]

UCLA has ten currently active on its roster. UCLA started the season with thirteen. Forward Angela Dugalic tore an ACL in September making her unavailable this season, Guard Dominique Onu entered the transfer portal after six games. Forward Izzy Anstey started the season unavailable after hip surgery last summer. Expect back next week.

Don‘t think UCLA will lose any underclassmen to the portal. If anything it will have to add a couple of players, either internationals or via the portal for 2023.

Stanford has fifteen on its roster however….

 

[Floridaduck]

If they figure that out and control the pace of the game, then I could see them as a serious problem come tournament time.

Graves is skating on thin ice with this short roster. Not quite sure what he has in mind going forward. Perhaps he did think 11 was enough and Prince was a surprise retirement. Now Isai inexplicably left the program leaving 9. The starters all all likely back next year but the current bench is all 5th year or grads and will be leaving. With only 3 recruits, he will be looking at just 9 again including Basham who hasn't played yet. I don't know... 15 is too much but at least 12 is what you need IMO.
Maybe there is a plan for portal or overseas. I hope so.

 

[JellyBean]

Just my two cents. UCLA is going to be fun to watch this season and down the road. They have some big-time players. Oregon just had too many turnovers and got behind early. Much like UCLA, Oregon has some big-time players as well who are only going to keep getting better.

 

[ConwayGmck]

Reading that Oregon's roster is a short roster is surprising to me.......they usually have a plethora of trees on their roster....

 

[Figurehead]

Graves is skating on thin ice with this short roster. Not quite sure what he has in mind going forward. Perhaps he did think 11 was enough and Prince was a surprise retirement. Now Isai inexplicably left the program leaving 9. The starters all all likely back next year but the current bench is all 5th year or grads and will be leaving. With only 3 recruits, he will be looking at just 9 again including Basham who hasn't played yet. I don't know... 15 is too much but at least 12 is what you need IMO.
Maybe there is a plan for portal or overseas. I hope so.

I get what you are saying. Love this team so much more than last years group where they never really meshed. Vanslooten had a nice interview the other day ( a likable fan favorite) and I really like her game and she is just dang fun to watch on both ends of the floor , especially in person. Good grief how good can she be once she learns even more with college ball?. Twelve is my favorite number too for a roster count. I think he will portal shop for three more pieces for next year. There are going to be alot of good ones out there. I love the trajectory of the team at this point. Btw, reaching the Sweet 16 at this point is my personal fan goal for this team for this year.

Here is the Vanslooten interview:

Oregon star freshman Grace VanSlooten goes in-depth with Jordan Ligons Robinson

Oregon women's basketball star Grace VanSlooten sat down for an in-depth interview with Jordan Ligons Robinson. VanSlooten leads Pac-12 freshmen in scoring at 16.3 points per game and is fourth among freshmen nationally. She has won the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week award three times this season.

sports.yahoo.com

 

[Jorislove]

Oregon still in rebuilding mode basically.
I really think Graves put all his eggs in one basket of Prince and Sabally (Nyara). The chemistry was so awful between them and the rest of the team.
He seemed to insist the ball to go to them every single time, despite Nyara taking so many bad (quite frankly stupid) shots along with many turnovers, and Prince playing at half effort (or less). Chemistry never recovered and everyone else that left has looked more relaxed.

 

[socal613ws]

Kelly Graves is not a head coach that you can trust, been proven. Ionescu carried him for a long time, but now that is done and he is back to what he is, middle of the pack head coach.

 

[Figurehead]

Kelly Graves is not a head coach that you can trust, been proven. Ionescu carried him for a long time, but now that is done and he is back to what he is, middle of the pack head coach.

It is the old traditional argument rolled out again out of nowhere. Your coach on the team (fill in the blank) is just plain no good. He (she) was only good because they had (fill in the blank) player.

Sabrinas last year was covid shortened 2020. The big three left (Hebard, Ionescu, sabally) after that. Pac-12 has 12 teams so maybe they will call it the pac-10 soon, Middle of the pac at this point would be at 5,6 ,7. So there is the 2021 season where Oregon finished 4th behind Stanford, Arizona and UCLA. No slouches there. Then in 2022 a tied for 3rd place finish. So now we don't know about 2023 yet, considered a rebuilt. Did you yourself or your child not get enough playing time along the way at Oregon?

Btw, Ionescu is good but even in early grade school she was not good enough to play at Gonzaga at the time so that does not explain his time there if it was all about Sabrina.

 

[Figurehead]

Oregon still in rebuilding mode basically.
I really think Graves put all his eggs in one basket of Prince and Sabally (Nyara). The chemistry was so awful between them and the rest of the team.
He seemed to insist the ball to go to them every single time, despite Nyara taking so many bad (quite frankly stupid) shots along with many turnovers, and Prince playing at half effort (or less). Chemistry never recovered and everyone else that left has looked more relaxed.

Spot on! Looking back on that now was pretty much the conclusion made today.

 

[LwrcasefaN]

Kelly Graves is not a head coach that you can trust, been proven. Ionescu carried him for a long time, but now that is done and he is back to what he is, middle of the pack head coach.

Ouch. lol

 

[nwhoopfan]

Kelly Graves is not a head coach that you can trust, been proven. Ionescu carried him for a long time, but now that is done and he is back to what he is, middle of the pack head coach.

I think his tenure at Gonzaga showed him to be more than a middle of the pack HC. Unless you want to say Vandersloot carried him at GU.

 

[socal613ws]

It is the old traditional argument rolled out again out of nowhere. Your coach on the team (fill in the blank) is just plain no good. He (she) was only good because they had (fill in the blank) player.

Sabrinas last year was covid shortened 2020. The big three left (Hebard, Ionescu, sabally) after that. Pac-12 has 12 teams so maybe they will call it the pac-10 soon, Middle of the pac at this point would be at 5,6 ,7. So there is the 2021 season where Oregon finished 4th behind Stanford, Arizona and UCLA. No slouches there. Then in 2022 a tied for 3rd place finish. So now we don't know about 2023 yet, considered a rebuilt. Did you yourself or your child not get enough playing time along the way at Oregon?

Btw, Ionescu is good but even in early grade school she was not good enough to play at Gonzaga at the time so that does not explain his time there if it was all about Sabrina.

losing to #12 seed Belmont rd 1 at home I guess is the standard lol

 

[jonson]

losing to #12 seed Belmont rd 1 at home I guess is the standard lol

It wasn''t at home. At least get your facts straight.

 

[DefenseBB]

So what about UCLA losing the Oregon State yesterday? Not sure being overly critical of Kelly without noting how brutal Cori can be in the actual coaching of games on a UCLA thread is a fair or logical perspective. I was happy to see the better chemistry with OSU and the game of Beers. Cori has to win these types of games is she wants to contend for Sweet 16 and Elite 8 births AND don't even try to explain that she missed Osborne as no one from UConn cares to hear any of it...that includes the various scribes who are trying to justify Indiana without Berger, VPI without Owusu or NC State without Johnson.

 

[dabears17]

Lots of teams dealing with injuries. Arizona lost Lauren Ware for season back in August.

Close isn’t one of my favorite coaches, but UCLA played good portions of the 2020-21 and 2021-22 with just 7 or 8 players available to play.

Impressive what UConn did last year and so far this year with a short bench, but they aren’t the only team who has recently played with short benches for multiple games.

UCLA can be a dangerous team. They were one of only two teams to beat Stanford the 2020-21 season.

 

[BruinGold]

So what about UCLA losing the Oregon State yesterday? Not sure being overly critical of Kelly without noting how brutal Cori can be in the actual coaching of games on a UCLA thread is a fair or logical perspective. I was happy to see the better chemistry with OSU and the game of Beers. Cori has to win these types of games is she wants to contend for Sweet 16 and Elite 8 births AND don't even try to explain that she missed Osborne as no one from UConn cares to hear any of it...that includes the various scribes who are trying to justify Indiana without Berger, VPI without Owusu or NC State without Johnson.

Without using the absence of Osborne as an excuse (eyeroll), it's basically a freshman team trying to figure out roles. After the first quarter against OSU, they seemed to be getting it together pretty well. Frankly, I am shocked that the team has come together as quickly as they have. Londynn Jones, in particular, may be speeding up to the college game.

Um, if Cori Close is a terrible coach (and I'm not a big defender of her), doesn't that make criticism of Kelly even more logical? Shouldn't any decent coach be wiping the floor with her?

 

[DefenseBB]

I am confused, So Cori can beat Kelly which has a talented squad but she can't beat OSU? Kiki Rice is very, very good but Cori does need to establish some type of offense and can't just roll the ball out onto the court and let them play. We keep hearing how "great UCLA will be" yet it never materializes. Certain teams have their calling cards-OSU was always defense, same for Arizona, Oregon was offense, Stanford is basketball IQ. What the heck is UCLA's? She's been there 12 years now and she really hasn't accomplished much given the quality of the recruits-3 Sweet 16 appearances, 1 WNIT title and the WNIT Semi-Finals last year. I am reminded of the Wendy's commercials from years ago-"where's the beef?"

Compared to Kelly who took over an abysmal Ducks program 35-59 the 3 years prior to his arrival, (UCLA was 72-26 the previous 3 years under Nikki Fargas so talent was there), Cori has not measured up. Kelly won the PAC12 3 times and finished 2nd once, Cori has tied for 2nd once as her best finish. So, yeah, the comparison isn't really Close (see what I did there? ).

While I certainly am questioning how good a coach Kelly really is, I know that Cori can't coach a game having watched her blow games to inferior talent far too many times. Nice lady, great recruiter and spokesperson but as an actual coach, NO, jus NO.

 

[Bone Dog]

I don’t really know how to judge any of them as game coaches. But they are great recruiters. For example, I was impressed when Close landed Kiki Rice for this year, and it’s impressive how ready she turns out to be for D1 competition. Grace VanSlooten is another one. It is perplexing how many kids end up transferring out of Ore and OSU. I can only assume they don’t care for the demand to play defense, though I could well be wrong about this. That just seems to be the dividing line between good and great players.

 

[cancontent]

I don’t really know how to judge any of them as game coaches. But they are great recruiters. For example, I was impressed when Close landed Kiki Rice for this year, and it’s impressive how ready she turns out to be for D1 competition. Grace VanSlooten is another one. It is perplexing how many kids end up transferring out of Ore and OSU. I can only assume they don’t care for the demand to play defense, though I could well be wrong about this. That just seems to be the dividing line between good and great players.

Incorrect assumption if you ask me. Mikesell transferred to Ohio State which lives off of defensive pressure and seems to be doing fine. Jaz Shelley of Nebraska was an All-Defensive Team selection in the BIG10 last season. Sydney Parrish is at Indiana and they expect their players to be tough defensively.

 

[Bone Dog]

Incorrect assumption if you ask me. Mikesell transferred to Ohio State which lives off of defensive pressure and seems to be doing fine. Jaz Shelley of Nebraska was an All-Defensive Team selection in the BIG10 last season. Sydney Parrish is at Indiana and they expect their players to be tough defensively.

Interesting. That helps. It’s probably a more complicated question then.

 

[Dillon77]

Could some our West Coast insiders fill me in on:
- Timea Gardiner, the fresh forward from Oregon State. I vaguely recall that she was out for the year. Is that true? If so, cause?
Talented inside player. If/when she comes back, she and Beers will be a fine tandem.
- Can anyone shed any insight on why Jennah Isai left the Oregon program before the holidays? She was playing an average of 19 mpg, which is pretty good for a frosh. The article below didn't shed that much insight beyond "personal reasons." I've always liked her game: nice blend of athletic ability and court sense.

Thanks much.

Breaking: Oregon women’s basketball guard Jennah Isai leaves program

Oregon freshman Jennah Isai was missing from the Oregon women’s basketball 85-78 win over No. 17 Arkansas, on Tuesday. It was later announced she has left the program due to

www.dailyemerald.com

 

[cancontent]

Interesting. That helps. It’s probably a more complicated question then.

Definitely is more complicated. In the case of Graves, I don't think any assessments can be made on his coaching for at least a couple more seasons. The performance of the current roster, and incoming additions like Sammy Wagner may offer better insight.