Duck, Beaver Transfer Portal Losses Will Require Rebuilding Cinderella Teams
Women’s collegiate basketball is soaring in popularity, thanks to generational star Caitlin Clark who now heads to the WNBA. However, the women’s basketball teams at the University of Oregon and Oregon State University have been deflated as key players hit the transfer portal.
The Ducks have lost four players and the Beavers, after posting a 27-8 win-loss record and reaching the Elite Eight, have lost eight. Two of the transferring Ducks have signed with Ohio State and Michigan State, which Oregon will play next year when it moves to the Big 10.
Beaver defections also relate to a conference shift, or rather to the hollowing out of the Pac-12 Conference. The only remaining teams are OSU and Washington State University, which have scrounged to find teams to play next season, rattling star players like Raegan Beers, a 6’4” sophomore forward who averaged 17.5 points an 10.6 rebounds per game this season.
The turnover has raised questions about the futures of UO Coach Kelly Graves and OSU Coach Scott Rueck. Both coaches have guided teams to winning seasons and deep runs in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. If they remain in their jobs, both now face rebuilding Cinderella teams next season.
Graves’ team finished this season with an overall 11-21 record and was dead last in the Pac-12 with just two wins and 16 losses. The team lost its last 14 games, the longest losing streak for the women’s team in school history.
Coaches at Oregon and Oregon State face the
challenge of building Cinderella teams next season.
Prospects Next Season
Rueck may face the bigger challenge replenishing his team for next season. Four of his starters are transferring. In addition to Beers, Rueck is losing 6’3” freshman forward Timea Gardiner, who only played 15 games because of an early season injury and still was named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman team. Talia von Oelhoffen, a versatile 5’11”junior guard from the Tri-Cities who was a pre-season All-Pac-12 selection, also will be looking for a new team.
Graves will retain Sofia Bell, a 6’1” guard who graduated from Jesuit High School, and 6’8” center Phillipina Kyei who is a dominant rebounder. He already has added freshman point guard Katie Fiso, who lead her Garfield High School team in Seattle to three state titles, and guard Elisa Mevius who was a two-year starter at Siena College. Mevius is one of four international players on the Ducks current roster.
Since the Ducks lost two starting forwards, it wouldn’t be surprising for Graves to pursue Beers and Gardiner from the Beavers team. Rueck won’t have a chance to recruit Grace VanSlooten who signed on with Michigan State University or Chance Gray who will join the Ohio State Buckeyes, which is losing two star players to the NBA.
The Oregon Phenom That Got Away
Cameron Brink, who was a standout at two Beaverton high schools, was the second pick after Clark at last night’s WNBA draft. Brink, at 6’4”, averaged 17.4 points, 12 rebounds and 3.7 blocks per game in her senior year at Stanford, enroute to being named Pac-12 Player and Defensive Player of the Year. Brink also was elected as the Naismith Women’s Defensive Player of the Year.
Oregon and Oregon State didn’t have a chance to recruit Brink, ranked as the number three high school prospect after her senior year, because she viewed Stanford as her dream school. She said she was drawn there by her relationships with head coach Tara VanDerveer and assistant coach Kate Paye.
VanDerveer just announced her retirement after coaching at Stanford for 38 seasons and amassing a record-setting 1,216 victories, 14 Final Four appearances and three national championships.
Transfer Portal Problems at Stanford
If it’s any consolation, Stanford is also dealing with players transferring. Junior power forward Kiki Iriafen, projected as the team’s star next year, entered the transfer portal four days after VanDerveer’s retirement announcement. Iriafen scored 41 points in Stanford’s second-round win over Iowa State University.
In 2023, the nation’s number one recruit, Lauren Betts, bolted from Stanford to the University of Southern California. Iriafen, who is from Los Angeles, may join her.
Stanford, which also is leaving the Pac-12 to join the ACC, will face a major rebuilding year next season. The leading scorer who is returning only averaged 6.7 points per game this season.
Transfer Portal Transformation
Since 2021 when athletes were allowed to transfer colleges without losing eligibility, more than 1,000 women’s college basketball players have entered the portal in each of last two off-seasons. In this cycle so far, 1,185 players have opted to look for a new home team.
Here is the entire list of players departing to the transfer portal. It provides a useful shopping list for Graves and Rueck.
The Caitlin Clark Factor
Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu charmed the basketball world into her senior season in 2019-2020, which ended when the COVID-19 pandemic caused cancellation of the Final Four, which would have put her talents on national display. She was the first pick in the WNBA draft by the New York Liberty. After a quick start, Ionescu sustained an ankle injury.
Like Ionescu, Clark is a deadly shooter, passer and rebounder. Her “logo” three-pointers shot an average of more than 26 feet away from the basketball have made her a legend. Also like Ionescu, she has a fetching personality, as evidenced by her short comedy bit on Saturday Night Live over the weekend.
Clark is not the first phenomenal women’s basketball player, which she readily admits. But she came along at a time when TV networks were willing to pay attention, and that attention has been rewarded with record viewership. More important, Clark’s play has attracted fan interest in young girls and boys who wear her jersey.
Ionescu has attracted fan eyeballs, too. She competed against Golden State Warrior star Steph Curry in a three-point shootout at the NBA All-Star game. Curry eked out the win, but Ionescu shot the same score as the NBA player who won the three-point contest. All her shots were from behind the men’s three-point line.
Clark inspired a style of play at Iowa University built on teamwork on both offense and defense that in many ways was reminiscent of how the Oregon Ducks played when Sabrina was on the court.
It’s hard to find another Ionescu or Clark. But it may be possible to emulate the style with which they played. Meanwhile, we will be treated to WNBA games when Ionescu, Clark and Brink play against each other.
