It was evident Wednesday morning in Rosemont, Illinois, that many things are different about the Oregon women’s basketball team this season.
The Ducks started practice last week with seven new transfers and a pair of freshmen, and attended Big Ten Media Days for the first time after Oregon left the Pac-12 following last season.
Speaking with the press and Big Ten Network, Oregon coach Kelly Graves — entering his 11th season at the helm in Eugene — said as much about his new-look team.
“I don’t know if I’ve been this excited in a few years,” Graves said.
Graves, along with transfer guard Deja Kelly and returning center Phillipina Kyei, spoke all morning on the upcoming season and what the Ducks’ expectations are heading into the winter.
Here are three things we learned from Big Ten Women’s Basketball Media Day Wednesday.
Oregon expectations for success are as high as ever, despite tough 2023-24 campaign
Following a season that saw two of his best players enter the transfer portal after an 11-21 campaign, Graves said he expects to compete among the top half of the Big Ten this season thanks to a large influx of talent through the transfer portal.
The Ducks added seven new players in the portal, including Kelly, who was a three-time All-ACC performer at North Carolina and was one of the top players available in the transfer portal.
“We had a little slip last year,” Graves said. “But for the last six or eight years we’ve been one of the best programs in the country. We have the kind of team that can get us back to where we’ve been. I’m really excited about this group. A lot of depth, great guard play and some versatility. That’s going to be the style we’ll get back to.”
Kelly and Kyei, who were Oregon’s player representatives in Rosemont, agreed with their coach that they have the team to be able to return to the heights that the Ducks reached years ago with players like Sabrina Ionescu, Ruthy Hebard and Satou Sabally.
“I’m expecting a lot from us,” Kyei said. “We’re ready to compete, ready to play, we’re ready to go.”
Oregon’s Kelly Graves admits he was slow to adapting to new era of college basketball and transfer portal
Though Graves said that he still preferred to build a team through recruiting high school players that he could develop as freshmen, he also admitted Wednesday that he was a bit slow to the new age of college athletics.
After losing many players to the portal in each of the last four seasons, Graves said that he needed to change his approach this offseason.
“This day and age is different and it was something that I was a little slow to embrace, quite frankly,” Graves said. “This is really the first year that we’ve gone into the portal actively. Boy, did it produce dividends. We’ve got some really, really good players, especially at the guard line. The better teams are veteran, and we went out and got fourth- and fifth-year guards and I think that’s going to really make a difference.”
Along with Kelly, the Ducks added sophomore guard Ari Long (Washington), junior guard Nani Falatea (BYU), junior forward Amina Muhammad (Texas), senior forward Alexis Whitfield (UCSB), senior forward Sali Kourouma (Arizona) and junior guard Elisa Mevius (Siena).
Graves said he already sees the haul in the portal paying off during practice.
“You can tell there’s just a different vibe around our practices and our program,” Graves said. “They get along off the court, on the court … We wanted them to really explore Oregon and get to know what an amazing place it is. It’s more than just on the basketball court, they’re really getting along off the court, and we’ll have dividends from that later in the year.”
Deja Kelly says she committed to Oregon to play in Kelly Graves’ system
Graves is known for developing WNBA guards like Sabrina Ionescu and Courtney Vandersloot. North Carolina transfer guard Deja Kelly said that playing for Graves was a huge reason she decided to make the trek across the country from Chapel Hill to Eugene for her fifth season.
“One of the main reasons is this guy right here,” Kelly said of her decision to transfer to Oregon. “Just watching Oregon in the past, they’ve historically been a great program and just seeing how he really works well with his guards and puts them in the best position and his team as a whole. His system is a really good pro-style offense. That’s something that I think my skillset really complements and that I want to continue to grow in.”
The fifth-year guard aspires to play in the WNBA next year after averaging over 15 points per game across four seasons at North Carolina. She said she specifically wanted to work on her abilities as a playmaker for others and continuing to develop her consistency as an outside shooter.
Oregon opens its 2024-25 season with a Nov. 1 exhibition contest against Warner Pacific at Matthew Knight Arena before officially opening its season at home Nov. 4 against California Baptist.
Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football, volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@registerguard.com and you can follow him on X @AlecDietz.
