Ducks, Gophers Ready To Light Up Scoreboard

By coincidence, Oregon coach Kelly Graves was in Minneapolis last fall on a recruiting trip, and hit up Minnesota coach Marlene Stollings about attending a Gophers practice.

Graves didn't want to spend an afternoon lying around his hotel room; Stollings was happy to oblige a coach she'd developed a good rapport with over the years. Little did either know, fate would bring them together in the same gym again this spring.

On Sunday, just a few short months since Graves dropped in on the Gophers in Minnesota, his UO women's basketball team will host them in a second-round NCAA Tournament game in Matthew Knight Arena. The No. 2 seed Ducks will meet No. 10 seed Minnesota for a trip to the Sweet Sixteen, and a game next Saturday in Spokane, Wash.

When the tournament field was announced earlier this week, and Graves was interviewed during the selection show by ESPN, Gophers players perked up at the sight of their potential second-round opponent.

"They've been giving me trouble about that ever since Selection Monday," Stollings said Saturday, a day after her team came from behind to beat Green Bay in the first round, 89-77. "Coach, wasn't he the guy that was at our practice?"

Graves won't be the only familiar element for the Gophers on Sunday (7:30 p.m., ESPN2). Minnesota forward Irene Garrido Perez was roommates with Oregon's Maite Cazorla and Aina Ayuso when they were playing youth basketball in Spain. The two teams even run a common fastbreak drill in practices — one Graves cribbed from the Gophers while in Minnesota last fall.

"I liked it, so we actually ran it in our preseason," Graves said. "But we don't run it as fast as they do."

Few do. According to the web site Her Hoops Stats, Minnesota averages 76.9 possessions per game, most among Power 5 conference teams. The Gophers average 85.3 points per game, third-most in the NCAA, and scored 57 in the second half Friday to complete their comeback against Green Bay — which was allowing just 46.1 points per game entering the afternoon.

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Minnesota will come close to meetings its match in Oregon, however. The Ducks are ninth nationally in points per game, at 82.1, after putting up 88 in their first-round win over Seattle.

"They're a very explosive offensive team, and so are the Gophers," Stollings said Saturday. "We're hoping for a very thrilling matchup tomorrow night, and hopefully one college basketball fans will enjoy."

The Gophers are allowing 74 points per game; in the Big Tournament, they beat Iowa in the quarterfinals, 90-89, before losing in the semifinals to Ohio State, 90-88. Stollings acknowledged that both were high-scoring due to an uptempo pace, but said each also came down to "possessions that required multiple stops, and critical, crucial stops" on defense.

Both coaches expect Sunday's game to be similar — fast-paced overall, lighting up the scoreboard, but ultimately to be decided by which team can get an extra stop or two on the defensive end.

Oregon's defense was a source of frustration earlier this season for Graves. But that's changed of late; prior to the Pac-12 Tournament final against Stanford, the Ducks held four straight opponents under 40 percent shooting. Included in that stretch was a 65-62 win over UCLA, which is second in the Pac-12 in scoring at 75.1 points per game.

"This is the best defense we've played since I've been here," UO sophomore Sabrina Ionescu said Saturday, a day after the Ducks limited No. 15 seed Seattle U to 45 points on 32.3 percent shooting. "These last five games, starting with the conference tournament, everybody's been dialed in. We've really bought into the game plan and what we're going to do. If we continue to do that, we're going to be a hard out for any team."

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Senior Lexi Bando said the Ducks earlier in the year were too reliant on their defensive stopper, Cazorla. As the season has progressed, "finally a lot of players are starting to do their jobs," Bando said. "We know there's help now. It's been pretty cool to see how much we've developed throughout the season."

Graves said Oregon's increased communication and chemistry, along with the development of young players like Satou Sabally, has allowed the coaching staff to streamline its defensive game plans. Earlier in the season, Graves said the staff tried to mask the Ducks' deficiencies by employing a thick playbook of various zone and man defenses, dense with traps and double-teams.

Sometimes, all of those concepts helped the Ducks fake their way to solid defense. Sometimes, it just caused confusion.

"A lot of times we had half the team in one zone, half the team in the other zone, one in man, and everybody scored," Graves joked. "We've naturally gotten better at it, our communication is much better, and we've just simplified things a little bit."

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If Oregon's defensive plan Sunday could be simplified to one theme, it would be, stop Minnesota's guards. Led by speedy ballhandler Kenisha Bell, the Gophers average 8.9 three-pointers per game, matching the Ducks' average.

Using an offense heavy on three-pointers, Oregon shocked the NCAA Tournament field last year by winning its way all the way to the Elite Eight as a No. 10 seed. This year it's the Gophers looking to shoot themselves to a few upsets as a 10th seed, and the Ducks looking to stave them off.

If 16th seed Maryland-Baltimore County could knock off No. 1 seed Virginia on the men's side, Stollings said she told her team, anything can happen.

"It's March Madness for a reason," Stollings said. "Oregon epitomized that last year with the run they went on. What it does is, it gives you hope that it has been done, it can be done, and it will continue to be done. And why not us?"

That kind of nothing-to-lose attitude worked wonders for Oregon a year ago. And it has Graves on guard entering Sunday.

"One of my favorite sayings is, a very good team with nothing to lose is a dangerous team," he said. "And I think Minnesota is a very dangerous team right now."