No. 1 Ducks Host USA WNT Saturday in MKA

EUGENE, Ore. - The No. 1 ranked Ducks have a unique opportunity ahead of them this Saturday when they host the USA Women's National Team in an exhibition game at 4 p.m. PT in Matthew Knight Arena.

The game, televised on Pac-12 Network, is being played as part of Team USA's expanded training program to aid in its pursuit of a seventh straight Olympic Gold Medal. This is the first time Oregon has ever squared off against the USA WNT.

USA Women's National Team
Olympic Gold Medals: 6 (1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016)
Notable Players: Sue Bird, Skylar Diggins-Smith, Sylvia Fowles, Chelsea Gray, Nneka Ogwumike, Diana Tuarasi, A'ja Wilson
Other Fall Games: 11/2 at Stanford (W, 95-80); 11/4 at Oregon St. (W, 81-58); 11/7 at Texas A&M

Consensus Preseason No. 1
The Ducks enter the 2019-20 season with the first Associated Press No. 1 national ranking in program history. Oregon sits atop both the preseason AP poll and the USA Today coaches poll, and the Ducks also receieved preseason No. 1 rankings from espnW, NCAA.com, Sports Illustrated and SLAM, among others.

Picked to Three-Peat
For the second straight season, the Ducks have been picked to win the Pac-12 in the preseason vote of the conference's coaches. Oregon received the maximum 11 first-place votes and 121 points, with Stanford picked to place second with 111 points and one first-place vote. Oregon State (99), UCLA (93) and Arizona State (77) round out the top five of the preseason poll. Oregon has won the Pac-12 regular season title each of the last two seasons - the first two in program history - and the Ducks also won the Pac-12 Tournament in 2017-18.

Regular Season Opens Monday
Oregon will kick off the highly-anticipated 2019-20 regular season on Monday with a Veteran's Day matchup against Northeastern at 3 p.m. PT in MKA.

Unfinished Business
Widely considered the top WNBA prospect in the nation following her historic junior season, two-time Pac-12 player of the year Sabrina Ionescu put her professional career on hold to return to the Ducks for her senior campaign. Ionescu announced her decision in the Players' Tribune, saying she and the Ducks had "unfinished business" following last April's Final Four loss to Baylor. "We're building something here in Eugene. We're building something — together — that's going to last for a long time after we've all graduated."

Quick Hits: #20 Sabrina Ionescu
» Enters senior season with career totals of 1,984 points, 792 assists and 756 rebounds, giving her the chance to become the first player in NCAA women's basketball history to reach 2,000+ career points, 1,000+ career assists and 1,000+ career rebounds.
» NCAA all-time leader (men's and women's) with 18 career triple-doubles; Previous record was 12 (Kyle Collinsworth, BYU).
» 2018-19 Wade Trophy (national player of the year) and Wooden Award (NCAA most outstanding player) winner.
» Two-time Pac-12 Player of the Year (2017-18, 2018-19); Three-time all-Pac-12 selection.
» Two-time Nancy Lieberman Point Guard of the Year (2017-18, 2018-19).
» Two-time unanimous first-team all-American (2017-18, 2018-19).
» Oregon's all-time leader with 792 career assists, 101 more than any other Duck in program history.
» Averaged 19.9 points, 7.4 rebounds and 8.2 assists per game during historic junior season.
» Racked up an NCAA single-season record eight triple-doubles in 2018-19 to become the new all-time career record holder with 18.
» Led the nation in 2018-19 with 311 total assists while pacing the Pac-12 and ranking third in the NCAA in assists per game.

Bringing the Band Back Together
Highlighted by the return of Ionescu, the Ducks bring back four of five starters and seven total letterwinners from last year's Final Four team. Ionescu is joined by returning starters Ruthy Hebard (16.1 PPG, 9.1 RPG, 67.0 FG% in 2018-19), Satou Sabally (16.6 PPG, 6.2 RPG, 50.5 FG%,) and Erin Boley (12.4 PPG, 43.0 3PT%). The Ducks also bring back three more letterwinners from last season in Taylor Chavez, Lydia Giomi and Morgan Yaeger. Nyara Sabally, the younger sister of Satou Sabally, returns after missing her true freshman season with an injury, but she will be out once again for all of 2019-20.

The Newbies Can Ball, Too
In addition to bringing back 80 percent of last season's roster, the Ducks added a pair of transfers and three talented freshmen to bolster the team's depth in a big way. Minyon Moore is expected to play a big role for Oregon after coming to Eugene in the offseason as a graduate transfer from USC. Moore is a two-time Pac-12 all-defensive selection and led the Trojans last season with 14.8 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game. SEDONA PRINCE, the No. 8 ranked recruit in the nation two years ago, also joined Oregon via transfer after sitting out as a true freshman last year at Texas. Joining Moore and Prince as newcomers this year is a trio of highly-touted international recruits in Jaz Shelley (Moe, Australia), Holly Winterburn (Northampton, England) and Lucy Cochrane (Melbourne, Australia).

Nation's Best
Sabrina Ionescu was honored as the nation's best player in 2018-19 with both the Wade Trophy and the Wooden Award, becoming the first Duck ever to win either national award. A unanimous first-team all-American for the second year in a row, Ionescu was also the Nancy Lieberman Point Guard of the Year for the second straight year, and she has the chance to join the legendary Sue Bird as the only players to ever win that award three times. Entering the 2019-20 season, Ionescu was tabbed as the ESPNW preseason player of the year while also coming in at No. 1 in the ESPNW preseason player rankings for the second straight year, with both Ruthy Hebard (#5) and Satou Sabally (#8) joining her in the top 10.

Record Book and Milestone Watch
» Sabrina Ionescu is only 16 points away from becoming the fourth Duck ever to surpass 2,000 in a career.
» With 80 more points, Ionescu will pass UO legend Bev Smith (1978-82) for No. 3 on the UO all-time scoring list.
» Ionescu needs eight assists and 44 rebounds to surpass 800 for her career in both categories.
» Ionescu is only two three-pointers away from passing Taylor Lilley (2007-10) for No. 2 in Oregon history, and just 15 away from breaking the Oregon all-time record (283, Lexi Bando, 2014-18).
» Ionescu is seven double-figure scoring games away from overtaking Alison Lang (108, 1980-84) for the most in UO history.
» Ruthy Hebard is just 18 rebounds away from becoming the fourth Duck ever to eclipse 1,000 in a career.
» Hebard needs 14 rebounds to pass Stefanie Kasperski (1986-90) for No. 4 in Oregon history.
» Hebard is six double-figure scoring games away from passing Bev Smith (1978-92) for No. 4 in UO history.
» With 39 career double-doubles, Hebard needs two more to pass Debbie Sporcich (1990-94) for No. 5 in program history.
» Satou Sabally needs 17 rebounds to reach 400 in her career, and seven steals to get to the career century mark.
» Minyon Moore is 50 assists away from 500 for her career.