Ionescu Demands Focused Mindset As Ducks Prepare For Postseason

Turns out Sabrina Ionescu dishes out advice as well as she does assists.

Ionescu, who entered this week third in the NCAA with 8.1 assists per game, was in the huddle with the rest of her teammates and UO coach Kelly Graves after practice Wednesday. The Ducks were about to embark for Las Vegas and the Pac-12 Tournament, the first step in a postseason that could eventually include two home games to open the NCAA Tournament, then a weekend of Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight play in Portland, followed by the Final Four.

All of that was a lot for the Ducks' young minds to consider. So Ionescu spoke up, and cut to the chase — all Oregon needed to worry about was its opening game Friday in the Pac-12 Tournament, and putting together "a one-game winning streak."

Graves smiled and nodded. His pep talk was over.

"Sab usually makes really good points," the UO coach said moments later, as he met with local media before the trip to Las Vegas.

The Ducks (27-3) arrived in Nevada on Wednesday, as the No. 1 seed in the tournament and the No. 6 team in the nation. They're looking to repeat as conference tournament champions, having already secured back-to-back regular-season titles with a 16-2 mark in Pac-12 play.

Oregon is also battling some adversity, having suffered a late-season stumble that included consecutive losses, to Oregon State and UCLA. Those came with the Ducks playing largely without junior post Ruthy Hebard, who returned from a knee injury to help the UO women close out the regular season with three wins. And they played last weekend without freshman guard Taylor Chavez, an Arizona native sidelined for her homecoming by a foot injury that will also cause her to miss the Pac-12 Tournament.

That's a lot of adversity to overcome, with so much at stake in the coming weeks. Best not get caught up in all of that, Ionescu exhorted her teammates. Better to focus fully on their Pac-12 Tournament opener, to be played Friday (2 p.m., Pac-12 Network) against Arizona after the Wildcats beat USC in the event's first round Thursday.

Better to focus on a one-game winning streak.

"There's just so many people talking about what could be," Ionescu said. "Us being in Portland, us hopefully hosting. But I think we just need to come in with that mentality. Focus on the game we have at hand, play that to the best of our ability, and everything else will take care of itself."

With Chavez sidelined by the foot issue, she's relegated to the bench along with Nyara Sabally, who was expected to be a freshman force in the post this season but redshirted with a knee injury. Thus the Ducks will dress just eight players for the Pac-12 Tournament.

To prepare for the potential of three games in three days, should Oregon reach the title game this weekend, Graves played Ionescu just 30 minutes in the penultimate game of the regular-season, at ASU, her second-fewest in a Pac-12 game all season. Backup post Lydia Giomi, meanwhile, played a combined 24 minutes against ASU and Arizona, her season-high in a weekend of Pac-12 games, and backup guard Morgan Yaeger played 20 combined minutes, second-most in a Pac-12 weekend this season for her.

"I preach it almost every day that, at any moment, you never know when you're going to be called upon," Graves said. "We need you to be ready to deliver. And that's happened so far."

Ionescu, ever the gamer, is unbowed by the potential for three games in three days.

"I feel great; I'm excited," said the two-time Pac-12 player of the year. "I think just with the adrenaline of going down there playing, that trumps all the bumps and bruises. Everyone at this point in the season has something that's nagging or bothering them. It's the ones that can face that and continue to perform at a high level that'll achieve."

This is the first year that the women's Pac-12 Tournament is being played in Las Vegas, after an extended run in Seattle. The event is being hosted by the MGM and its Grand Garden Arena, site of the conference men's tournament until its recent move to T-Mobile Arena across Las Vegas Boulevard.

Bringing a team of college kids to Las Vegas isn't a worry for Graves, who played his conference tournament for several years in Las Vegas while at Gonzaga.

"I don't anticipate," Graves deadpanned, "that they're going to be at the craps tables or anything like that."

No, the Ducks headed to Vegas with focused intensity, aware of but not consumed by the potential postseason run upon which they're about to embark.

"That's big-picture — and that's something we're striving for — but it's not our central focus," Ionescu said. "The team is ready to come out this weekend and start this new opportunity that we have in front of us."