Congrats 'furd

We lost Gibson, Weisner, Hamblin, Wiese, Hanson and Gulich, all of whom received very high Pac-12 or national postseason honors; a very serviceable players in Hunter, Brown and Orum, an outstanding player for half a season via injury (Tudor) and great players for 3-5 weeks of the season (Weisner, Wiese) but have kept things going at a very high level.

I'm interested to see if Graves can continue this level of success after the departure of his stars. He has lost no one of consequence from the start of their current run in 2016-17. Lexi Bando was nothing more than a role player. Let's see what he does next year without SI and Corzola, two outstanding guards, and two years down the road, after Hebard leaves. He's also never had to adjust to the in-season loss of one of his star players for an extended period.

I don't know if he's a "dickhead" or not, I'll take your word for it. I do know he knowingly violated NCAA rules concerning off-season practices for years before finally getting caught and being put on probation, and that if you have kids you don't want to be sitting behind his bench unless you don't mind them hearing a steady stream of f-bombs and other curse words.

I expect they will find a way to buy sign a grad transfer guard.

As Beaver fans, we may not want to hear it, but even if the do lose SI next year, they have a lot of talent returning. Two Sabally's next year, Boli, and Hebard gives them a good start. I think Chavez is better than most of you think. They have two nice international guards coming in next year, one whom the beavers had interest in, and the other is Holly Winterburn, who is quite a nice player. Winterburn was injured the other day, and I haven't heard how serious the injury is, but if healthy, she should be a nice addition to their team.

I expect the Beavs to be better though....but the ducks aren't falling off the map yet.

His assistant coaches are the recruiters.

And while the WNBA doesn't pay great, it does provide some local sponsorship/spokesperson opportunities (nothing, again, like the shoe deals or insurance deals we see in the male pro ranks necessarily), and I believe it provides a lot of "gilt by association" where those opportunities in Europe and Australia and what not are more readily available to "current WNBA player _______".

And then cashing in on visibility to become a high draft pick (or #1) and wear and tear on the body (someone posted here, for example, how SI is having knee issues?) for a college scholarship. Also plausible, and I have no knowledge here, that players might have completed or nearly completed their degree with lots of AP courses on the way in and summer school during their enrollment (Stephen Thompson, an example, working on a graduate degree after graduating in 3 years).

So I think paycheck is just one component of the equation. All of that said, will be interesting to see how the collective bargaining goes in the WNBA after this season - not clear if the financials are there yet for the WNBA. Maybe Larry Scott is running their operation in his spare time.

Go Beavers!