State of the Program

Much of your post has good merit. However, I think you’re comparing apples to oranges. Granted, Oregon States program is not where it was a few years ago. The growth in women’s basketball has excelled in the last few years and the point I think you are missing is…there are programs that have caught up with the “joneses.” Girl basketball players coming out of high school have far more choices today then they did 8-10 years ago. Just look how UConn dominated women’s basketball years ago. And how Stanford ruled the PAC-12! The bar has been raised and more teams today are clearing the bar.

Rider, you make four valid observations that I won't deny appear. I think there are four good reasons (not excuses, realities) we all have to live with. 1) Covid, 2) Injuries, 3) the Portal, 4) SUCCESS. Everyone has to play with the first three, but number four is biting us in the...tail right now. Somewhere I read recently that OSU is in the Top 10 for wins over the last ten years. People take notice of that and if you don't lose your Head Coach, you damn sure will lose your assistant coaches. We have and it is hurting us to a certain extent in recruiting, improving and play on the floor. It is a reality that will improve over time--proven by Rueck's record.
To your observations, I think we find the best (some years only) guard that can get the ball up the court and she becomes the Point by default. This limits her potential right up to the point she decides to put the team on her back and do it herself. Felecia had to do this, Syd did a lot of this (especially when Jamie broke her hand punching a wall at ASU), and Aleah had enough options available that we only rarely saw her "have" to take over a game. I will grant you her most memorable games, offensively, came as a shooting guard. It must be said, however, her defense is what I miss most.
The Post play this year is in complete disarray due to injury. You have one gifted player playing out of position and it shows. Another young player, who is progressing by leaps and bounds, is still a covid Freshman on the roster. When it was Marie's time to start or when she came in to give Ruth a breather, it was not always pretty or productive. This is D1 Women's Basketball in a very tough league. It will improve, it is improving every game.
Item three is real and falls mostly on that Success problem. We are getting ladies from all over the country and sometimes it's hard to get a good read when you are so far away. Add to that the fact that the coach that recruited you may have moved on; or you find you are not the best player/don't want to wait your turn/or you just miss home...and the Portal comes into view.
The concept that we are playing "not to lose" is the only observation that made me laugh out loud! How do you play not to lose from behind? Which is where we have been way too often this season. I get what you are saying. Rueck plays a very controlled tempo offense. At times, I find it boring to be honest. But you cannot look at his body of coaching results and say it doesn't work!
I left last night's game wondering how we pulled that off. I was thinking that USC should be ashamed that they lost that lead. Hell, they were playing 7-on-5 for three and a half quarters (and even at that, the refs just swallowed their whistles near the end like they had a plane to catch) and still let us back in the game. But solid defense combined with just enough offense and more True Grit than I have seen in a long time, were enough for the Beavs to come out on top.
No slide. Just a case of the league catching up a little, the injury bug taking it's turn on us and growing pains. Keep the faith and enjoy the ride.

Excellent information and analysis Henry!

I know how closely you follow the program. Why is the field goal shooting (3 pointers/mid range/layups/etc) so terrible this year? Clearly they are unlikely to win many games this way.

Thanks for all your contributions to the website?

What is your opinion of the fact that UCLA is being forced to forfeit their game to the Ducks due to a lack players? Why is that the case for this particular game and not so for the many others that have been postponed? Maybe a few bucks from Phil Knight influenced the decision( Just Kidding!)

Thank you for your input. Well organized and illuminating. The fact that we only have "one major scoring threat" seems rather astonishing to me, given that we have had outstanding 3 point shooters year after year. Where are they now? Do I not recall, Coach Rueck praising his new recruits for their ability in that area?

Thanks for the excellent observation. Seem like with Talia driving to the hoop there should be all sorts of good three point looks for the other guard and the wing players. Hard to fathom why they shooting such a terrible percentage.

I know very little about basketball, but my observation is that, offensively, this team is poorly coached - but well coached on defense. There is simply too little player movement in reaction to what the ball handler (true point guard or not) is doing - player A has the ball at the top of the key and drives toward the left side of the basket. Player B shifts to this position, C to there, and so on. Instead, players B and C have stood around like potted plants for a few seconds, so when player A picks up her dribble, she has nowhere to go with the ball.

All too often, our girls simply look lost, resulting in turnovers or poor shots with time running out on the clock. This simply shouldn't be happening this late in the year when you have a bunch of 5 star recruits on the floor.

I will not be surprised if Scott makes some coaching changes in the offseason.

I agree with parts of your post others not so sure. Rueck has sought out really good point guards, Clark from Iowa he almost got here. Eneskue at oregon. But he does tend to convert wings to point totally with you on that.
One other positive he has three very good three point shooters for 2022 coming in but as of yet not one serious PG that he is seeking for 2023 or 2024?
One of the good three point shooters is a post in Timea gardiner then two wings. However Reagan beers also in the 2022 can nail threes also. To be fair to Rueck shooting 3s is still a major priority.
Totally with you about posts. Something is just flawed there with this staff. With offensive post fundamentals, again until Reagan and Timea show up.
Last, it’s frustrating understanding Ruecks lack of emphasis with finding, not so much PG’s, but quickness in the back court. Although Sasha Goforth and savanna if here still, would have made our perimeter defense much tougher. br]We need, as many have said some quick footed ladies to shore up our defense and press breaking problems.
Butwe proved last nite that we could beat a very fast team. That was amazing. Give these girls credit because they wanted that game and won it inspite of the hard match ups we had!