Weekend Oregon Tales: Von Oelhaffen vs. Brink; Rueck vs. Vanderveer; Kelly Graves vs. Himself

 

Warren Grimes

Stanford finished off conference play with an on-the-road flourish.  The team won a hard-fought game against then second-place Oregon State on Thursday.  On Saturday, they followed up with a W against Oregon.

The OSU game might best be described as Oregon guard Talia Von Oelhaffen vs. Stanford’s Cameron Brink.  Von Oelhafen had a career high of 27 points – that’s almost 43 percent of her team’s total.  Like her team, Von Oelhaffen refused to give up, continuing to score fourth-quarter points despite being hobbled near the end.  Brink had 25 points (37% of her team’s total) along with a career high 23 rebounds (48.9% of her team’s total).  She played 38 minutes for the Cardinal, fouling out with less than 10 seconds left in the game.

There was drama to the OSU game, as the Beavers closed to within 2 points late in the fourth quarter but could not overcome the last gap.  Kiki Iriafen had 14 points and 7 boards; no one else was in double figures, but seven of the other eight Stanford players who had minutes scored between 2 and 7 points each.  It was a Brink-led team victory.

The coaching stand-off between Tara VanDerveer and Scott Rueck guarantees that both teams were well prepared.  Rueck took over a demoralized OSU program in 2010 and has produced excellent results, including a final four performance in 2016 and three conference championships (2015-2017). Stanford has won 14 straight games against OSU, but Thursday’s win was a nail biter.  Rueck has great respect for Van Derveer (the respect is mutual), indicating that he learns from coaching against well-prepared Stanford teams. 

 Rueck has had some success in recruiting top high school players but has been very successful in developing talent.  Like VanDerveer, Oregon State uses a careful scouting report defense.  This year, Rueck’s team was predicted to finish tenth in the conference.  They have outperformed that prediction, finishing fourth, and rising to a nationally top-10 ranked team until recent losses (with the injury to star Raegan Beers).  Based on that record, Rueck should be a candidate for conference coach of the year.

On Saturday, Stanford pulled away to defeat last place Oregon thanks to another exceptional Brink performance (18 points, 17 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 blocks).  Brink seems to thrive when playing in her home state.  She’s a shoe-in for the conference’s best defensive player; given her overall performance (points, boards, assists, blocks, free-throw shooting), she has a solid case for conference PoY.  

Against Oregon, Stanford put up 76 points with three other players in double figures (Kiki Iriafen -16, Hannah Jump 12, and Brooke Demetre 11).  Stanford achieved this with Talana Lepolo resting up for the tournament.  There was barely a hitch.  Jzaniya Harriel played the point, garnering 6 points with 4 assists and only 1 turnover. 

So what’s with Oregon coach Kelly Graves?  This is a man with a sterling record at Gonzaga before coming to Oregon.  This is a man who coached a Sabrina Ionescu led team to a co-favorite position to win the 2020 NCAA tournament, only to have that opportunity thwarted when Covid 19 forced cancellation of the tournament.

After that year, Graves continued to attract top talent to Oregon, but has now been forced to watch many of those players transfer to other schools (talented guard Te-Hina Paopao is now starring for South Carolina).  As much as Stanford may have been disappointed by transfers at the end of last season, Oregon has suffered much more.  Kelly Graves is too good and too experienced a coach to allow his team to continue as a conference last place team. 

Now it’s on to the tournament.  Stanford has the top seed, probably destined to play California in the quarterfinals.  Stanford would not have to face either of the most formidable opponents (UCLA or USC) until the finals.  With Lauren Betts back in the lineup, UCLA has won its last 5 games, several against top-flight opponents.  A story book end game would be for Stanford to face off against a Betts led UCLA team.  But I should know better than to assume that the higher seeded team will win any given game in this wonderfully chaotic conference.