In other news....

Number 1 beat number 1

U of O played the Best team on the planet today 93-86  on 30 points from Ionescu and another 25 from Sabally. They shot 50% for the night and out rebounded the Nats.
Nobody has been able to do that in 20 years, though at least 4 top 10 teams have tried this year alone.

I pity the rest of the NCAA this year. Kelly is a hell of a coach. How does this work...do they swap rosters?

Quite the accomplishment by the Duck's women's squad. For most games, that might be a good resolution--captains pick from the players on each roster.

Kelly Grraves is not only a good coach, but he is one hell of a recruiter. Ducks are on a whole different level, obviously.

Seemed like a good place to post this UP-video honoring 2022 National Girls and Women in Sports Day...

Lucy Cochrane makes most of Land of Opportunity...

The 6-foot-6-inch Australian led the nation in blocked shots this season with 3.93 rejections per game.

Maisie Burnham: "Our defense really relies a lot on Lucy being there to contest shots. She’s a player with all sorts of tricks. I love playing with her because of her aura. She’s just so calm and relaxed even in situations that could be intense. Lucy’s just going to sit back, play her game, and she does what she does.”

https://www.midmajormadness.com/2022/5/9/23061984/lucy-cochrane-makes-most-of-land-of-opportunity

Walk-on Camryn Collman from La Grande has transferred to Idaho St. and will have four years of eligibility remaining after redshirting this past season.

Camryn spent a lot of time practicing with and against the "varsity" this past season and her experience earned her a scholarship to Pocatello...

Portland Named Finalist to Host Women's Final Four...2027 - 2031 bid cycle.

https://portlandpilots.com/news/2022/6/1/general-portland-named-finalist-to-host-womens-final-four.aspx

"University of Portland Athletics is grateful for the possibility of being the host institution for the NCAA Women's Final Four at Moda Center," University of Portland Vice President of Athletics Scott Leykam said. "With the success of all the women's basketball programs here in the state of Oregon, it would be a true honor to host one of the most prestigious championship events in sports. We would like to thank Sport Oregon, the Rose Quarter and Travel Portland for bringing us one step closer to making this a reality, and we are ecstatic about having the opportunity to expand the Portland Pilots Athletics brand."

Thoguhts for the aspiring coach, some of which are free:

https://coachtube.com/course/basketball/mike-meek-full-court-pressure/13523225

Have any of you been following the Portland Pilots on twitter lately?

https://twitter.com/portlandpilots

They have been celebrating 50 Pilot women on the 50th anniversary of Title IX...and it has been a veritable memory lane of female student-athletes at UP.

Today's feature was on CB, Cassandra Brown (who has her own thread on Pilot Nation, btw).

Watching the tape of her winning the 3-pt shooting contest as part of the NCAA Championship seven years ago still has me yelling and cheering her on even after watching it at least 50 times before...



CB has been playing professionally in Europe, but last I heard she was playing in Australia for Mount Gambier.  Maybe Adam can fill us in...

Dont know her or Mt Gambier in detail (other side of the country), but can offer broad league level context to how she is going... just uner 22 ppg and 9 rpg for Mt Gambier in the NBL1 South conference.

At the top level in Aus is the Womens National Basketball League (WNBL) which has the cream of Australian players and an import quality of WNBA talent. As an example, when Emma was on the Perth Lynx squad their US import was Ariel Atkins. This year the Lynx had Jackie Young, Marina Mayberry and Sami Whitcomb.

Under WNBL the next level is NBL1 that Cassie plays. Semi-pro and has several different 'conferences' across the country. Over here is Western Australia is NBL1 West (go figure), but the NBL1 South would be considered the strongest NBL1 conference as it is around the state of Victoria which dominates in basketball talent in Australia.

The NBL1 teams normally have a majority of unpaid local players, some with a couple of moderately paid local players and one or two international imports at around a high NCAA D1 talent level but not WNBA calibre level.

Maddie Muhlheim Nominated for NCAA Woman of the Year...and why not?

Muhlheim has excelled both athletically and academically during her time with the Pilots. Finishing her career this past season with the Pilots, Muhlheim ended her five years as the all-time leader in three-pointers made with 274. She also played more games than any Pilot with 143 appearances. The Portland native finished third in program history in minutes played (3,737), fourth in games started (108) and 11th in steals (197). She became the 30th Pilot to record 1,000 points for their career, doing so in Portland's 76-71 overtime win over the Santa Clara Broncos on Jan. 22.

Off the court, Muhlheim has been a top-flight student. She graduated in 2021 with an undergraduate degree in accounting with a 3.95 GPA. She graduated this spring with a master's degree in business administration, earning a 4.0 GPA. She was selected to the WCC All-Academic First Team four times in her career, which is the most of any Pilot in program history.

https://portlandpilots.com/news/2022/7/11/womens-basketball-maddie-muhlheim-nominated-for-ncaa-woman-of-the-year.aspx

ATLANTA – University of Portland women's basketball was among the teams recognized this week as the Women's Basketball Coaches Association announced it's 2021-22 WBCA Academic Top 25 Team Honor Rolls. The Pilots came in at No. 15 nationally among all NCAA Division I institutions with a team GPA of 3.624.

https://portlandpilots.com/news/2022/7/21/womens-basketball-womens-hoops-garners-wbca-academic-honors.aspx

DoubleDipper wrote:

ATLANTA – University of Portland women's basketball was among the teams recognized this week as the Women's Basketball Coaches Association announced it's 2021-22 WBCA Academic Top 25 Team Honor Rolls. The Pilots came in at No. 15 nationally among all NCAA Division I institutions with a team GPA of 3.624.

https://portlandpilots.com/news/2022/7/21/womens-basketball-womens-hoops-garners-wbca-academic-honors.aspx

I think this is actually pretty massive! One of only 6 schools in the top 15 academically that also made post season ncaa or wnit! Amazing to balance on court and off court performance so incredibly!

As a related proud dad moment, I know Emma was worried choosing a 'tough' degree in Nursing that she might bring this average down, but killed it with a 3.6!

DoubleDipper wrote:

ATLANTA – University of Portland women's basketball was among the teams recognized this week as the Women's Basketball Coaches Association announced it's 2021-22 WBCA Academic Top 25 Team Honor Rolls. The Pilots came in at No. 15 nationally among all NCAA Division I institutions with a team GPA of 3.624.

https://portlandpilots.com/news/2022/7/21/womens-basketball-womens-hoops-garners-wbca-academic-honors.aspx

25 D-1 schools were listed, all but two are mid-majors. ASU and Va. Tech only power conf. schools. Only other schools west of the Rockies are ASU, BSU and CSUN.

Women's Basketball Head Coach Mike Meek to be Inducted into George Fox Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday evening.

https://portlandpilots.com/news/2022/9/30/womens-basketball-head-coach-mike-meek-to-be-inducted-into-george-fox-sports-hall-of-fame.aspx

Alex Fowler Named to Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Watch List

https://portlandpilots.com/news/2022/10/19/womens-basketball-alex-fowler-named-to-becky-hammon-mid-major-player-of-the-year-watch-list.aspx

2023 Becky Hammon Award Preseason Watch List

Destinee Wells – Belmont
Lexi Fleming – Bowling Green
McKenna Hofschild – Colorado State
Abbey Hsu – Columbia
Tishara Morehouse – FGCU
Brynna Maxwell – Gonzaga
Kayla Spruill – La Salle
Sam Breen – Massachusetts
Peyton Scott – Miami (OH)
Megan Walstad – Milwaukee
Katelyn Young – Murray State
Shaiquel McGruder – New Mexico
Skyler Gill – North Alabama
A'Jah Davis – Northern Illinois
Kayla Padilla – Penn
Alex Fowler – Portland
Mackenzie Dewees – Quinnipiac
Addie Budnik – Richmond
Isnelle Natabou – Sacramento State
Brooke Flowers – Saint Louis
Ioanna Krimili – San Francisco
Myah Selland – South Dakota State
Quinesha Lockett – Toledo
Starr Jacobs – UT Arlington
Jordyn Jenkins – UTSA

Becky Hammond was of course a 3-time All-America at Colorado State, played professionally for 13 years, was until last season an assistant coach with the NBA San Antonio Spurs for 8 seasons, and last year was the head coach of the WNBA Champion Las Vegas Aces...while raising two young sons.

Lucy Cochrane Named to Lisa Leslie Award Watch List

https://portlandpilots.com/news/2022/10/21/womens-basketball-lucy-cochrane-named-to-lisa-leslie-award-watch-list.aspx

We can all vote for our favorite for this award...but we must vote for all 5 individual positions to do so...and we can only vote once a day!!

The way this award is set up, it would appear to be more of a popularity contest or a check to see which school has the most fans voting.

Some familiar faces at last night's International Night dinner...

23 Countries represented
20% of UP's student-athletes

I couldn't help but notice that USF's top player, Iona Krimili, is in the portal.

From Greece, the 5-10 Krimili has one year of eligibility remaining.

She averaged just under 17ppg, while shooting just under 40% from behind the arc and 87% from the free-throw line.

I am sure Coach Meek has others in mind, but it would seem Krimili could add that outside shooting the Pilots need...unless the team will be fine with Flo, Emma, and Melika finally inserted in the lineup next season.

DoubleDipper wrote:
I am sure Coach Meek has others in mind, but it would seem Krimili could add that outside shooting the Pilots need...unless the team will be fine with Flo, Emma, and Melika finally inserted in the lineup next season.

Not to mention the year by year improvements we see from Emme, Maisie, MJ, and especially McKelle  -  although pretty hard to turn your head from those numbers.

Alex tells me she is planning to play professional basketball after graduation next month...

Well deserved and Sky will definitely be missed by the girls

https://twitter.com/seattleu_wbb/status/1648803258234986496?t=VkKnhf8jwAKODB0exOMldg&s=19

Adam wrote: Well deserved and Sky will definitely be missed by the girls

@hayleeandrews6 wrote:Nobody more deserving!! So grateful to have you as a coach for the past 5 years go crush it!!
@coach_sky

When Sky came to UP from Weber St. almost five years ago with close to 20 years of coaching experience, I thought he was overqualified to be an assistant and would soon be the head coach after Coach Sorenson left.

Even though it was obvious he is super qualified to be a D1 WBB head coach, it now quite difficult for man to hired to coach women, so good on Seattle U. for making the bold and correct move.

The past couple of seasons, Coach Sorenson has been an assistant at Seattle U., and you have to wonder if she will now be one of Sky's assistants...especially since many of the athletic programs, including WBB, have faced deep budget cuts and salaries are likely to be reduced.

DoubleDipper wrote:
Even though it was obvious he is super qualified to be a D1 WBB head coach, it now quite difficult for man to hired to coach women, so good on Seattle U. for making the bold and correct move.

Congrats to coach Young. While I am no historian of the program I suspect he is only the second assistant coach from our program directly hired as a head coach at another D1 program. I am assuming coach Kelly Graves was the first. No doubt coach Young's hiring is to some degree due to the esteem with which the ncaa women's basketball community holds the current program at Portland. Let's hope that coach Meek does not follow suit and enter a sort of transfer portal himself in the near future.

Whether it is difficult for a man to be hired as D1 WBB coach is unclear to me but outside our own program there are numerous examples: Sacramento State just hired a male coach for their WBB program after their former male coach, Mark Campbell, left for a Big 12 WBB program, TCU. All three D1 WBB programs in Idaho are headed by men, or so I think. Montana's WBB is headed by a male. Three of the four D1 WBB programs in Oregon are headed by males. And, the example of Seattle hiring coach Young. That list is not comprehensive, obviously, but makes the point.

If gender is an issue in the hiring of head basketball coaches, it is a far greater issue when considering the hiring of a woman as a head coach for a men's program: I know of no such hirings. Gender bias? It would be interesting to hear Becky Hammonds' view on the subject.