*If the Big Ten Conference can have 18 teams, then this list can have as many items as I want and will change week to week.
1. Number one? That’s the Ducks of course. Both the football team and Sabrina Ionescu.
2. What a weekend for Oregon, with a championship pursuit gaining steam and a championship won.
3. Four years after the pandemic shut down the NCAA Tournament and robbed Ionescu and the rest of the No. 1 Ducks, including her now-Liberty teammate Nyara Sabally, of the chance to pursue a collegiate championship, Sabrina collapsed to the floor in celebration on Sunday night at Barclays Center.
4. Ionescu did not shoot well in the terrific series against Minnesota, and her 1-of-19 performance in the decisive Game 5 was at times hard to watch — and for those accustomed to watching her drain three after three, difficult to fathom. (In fact, Sabally was the far more impactful former Ducks player on Sunday, scoring 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting and grabbing seven boards). But Ionescu’s game-winner in Game 3 was the signature moment of the series and now of her career. It was also arguably the difference between New York winning the series and losing it.
5. It’s a championship many expected her to get, and many more wanted her to get, in New Orleans in 2020. It’s an oversimplification to say that this title fills the void that one created, but it’s impossible to not see the connection between the two.
6. “That’ll always leave a hole in everybody’s hearts,” Oregon coach Kelly Graves told me on Sunday. “But for her I’m sure there’s a little bit of redemption.”
7. Graves said 2024 is quickly shaping up as the greatest year of his former star’s life: She married ex-Ducks football star Hroniss Grasu in March, won an Olympic gold medal with Team USA in August and now can add a WNBA title to her trophy case.
8. “It’s going to be hard to beat that,” Graves said.
9. Is a College Football Playoff trophy next for her Ducks? There’s a long way to go before that happens. But no one should have a legitimate shot at dethroning Oregon before, at earliest, the Big Ten championship game in December.
10. Oregon is favored by 21.5 points against No. 20 Illinois on Saturday, a staggering margin over a ranked opponent.
11. Then again, two weeks ago Illinois needed overtime to beat Purdue by a single point — at home. Oregon shut out the woeful Boilermakers on the road on Friday.
12. There wasn’t much to analyze about Oregon’s 35-0 shellacking of perhaps the worst Power Four team in the country. But you had to appreciate Dillon Gabriel’s third touchdown drive.
13. Pinned against his own end zone after the Boilermakers’ Botros Alisandro downed a punt at the 1-yard line — the player of the game, really, for Purdue — Gabriel took the Ducks offense 99 yards in six plays, capped by a touchdown pass to Tez Johnson.
14. By the way, the officiating in that first half really had me questioning whether I know what a touchdown is. First Jordan James was twice ruled short of the goal line after video reviews in the first quarter (he finally punched it in on fourth down) and then Johnson’s TD was ruled a touchdown after initially being marked short.
15. Do I know what a touchdown is? Do the officials? Does anybody?
16. Anyway, that breezy win is now how Oregon became the new and nearly unanimous No. 1. (In the AP poll, they received 59 of the 61 first-place votes, including mine.)
17. It took Georgia toppling top-ranked Texas for the Ducks to claim the top spot. And while that upset was percolating in Austin, Texas, Oregon State was once again facing a reminder of what a different world it now occupies from its erstwhile rival.
18. The Beavers were terrific for most of the first half of their 33-25 loss to UNLV, a surprise contender in the Mountain West. Quarterback Gevani McCoy was electric, breaking free for a 71-yard touchdown run, and a defense that was sliced and diced a week earlier at Nevada, held its own against the run-heavy Rebels.
19. A quick pause to acknowledge that the field for the Beavers’ homecoming game looked terrific. The vintage Benny logo at midfield was fun to see, along with their spin on retro helmets. In my mind, OSU can’t incorporate that logo into its branding enough. Iconic and unique.
20. Anyway, things fell apart in the second half. And we are not going to blame this loss on a phantom pass interference call, OK?
21. McCoy was sacked six times, including five times in the second half. OSU’s typically stout offensive line gave up two sacks on a gotta-have-it drive with five minutes left in the fourth quarter and the Beavers trailing 26-17.
22. “We didn’t protect like we normally protect,” Trent Bray said.
23. In addition to the sacks, the Beavers had a punt blocked at the end of the first half that set up a UNLV field goal and in the third quarter Anthony Hankerson fumbled it away on the Beavers’ 19. The Rebels scored a touchdown on the next play to seize the lead.
24. “We’ve got to eliminate the self-inflicted things that are costing us the last couple weeks,” Bray said.
25. You had to love the Beavers’ resilience, however. They went 75 yards in 11 plays to cut the Rebels’ lead to eight. And after an interception by Jack Kane, nearly punched in a touchdown that would have given them a chance to tie the game. McCoy continues to be impressive in late-game situations, showing the same mettle that allowed him to lead OSU to that double-overtime win against Colorado State two week searlier.
26. I wondered about the clock management in the final minute after the Beavers got the ball back trailing by eight points.
27. “We moved the ball down the field,” Bray said. “We just ran out of time.”
28. Could that have been avoided if McCoy had sacrificed a down by spiking the ball to save either of the two timeouts Bray used in the final 70 seconds? I’m not a coach, but I do know the final sack Oregon State allowed ended up costing them 25 seconds of precious clock.
29. In a game that ended on first down on the 6-yard line, there’s room for second-guessing.
30. Was tight end Jermaine Terry II interfered with on that final pass of the game? After watching the replay several times, I just didn’t see it. From the sound of things in the stadium, most Beavers fans disagree.
31. On the elevator ride down to Bray’s news conference, I told athletic director Scott Barnes that it was impressive how the Beavs fought back. That they certainly didn’t give up when the game appeared to be lost.
32. “We never do,” he said.
33. He was talking about the game, but he could have also been referring to OSU’s spirit as the evolving college landscape has roughed up the Beavers even more than UNLV’s front seven did on Saturday.
34. The losses have begun to find the Beavers this season and it feels like more are coming. But for now, that toughness is something for OSU to hang its hat on.
— Bill Oram is sports columnist at The Oregonian/OregonLive.
