Tomorrow marks the first meet of the 2025 season for the Oregon acrobatics and tumbling team. The No. 4 Ducks — who host Morgan State University at Matthew Knight Arena on Saturday at 4:00 PM — enter the year with much of the roster that led it to a national championship semifinal last April still intact. Here’s what you need to know:

How to watch:

The Ducks compete home meets at Matthew Knight Arena. This week, they host Morgan State at 4:00 PM on Saturday, February 15. Oregon students can claim tickets through their portal. The meet will also be broadcast on Big Ten Plus.

Is this a big meet for Oregon?

Not in the week-to-week sense of the word. Morgan State is unranked and lost its first meet to No. 2 Quinnipiac last week — Oregon is expected to win. This is, though, the only chance for the Ducks to compete against another school before they welcome No. 1 Baylor to Eugene next week for undoubtedly arguably their most important meet of the season. It’s a valuable tune-up, and an opportunity to get everything right before next week.

Plus, the Ducks will only compete in seven meets this season. In an environment where top seeds in April’s NCATA National Championship are high-value, every win that can show poll voters that a team deserves the top spot is important.

What is acrobatics and tumbling?

Created to provide post-high school competitive opportunities for gymnasts and cheerleaders who didn’t want to pursue either of those sports in college, acrobatics and tumbling brings together elements of both sports in demanding competition that holds status as an NCAA Emerging Sport — on track to become an NCAA Championship competition. 

For now, the sport competes under its own governing body (not the NCAA), called the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association (NCATA), and holds a championship every April. The eight highest-ranked teams qualify for the championship, plus individual best-performing athletes in individual events who compete in their discipline for an event title.

Baylor University holds the last nine titles — and its coach, former Oregon leader Felecia Mulkey, owns every title in the sport’s history. For more on the history of the sport, read the Daily Emerald’s feature series, The Opportunity Sport.

What they’re saying:

Oregon head coach Taylor Susnara: 

On the program’s season-long goals: “I’d be lying if I said a national championship isn’t in our hearts.”

On the home opener: “[It’s] one to get the wiggles out, so to speak. The goal would be to be as close to perfection as possible…but I think this meet is really about getting out there for the first time, having fun, getting that bond together with each other [and] figuring out what we all need to feel really confident on the mat.”

On Morgan State: “They already saw Quinnipiac. They did pretty well — they’re a pretty new team, but I think they have a lot of fight and a lot of grit within them. They have a really great coaching staff who’s really passionate about the sport.”

Oregon senior base/tumbler Alexis Giardina:

On the home opener: “I think with the opener, there’s a little bit of grace, definitely. Obviously, we are chasing perfection as always, but there’s definitely a little bit of grace for hiccups here and there that come with your first time really being out in front of a crowd again.”

Oregon senior top Bethany Glick:

On the team chemistry: “I feel like, this year, we’ve been able to pick up on a lot of different vibes from past years. And I feel like as seniors, we have been able to curate a really amazing team culture, which I think is exciting going into this season, and I feel like it’s something that as a senior I’m pretty proud of.”

Around the NCATA:

Several ranked programs competed their first meets of the season last week — a scheduling occurrence that happens because not all programs schedule the same number of meets. Records are accurate as of publication on Friday, February 14.

No. 1 Baylor (1-0) defeated No. 5 Mary Hardin-Baylor (0-1) handily, 276.240-255.335. 

No. 2 Quinnipiac (1-0) beat Morgan State University (0-1) 270.565-246.745. 

No. 15 Duquesne (1-0) upset No. 3 Gannon (0-1), 253.060-251.320 in its first-ever meet as an NCATA program. 

No. 6 Fairmont State University (2-0) won out in a three-team meet against West Liberty University (1-2) and Glenville State University (1-1). 

No. 8 Iona University grabbed a ranked victory over No. 14 Long Island University, 258.625-239.090.

No. 7 Azusa Pacific University also beat a ranked opponent: No. 13 Hawaii Pacific University in a 248.229.735 final.

Bases swept the weekly NCATA awards in the first week of competition. Quinnipiac base Hallie Fowler was named Athlete of the Week. Fairmont State base/mid-base Brylee Knotts was named Specialist of the Week. Duquesne base Mia Dipner was named Freshman of the Week.

The post What to know: No. 4 Oregon acrobatics and tumbling vs Morgan State University appeared first on Daily Emerald.

“There’s a national championship today,” said no one ever on the grounds of Augustana University.

Oh, but there will be. The 100-acre, sub-2,000 undergraduate student university was chosen to host the 2025 NCATA National Championship. On day 61 of the 2025 season, eight teams will arrive in Sioux Falls with a shot at the title. Fee Mulkey is planning on being there. So is Taylor Susnara. They’re ready.

Day One was over a decade ago, and this sport is still innovating. New leaders are learning, new opportunities continue to emerge and national relevance continues to grow. Small universities will be the ones to put on the pinnacle of the sport, because that is what this is all about: providing chances for people denied them to surge to the next level. It’s been like that since day one.

So much has changed since day one, 2011. Mulkey’s pitch, for one. It’s no longer about cutting a path through the wilderness — she knows what she’s doing. “Now it’s ‘come be a pioneer in this new sport,’” she said. “Now it’s, ‘I don’t want to talk you out of doing cheerleading. I don’t want to talk you out of doing college gymnastics. I want to tell you about this other opportunity.’”

“Women need to have options,” she finishes. “Women need to have choices and now these women get to make choices.”

Mulkey’s done a tremendous job as the head coach at Baylor University for the past nine seasons. She’s the one who has shaped the landscape for those decisions. 

Twelve years ago, Susnara would’ve never been breaking down film a few doors down from the Oregon football program. Now, she is.

On day one of the 2025 season — the real day one, which for Oregon is February 15 — there will be a chance. It’s day one for the 10 freshmen on a Ducks team that is, in Mulkey’s words, built to offer them an opportunity — a word she used 18 times in her interview with the Emerald. 

Susnara (who used it seven times) and her mentor are very aware of the connotations around Title IX that apply to their sport. Neither shy away from the concept that Oregon’s 41 rostered acrobatics and tumbling athletes bring crucial balance to the Title IX field. It’s just another opportunity.

“You have to own what it is,” Mulkey said. 

She doesn’t expect the athletic directors whom she visits to share her passion for the sport, but she sees the ability to pitch the sport and its benefits as a “win-win.” They don’t have a “male counterpart,” Mulkey said, like baseball does softball or men’s and women’s basketball do, but it changes nothing.

On day one, the only people who matter to the coaches are the ones on their roster.

NEW BEGINNINGS IN MONTEVALLO, AL.

Even far from its peak, the sport is growing more than it ever has. The University of Montevallo — located an hour outside of Tuscaloosa, AL — was the 52nd school to add A&T, it announced in March 2023. Its day one will be this week, an hour east at Talladega College. Its head coach is Kati Horstmann, a Baylor alumna who competed under Mulkey between 2016 and 2019.

Mulkey’s impact is unmistakable. Montevallo’s announcement from NCATA director Janell Cook reads, “Gymnasts and cheerleaders in the state, and region, will benefit from new, unique opportunities to be a varsity student-athlete at Montevallo.”

There’s that word again: “Opportunity.”

“There’s just so many different ways that these women have been training their entire lives,” Horstmann said. “And after they graduate high school, it’s ‘Okay, you’re done.’ Acro comes along to create more opportunities for women to be able to compete at the collegiate level. It’s something that’s really, really special.”

The job isn’t a handout for former athletes like Horstmann and Susnara, though.

Mulkey explained that they can’t just teach the exact skills and techniques they learned and competed with while in school. Susnara corroborates: A young sport evolves so fast that even Susnara and Horstmann’s recent experience won’t be enough to guarantee success. They’ll have to push the envelope — “You’ve got to teach what you want to see on the floor in four years,” Mulkey said.

Horstmann has been joking with a fellow first-year coach. They feel so rusty when they see what’s happening today. She graduated from Baylor less than five years ago, a four-time national champion at the peak of the sport, but she’s watching meets to stay on track. A three-ring binder with the NCATA’s hundred-plus page breakdown of point deductions rests by her right hand. 

Five years from now, there will have been even more day ones, more new coaches and new first programs. The sport sprinting at a breakneck pace doesn’t wait for them to catch up.

Montevallo hosted a mock meet two weeks ago. Horstmann’s team is full of freshmen who have never competed before. They’re confident. They’re so talented. Day one can’t come soon enough.

She describes an “aha moment.” The puzzle pieces will click into place for her team. “At that first meet,” she said, “they’re going to be able to finally see: ‘Oh, okay. I understand now.”

Oregon sophomore athlete Bella Swarthout understands it now, too. After a freshman year that raced past expectations into award nominations, she’s had her “aha” moment. Other moments, though, stick in her mind.

She remembers the semifinal locker room at last year’s National Championship, in Fairmont, WV. It’s pretty painful, she said, to compete back-to-back meets. “But once we’re in that locker room…you have no other choice. You can’t be in some other world or be tired. You just have to remind yourself [that] this is what you’ve worked for.”

Oregon lost that meet. Swarthout lost a team with incredible chemistry, filled with leaders. “That was more of a heartbreak to me,” she said, “than losing was.” That’s been this offseason: meeting new teammates, talking to old ones and figuring out how to make another run at a title.

There’s something different about those championship meets, Swarthout said.

She called them “an opportunity.”

DEFINING LEADERSHIP 

There’s only one way for programs to stay the course within a headlong sprint towards the top: find a leader. Baylor has its matriarch. Oregon has discovered a successor. Montevallo is betting on Horstmann. They all have similar definitions of leadership.

Susnara calls it “stepping up when no one asks you to.” 

Swarthout defines it as “someone who wants to better everyone.” 

Horstmann said, “When you are able to create a culture where people feel seen and heard and valued, and that there’s a plan for them and that they’re a part of something greater…I think being able to create that is true leadership.”

These are the people at the crest of the wave. They don’t have it all figured out — no one does, maybe save Mulkey. They’re pushing, though, for more. More opportunities. More competition. More chances to go out there and enjoy the rush one more time.

“Is every single day as a collegiate athlete going to be fun?” Horstmann asks. “No, there’s going to be hard times. There’s going to be days that you have to push through. But at the end of the day, athletics should be enriching to your life, and if it’s not adding to your life, then what are you doing?”

What are they doing?

As Mulkey and Susnara — the sport’s two vital coaches — prepare for the season ahead, separated by a few thousand miles and a few years of history, they’ll start to think. Acro is a special sport, in that each team has no ability to affect its opponent’s performance. Each time they step on the mat, it’s with the express goal of simply out-executing the other.

While they wait at the end of the mat for their athletes, each coach will give them a hug, whisper advice in their ear, and send them back to the team. It’s all they can do. In a sport where there’s no head-to-head competition, these two do it best. They’ll be there at the start. They’ll meet in the end, they hope, because there’s nothing sweeter than climbing a mountain you’ve grown up in the shadow of.

But for both, success is about more than winning. It’s one last chance for their athletes to lay their emotions on the line, and about offering the opportunity to become “a whole human,” Susnara said. “You’re not gonna make a million dollars,” Mulkey said, “but you can learn some life skills.”

Nobody knew about the National Championship last year in Fairmont, West Virginia. Nobody cared about the sport sketched out on a napkin 35,000 feet in the air. In hours of on-record discussion, Mulkey and Susnara named just one shared goal amidst all of their rivalry:

They’re going to change that.

This is Part III of a three-part series following key figures in the world of acrobatics and tumbling through their quest for a national championship. Find Parts I and II online at dailyemerald.com.

The post The Opportunity Sport, Part III: Day One appeared first on Daily Emerald.

When Oregon men’s basketball is on, it’s on. That’s undeniable. 

But these Ducks haven’t been “on” in a while — at least not for a full 40 minutes. When Oregon (16-8, 5-5 Big Ten) rolled into East Lansing for a visit with No. 9 Michigan State (19-4, 10-2 Big Ten) on the schedule, it looked to have flipped the switch. The Ducks could head back west with a statement, top-10 victory over the Big Ten’s second-best team.

It wasn’t to be. One of Oregon’s best periods this season, a 50-point first half where it held Michigan State to 36, was left in the locker room as the Ducks gave up 50 second-half points and lost their shooting nous in what became an 86-74 loss. 

Sophomore guard Jackson Shelstad looked to have returned after he was held scoreless in a loss to UCLA last Thursday, but Spartans freshman Jace Richardson outdueled his opposite number with a season-high 29 points that left Oregon five games winless and still in search of a victory to get itself back on track for an NCAA Tournament appearance.

Oregon head coach Dana Altman retained guard Keeshawn Barthelemy in the starting lineup, a change he made for the first time in January. Forward Jadrian Tracey would once again come off the bench. The Spartans, meanwhile, were without guard Jeremy Fears (team-leading 6.2 assists per game) to a team-wide sickness. 

It’s been a struggle when the Ducks’ two threats — guard Jackson Shelstad and center Nate Bittle — aren’t able to get going. The guard didn’t score against UCLA, and the center only put up four against Nebraska. They opened up with a rolling feed to Shelstad, who drained the Ducks’ first shot of the game and a pick-and-pop ball to Bittle, who made his effort count.

For all of Shelstad’s 10 points before the 14-minute mark, though, their opponents had answers. One Duck could catch fire at a time, but a sparking Spartan woul often set his teammates aflame; four Michigan State players had scored at the first media timeout, but only Shelstad and Bittle were in the box score by then. 

Sometimes all you can ask for is to hang in a game. Oregon took advantage of a mistake-prone Michigan State squad to pull back into the lead. The Spartans turned it over nine times in the first half — the Ducks scored 21 first-half points off those handouts. After a difficult season (5.6 points per game), sophomore forward Kwame Evans Jr. scored eight first-half points and snagged seven rebounds in the period.

When Barthelemy — the lineup insert — put up a 3-point effort with 1.8 seconds to tick on the first-half clock, it was almost no surprise. The guard hopped on one foot. The ball slid through nylon. The Ducks had overperformed their 35.3 first-half points average by nearly 15 on the way to a 50-36 halftime lead.

That was as good as it would get.

The second half was far from picturesque. A 14-point lead was whittled to six by the first media timeout. Michigan State was doubling Oregon in shots taken. The Ducks still had to navigate nearly 20 minutes with three starters on foul watch.

The Ducks didn’t score their first points of the half until Brandon Angel got to the stripe, finally, with over three minutes gone. They were off, and they’d have to throw together another comeback effort to secure a win and salvage a game they were in control of just minutes ago.

It looked okay at first. Transfer big Supreme Cook got up high to dunk home a 3-point play. A four-point possession after a Michigan State technical foul stretched the lead to eight. 

In 55 seconds following that run, the lead evaporated. The Spartans earned it with a four-minute, 16-2 run. Altman cut it off with a timeout. It was like a balloon that would inflate, then let all its air out with a wheeze. 

An Oregon team that shot 48.6% from the field before heading up the tunnel re-emerged as one that had lost that fire. At one point in the midst of that four-minute run, the Ducks were shooting less than half that first-half clip: 20%. Their 52.6% efficiency from beyond the arc vanished; Oregon didn’t make a 3-point shot in the entire period, going 0-8 from deep.

They couldn’t hang down the stretch. Shelstad (0-3 field goals in the second half) and Bittle (0 second-half points) disappeared. The trick that saved the Ducks against Washington — Cook’s post-up ability — was nullified. The bag was empty, and a crowd in the tens of thousands who hadn’t seen their team lose in its building this year wouldn’t have it any other way. Their air blew up the balloon. Oregon was helpless to pop it.

The half-to-half difference was stunning. Oregon out-rebounded the nation’s sixth-best team in the category in the first 20 minutes, then was dominated on the boards, 24-10, in the second half. It made the Spartans pay for turnovers it caused, then lost that statistic, too, after the break. The Ducks put up 24 points in a half the same day they put up 50. 

Oregon played one of its worst halves of the season right after playing one of its best. It’s a damning indictment of this team’s flaws. Until they’re fixed, a win will be hard to find.

The Ducks return to Matthew Knight Arena to face Northwestern on Tuesday. Tip is set for 8:00 PM.

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Of course they were down.

That’s what Oregon men’s basketball does now: come from behind. They trailed for half an hour in Columbus on Thursday night, but with the ball in Jackson Shelstad’s hands, down one point with seven seconds on the clock, there was no worry. As he had done all night, Shelstad drove down the court with supreme speed, laid a shoulder into his defender’s chest and drew the double-bonus foul.

Swish. Swish.

Buzzer.

This is a team whose identity was in question after it lost its two major stars from 2023-24. They’ve found it now: they’re comeback kids. The No. 15 Ducks (14-2, 3-2 Big Ten) struggled in a first half that didn’t live up to their standards, but Shelstad and resurgent center Nate Bittle lit the flame out of the break and pushed the Ducks to a 46-point second period and an immense 73-71 victory over the Buckeyes (10-6, 2-3 Big Ten) that moves them into position for a strong road trip.

The Ducks rolled onto their first flight east of the season on the back of a comeback win over Maryland last Sunday, a game in itself a bounce-back victory after Oregon suffered a blowout loss at the hands of No. 13 Illinois. The team hadn’t left the West Coast prior to this week’s trip, which also includes a visit to State College to face Penn State.

Oregon head coach Dana Altman rolled out his favored recent lineup: TJ Bamba was favored next to Jackson Shelstad in the backcourt to Keeshawn Barthelemy, while big man Nate Bittle (13.4 ppg in career-high 26.2 mins) teamed up with forwards Brandon Angel and Jadrian Tracey.

The guard duo scored the Ducks’ first nine points: Bamba opened up the game for the Ducks with four after going 1-8 from the field against the Terps last weekend. Shelstad posted a 5-5 record from beyond the arc on Sunday, and followed it up with 24 points on 8-11 shooting from the field and 4-6 accuracy from beyond the arc. Bittle splashed from 3-point land to break the streak, but Oregon then wouldn’t score for nearly four minutes. 

Shelstad went head-to-head throughout with the Buckeyes’ star guard, Bruce Thornton. The junior has played at least 30 minutes in all three of his years in Columbus, but was posting a career-high 16.9 points per game headed into the matchup with the Ducks. He put up 20 points as the Ducks went 2-11 from the field down the first-half stretch and the Buckeyes stretched their lead to a game-high eight points.

Oregon was held to its lowest first-half total (27 points) since facing USC in Los Angeles in December and the University of Portland in November. In both of those games, it scored at least 44 second-half points and secured a win. The Ducks shot just 29% from the field and had five of nine players with first-half minutes finish the period without a point. They held Ohio State scoreless for the final 2:35 in order to prevent a ballooning lead, but still trailed by five at the break.

The issue was compounded when the Buckeyes came out of the locker room with a 7-0 run that opened up their largest lead of the night. A subpar defensive effort out of the half gave up eight points in the paint in 10 possessions within the first five minutes of the second period.

Shelstad seemed determined to burn the nets in protest. The guard scored seven straight from the field for the Ducks in order to cut the lead back to five with 14 minutes to play. Brandon Angel then scored his first five points of the night to draw Oregon within a possession with eight minutes left on the clock.

Thornton, though, responded with a dancing 3-point make over Angel at the other end and left the Buckeyes with a vital two-possession lead. Bittle (21 points, 7-14, 4-8 3-pointers) brought the Ducks back within a possession twice with his third and fourth 3-point makes of the night, but it wasn’t until Shelstad shook Micah Parrish to the floor and drained the ensuing shot that the Ducks would take their first lead since inside the game’s first four minutes.

The Buckeyes scored five points in the last 2:37, but Shelstad drove hard, drew his free throws with 7.5 seconds left, and Oregon’s comeback kids did it again. They’re 5-1 when trailing at the half, as they were in Columbus.

They’re also ranked 15th, 14-2, and as confident as ever.

On Saturday in the Matthew Knight Arena press room, Deja Kelly talked about the importance of “stacking wins.” On Sunday, Dana Altman talked about the danger of “stacking losses.” 

Two days removed from a 109-77 home loss to No. 22 Illinois, the Ducks men’s basketball team needed to bounce back. They got it, with a 83-79 shootout victory over Maryland. It didn’t really matter that it was a Quad 1 win. No one really cared about the effect on the Big Ten standings.

The Ducks simply needed to avoid a slump.

Despite the win, Altman’s postgame press conference was still heavily geared toward discussing the past and the importance of looking past it. 

They’re hanging onto a top-10 ranking that has been all-but-slain by the Illinois loss. Yes, they’ve got just two losses on the season, but the season has felt much closer. As they round into a Midwest road trip that will demand far more than they’ve given at home this year, their form is imperative.

There were flashes of it on Sunday. Sophomore guard Jackson Shelstad made five 3-point shots for the first time this season after starting the year shooting 26.7% from deep. He went 5-5 from beyond the arc against the Terrapins to lead all scorers with 23 points. The Ducks don’t have a true star after losing N’Faly Dante and Jermaine Couisnard to the NBA in the offseason, but Shelstad is the closest they’ve got.

Altman talked about the defense, where he got in Shelstad’s ear after the blowout. He talked about what it takes to come back from a 13-point first-half deficit, which is the one place Oregon has thrived this year.

Finally, he says he told the team in the postgame locker room on Sunday, “We’re going to have to address this. We can’t let one loss lead to two, especially at home.”

“You’ve got to talk about things like that,” Altman said. “Our guys are experienced enough — they’re not a bunch of freshmen. They’ve got to figure some things out.”

He’s right. This is not last year’s team, divided between aging stars and wide-eyed rookies. There’s an expectation that these players — yes, even the second-year starter Shelstad — will shoulder a burden of leadership. Altman’s 35 years at the helm of an NCAA team are invaluable, but he’s not on the court.

“I tried to tell the team that we’ve been here before,” center Nate Bittle said. “We were there [in losing situations] against Alabama, against [Texas] A&M…we just know that we gradually get it back, a couple of points at a time.”

When the Ducks head east to Columbus, it’ll be that experience that they rely on in raucous Big Ten gyms. Shelstad talked up the Oregon crowd on Sunday. The voice will be against them in Ohio and Pennsylvania as they try to rebuild a streak that could power them into a second-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance.

Dancing is a dangerous word in college basketball.

On Saturday afternoon, though, Oregon women’s basketball looked graceful as it waltzed through a 68-52 conference victory over Wisconsin. Every time the Badgers stretched for an overthrown pass, the Ducks pirouetted through the lane. In a season that had to be a bounce-back for the program that finished last in the Pac-12 in 2023-24, Oregon looks to have found its feet early on.

The Ducks (11-4, 2-2 Big Ten) had to do it without their leading scorer, guard Peyton Scott, due to a knee injury that head coach Kelly Graves called “short term.” The senior transfer is averaging 10.9 points per game, the lowest of any full season in her collegiate career, but the most of any starter this year. In her place was Nani Falatea, the guard whose 7.4 points per game rank fourth on the team despite starting just one game before Saturday.

Wisconsin (10-5, 1-3 Big Ten) looked like it had just stepped off the cross-country flight early on. Oregon took full advantage, forcing the Badgers into hopeless shots late into the clock and holding their opponents scoreless until Halle Douglass made a wide-open 3-point effort with nearly five minutes gone. They’d finish with 22 turnovers, eight more than Oregon.

The Badgers rank 267th of 351 teams in 3-point field goals attempted, but heaved up seven efforts from deep in the first quarter in Eugene. The visitors made just two of those shots, both of which were wide-open, and turned the ball over seven times.

Graves opened his press conference by saying, “I’ve been coaching for 11 years now. That was one of the best defensive efforts I think we’ve had in a long time.” 

Meanwhile, the Ducks dominated the offensive paint. Graves’ team led the points category 10-4 at the quarter break, and forward Amina Muhammad drove twice deep into the Badger defense to earn and-1 opportunities in the first frame alone. Kelly highlighted the true junior as one of the keys to locking down Badger forward Serah Williams, and as a future first-round draft pick.

Even with Scott missing, Graves was able to reach deep into his bag of guards in order to add points. Deja Kelly’s pull-up ability constantly gets the Ducks out of trouble. Falatea’s scope from range keeps defenses honest. Katie Fiso, Sofia Bell and Elisa Mevius fly around with plays that show up deep in the box score.

“Just being able to be that deep on the bench and have that much production speaks volumes about the types of players we have now,” Kelly said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re starting or coming off the bench — every piece is just as important.”

When Oregon led at the half by 14, the dance was on. Four of the five rostered guards had at least five points, and the constant rotation left space for Muhammad to add 10 of her own on 4-5 shooting. The Ducks held the dynamite forward Williams (19.2 points, 12.1 rebounds in 2024-25) to just three points and zero offensive rebounds in the game. The Badgers’ two highest scorers came from the bench in the first half, and even they stuttered through their routine.

“I think defense is a big part of our identity as a team,” Kelly said, “and so we really take pride in that. Our coach, Jerise (Freeman) has done a really good job implementing different ways we can guard and defend where we can be really aggressive and physical.”

The flaws were there for Oregon: Wisconsin’s 3-point barrage was in part down to the half-dozen occasions a Badger found herself in feet of space with the ball. They’re fixable things though, not structural.

As the Ducks filled out their box score in the second half like a Mad Libs to which they had all of the context, confidence began to grow. Falatea — who put up double-digit points in just her second start of the season — sent the Matthew Knight Arena crowd to “Shout” with a 3-point effort that left the redshirt junior winding across the court with arms outstretched. Duck fans smiled for what felt like the first time in a year. This was easy.

What is becoming apparent about this team is the absolute benefit of its depth and ability. A program that last year relied on a three-player core so absolutely that no other touched double-digit points for an extended period just won decisively in-conference without its top scorer. It feels like there’s room for players to grow into the system without the total pressure of replacing a star.

That’s not to say those like Kelly don’t shine. Oregon’s lights-out guard posted 10 points, four assists and six rebounds, without the pressure of winning the game on her own. Phillipina Kyei (eight points, four rebounds) looks more comfortable with the freedom to find space rather than deal with a crowded paint. Graves can, for once, sit down on the bench. Finally, they’ve found their tempo in Eugene. The goal is obvious. This is just dance practice.

While Notre Dame and Indiana played out their first-round College Football Playoff matchup in South Bend on Friday night, Oregon football grabbed its newest portal commitment. Former USC and Georgia defensive lineman Bear Alexander announced his transfer to the Ducks. Listed at 6’3 and 315 pounds, the ex-four star recruit (247Sports) has 36 tackles and 4.5 sacks in three total years between the two schools.

The Ducks boast one of the nation’s strongest defensive lines, but Alexander’s addition will be welcome: All-American defensive tackle Derrick Harmon and edge rusher Jordan Burch are expected to be drafted in April. 

Harmon’s pathway to success will be especially enticing for Alexander. After three years in East Lansing with Michigan State, Harmon has strapped a rocket ship to his stock in Eugene. Alexander will hope to do the same in 2025.

Oregon linebacker Bryce Boettcher has won the 2024 Burlsworth Trophy, the presenting foundation announced on Monday night. The award, given to the best FBS walk-on player, began in 2010 and has seen winners including former Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett IV and 2017 Heisman winner Baker Mayfield.

On the gridiron, Boettcher has been a standout in 2024. He’s racked up a team-leading 45 solo tackles to go with two sacks in a talented linebacker room with Jeffrey Bassa and Jestin Jacobs. He’s got a forced fumble and an interception this year — the latter of which came at the Rose Bowl against UCLA, where Oregon will play its College Football Playoff quarterfinal on New Year’s Day.

Boettcher, a Eugene native, also plays for both the Ducks baseball team. On the diamond, the center fielder was drafted in the 13th round last year by the Houston Astros after putting up a career-high 12 home runs in 2024 and starting 52 of Oregon’s 60 games on the way to an NCAA Super Regional.

It’s possible that Boettcher becomes one of the rare few athletes to be drafted into both the MLB and NFL in April 2025 — that’s how great he’s been for the Ducks this season. He’s got at least one game left to boost his case, and with the Burlsworth in his locker, it’s only getting stronger.

Just under one year ago, Washington and Oregon met in Las Vegas. A win in the final-ever Pac-12 Championship Game booked a playoff spot. The Huskies prevailed, for the second time that season, and sealed their seat in the Sugar Bowl. The Ducks suffered a second frustrating loss.

One year later, the Ducks (11-0) are once again in contention for a national championship. The Huskies, though, sit at 6-5 and decidedly out of the spotlight. The game will be significantly changed when the two meet at Autzen Stadium this weekend.

I talked with Ty Gilstrap, sports editor at the Daily UW, about Saturday’s game. 

Owen Murray: What would surprise one-year-ago-you the most about this game?

Ty Gilstrap: That only one of these teams [is] ranked. It just seems like Washington was kind of building a little bit of the foundation to where it could have been sustainable. Obviously, [it lost] some of their top talent, but there was the kind of hope that the transfer portal could sustain it for a little bit longer. And then in that [October 2023] meeting, when it was No. 8 versus No. 6, what Oregon was building was definitely moving in the right direction. It honestly doesn’t surprise me at all that [the Ducks] are the number one team this year.

OM: What concerns you about Oregon that didn’t worry you (as much?) last year?

TG: I honestly thought Washington flew under the radar [last year] for far longer than it should have, and Oregon had that national credibility, and that kind of gave it an edge. And I truly felt Washington entered those two games [against Oregon], as it turned out, as the better team on both sides of the ball. They could hang out long enough in defense, and I thought that their offense, obviously, was one of the greats in college football. 

But Washington is now a team that cannot compete with Oregon on any level or in any unit. [Head coach] Jedd Fisch speaks often about how this team hasn’t been able to play all three levels consecutively. These are teams they can’t do it against, against those top level teams.

OM: A year ago, this game was about two explosive offenses. Rolling into this game, the Big Ten co-defensive players of the week were Oregon’s Matayo Uiagalelei and Washington’s Russell Davis II. How significant is that?

TG: The defense is definitely in an entirely new league of its own compared to past years. Russell Davis was injured for most of the season, and this was just his third game playing. There’s been contributors up and down that defensive unit, whether that’s Steve Belichick’s schemes —which Will Rogers said is the most difficult he’s seen in college football — [or] they also just have some talented players on that side of the ball. That’s just something Washington fans haven’t been accustomed to [over] the last few years.

OM: One year in, do you think the Big Ten move has been a net positive for Washington and for the conference as a whole?

TG: Purely from a Washington perspective, no, it has not been a positive because of the road travel. They haven’t won a game on the road. That could be completely unrelated to the Big Ten…but when you’re playing two 9:00 a.m. games against Indiana and Iowa, and then you’re traveling all the way to Pennsylvania, which is not an easy place to get to, it does provide challenge to the team, and that’s something they’re not used to. 

The conference, I think, benefits from the resumes that it’ll be able to show. Washington still has, in some perspective, that national championship credibility of the game they participated in last year. So, when Indiana is the number five team in the country, they could point to the fact that even though Washington may not be the best this season, that brand that they’ve built over time definitely helps with the conference.

OM: What does this game mean to Huskies fans this year?

TG: I said all along that not a single Washington fan will care if they lose to Indiana, if they lose to Penn State, if they lose to USC, if they lose to UCLA. They don’t care if [it means] they have a chance to beat Oregon. I think this game will be just as meaningful as years past for a lot of Washington fans, just because this rivalry means so much, especially in a year where it’s all or nothing. Maybe not last year, where so much was riding on it, but it’ll still kind of have that same emotion.

–The Daily Emerald and the UW Daily are competing in the Student Media Showdown to fundraise this week. The two are going head-to-head to raise the most money to support independent student journalism, and the competition ends at kickoff on Saturday. Donate here or online at dailyemerald.com/donate.

Oregon football has booked its ticket to the Big Ten Championship Game, the conference announced on Tuesday afternoon. The Ducks technically qualified following the conclusion of last Saturday’s slate, which included No. 1 Oregon’s 16-13 victory at Wisconsin, but it took until Tuesday for the conference to confirm the team’s berth.

The extensive tiebreaker rules kept both the team and conference from making the announcement on the weekend: Oregon eventually qualified via its win in Madison, WI, but common opponents’ winning percentage was still in play. However, the conference announced that Oregon will qualify with either the No. 1 or No. 2 seed in-conference in every scenario. Oregon’s opponent is not yet confirmed.

Teams still in play for the other berth include No. 2 Ohio State (9-1, 6-1 Big Ten), No. 4 Penn State (9-1, 6-1 Big Ten) and No. 5 Indiana (10-0, 7-0 Big Ten). The Ducks defeated the Buckeyes 32-31 in Eugene on Oct. 12, but have not faced their other two potential opponents.

The game is scheduled for Dec. 7, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.