jerseyshorejohnny
Well-known member
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
The Hottest Player in College Basketball Is Named Sabrina
As Oregon point guard Sabrina Ionescu racks up triple-doubles, she’s driving attendance, selling jerseys—and drawing raves from LeBron James
By Rachel Bachman / WALL STREET JOURNAL
Jan. 21, 2020
A little over a year ago, Joel Morgan had never been to a women’s basketball game. When the 54-year-old data scientist in Eugene, Ore., ventured to a matchup of top-10 college teams—Oregon and Mississippi State—he was captivated.
Oregon point guard Sabrina Ionescu scored 29 points and led the Ducks to victory before a raucous crowd. “I suddenly realized what I’d been missing all this time.” Morgan recalled. He has been to every Oregon home game since, and this month traveled to Arizona to see Ionescu and the Ducks play.
“I just want to be able to say that, ‘Yes, I was there,’” Morgan said. “I just think she represents a monumental shift in the women’s game.”
Ionescu (Yo-NESS-coo), a 5-foot-11 pick-and-roll savant who also averages more than nine rebounds a game, turned down becoming the WNBA’s likely No. 1 pick last year to return for her senior season and try to win a national title. She already has more triple-doubles than any other Division I player in history—male or female—passing former BYU guard Kyle Collinsworth last season. She won the 2019 Wooden Award as national women’s player of the year.
On Monday, ticket resellers were offering lower-bowl seats to the No. 4 Ducks’ sold-out game against No. 7 Oregon State on Friday at Oregon’s Matthew Knight Arena for as much as $460. Since Ionescu’s arrival at Oregon, average attendance at Ducks women’s home games has skyrocketed to more than 10,000—2,800 more than the No. 12 Oregon men’s team is drawing.
In fact, Ionescu’s long-term value might be the sway she holds with a group that has often been skeptical of women’s sports as entertainment: men.
Steph Curry has praised Ionescu’s game. Memphis Grizzlies rookie sensation Ja Morant tweeted a goat emoji at her. Earlier this month when Ionescu responded to her 22nd triple-double by frowning at her six turnovers, LeBron James retweeted the video and wrote: “She’s so DOPE!! Keep going Queen Sabrina!”
Though Ionescu isn’t the first superstar female player, or the first to attract male fans, the attention she’s drawing is different, said Whitney Wagoner, director of the University of Oregon’s Warsaw Sports Marketing Center.
“For a long time, one of the things that has held back the popularity of women’s basketball is this sense that male sports fans have that they are better than women’s basketball players,” said Wagoner, who also has worked for the NFL. “I don’t think that’s true, but I think they think that.
“But when you have a female athlete where men get that she’s better than they are, then that’s a different dynamic. I think what she’s unlocking that is new is credibility among male basketball fans.”
For any sport to thrive, it needs robust support from men and women, Wagoner said.
Last season, when the Ducks were charging to the Final Four, a male Oregon student started a petition urging Nike to sell women’s basketball jerseys.
The company already was planning to offer them before the petition, Oregon women’s basketball coach Kelly Graves said, and it was no surprise whose number Nike put on the model: Ionescu’s No. 20. Multiple batches of the jerseys have sold out across several platforms, an Oregon spokesman said.
Ionescu isn’t freakishly tall or fast. She’s just freakishly good—and fierce. A video from last summer of Ionescu playing an outdoor game with men showed her stuffing an opponent’s shot—then shoving him.
While the men’s college game churns through stars as they jump to the NBA, Ionescu has dazzled fans for nearly four years and become a staple of highlight shows.
“I think she’s the face of college basketball,” Graves said.
To be sure, Ionescu teammates Ruthy Hebard, Satou Sabally and others are helping drive the Ducks, who have had top-notch recruiting. But home attendance at rival Oregon State women’s games has hovered more than 4,000 below Oregon’s despite the Beavers’ similar rise in the rankings in recent years. That suggests that Ionescu’s star power has an effect beyond her team’s record.
The daughter of Romanian immigrants, Ionescu grew up playing pickup games near her home in Walnut Creek, Calif., with her twin brother, Eddy, who plays for the Ducks’ men’s team. Ionescu learned to rebound because pickup players wouldn’t always pass to her. She learned to win because winners stayed on the court.
Having learned the game partly on the playground makes Ionescu stand out in a landscape of young players, especially girls, who are reared on highly structured play, said Carol Callan, women’s national team director at USA Basketball. Rather than look to a coach for direction, players who play pickup ball “understand when something doesn’t work that they have to come up with a solution themselves,” Callan said.
In November, Ionescu’s Ducks became the first college team in 20 years to beat the U.S. women’s basketball team, which was on an exhibition tour ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. There’s a chance Ionescu could represent Team USA in an event debuting at those games: 3-on-3 basketball.
She’s also likely to be the No. 1 selection in this year’s WNBA draft. The top pick is held by the New York Liberty, which after two years in purgatory at a small arena in White Plains, N.Y., will move full-time to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center next summer.
Ionescu’s arrival in the nation’s attention epicenter, as the WNBA expands its broadcast schedule and raises salaries to keep top players in the U.S. year-round, could create a powerful serendipity. Boston Celtics assistant Kara Lawson noted that although Ionescu has exceptional delivery and great shooting range, she’ll face tougher-to-defend point guards in the talent-concentrated WNBA.
But Ionescu already has one thing going for her: Basketball people know her name.
The Hottest Player in College Basketball Is Named Sabrina
As Oregon point guard Sabrina Ionescu racks up triple-doubles, she’s driving attendance, selling jerseys—and drawing raves from LeBron James
By Rachel Bachman / WALL STREET JOURNAL
Jan. 21, 2020
A little over a year ago, Joel Morgan had never been to a women’s basketball game. When the 54-year-old data scientist in Eugene, Ore., ventured to a matchup of top-10 college teams—Oregon and Mississippi State—he was captivated.
Oregon point guard Sabrina Ionescu scored 29 points and led the Ducks to victory before a raucous crowd. “I suddenly realized what I’d been missing all this time.” Morgan recalled. He has been to every Oregon home game since, and this month traveled to Arizona to see Ionescu and the Ducks play.
“I just want to be able to say that, ‘Yes, I was there,’” Morgan said. “I just think she represents a monumental shift in the women’s game.”
Ionescu (Yo-NESS-coo), a 5-foot-11 pick-and-roll savant who also averages more than nine rebounds a game, turned down becoming the WNBA’s likely No. 1 pick last year to return for her senior season and try to win a national title. She already has more triple-doubles than any other Division I player in history—male or female—passing former BYU guard Kyle Collinsworth last season. She won the 2019 Wooden Award as national women’s player of the year.
On Monday, ticket resellers were offering lower-bowl seats to the No. 4 Ducks’ sold-out game against No. 7 Oregon State on Friday at Oregon’s Matthew Knight Arena for as much as $460. Since Ionescu’s arrival at Oregon, average attendance at Ducks women’s home games has skyrocketed to more than 10,000—2,800 more than the No. 12 Oregon men’s team is drawing.
In fact, Ionescu’s long-term value might be the sway she holds with a group that has often been skeptical of women’s sports as entertainment: men.
Steph Curry has praised Ionescu’s game. Memphis Grizzlies rookie sensation Ja Morant tweeted a goat emoji at her. Earlier this month when Ionescu responded to her 22nd triple-double by frowning at her six turnovers, LeBron James retweeted the video and wrote: “She’s so DOPE!! Keep going Queen Sabrina!”
Though Ionescu isn’t the first superstar female player, or the first to attract male fans, the attention she’s drawing is different, said Whitney Wagoner, director of the University of Oregon’s Warsaw Sports Marketing Center.
“For a long time, one of the things that has held back the popularity of women’s basketball is this sense that male sports fans have that they are better than women’s basketball players,” said Wagoner, who also has worked for the NFL. “I don’t think that’s true, but I think they think that.
“But when you have a female athlete where men get that she’s better than they are, then that’s a different dynamic. I think what she’s unlocking that is new is credibility among male basketball fans.”
For any sport to thrive, it needs robust support from men and women, Wagoner said.
Last season, when the Ducks were charging to the Final Four, a male Oregon student started a petition urging Nike to sell women’s basketball jerseys.
The company already was planning to offer them before the petition, Oregon women’s basketball coach Kelly Graves said, and it was no surprise whose number Nike put on the model: Ionescu’s No. 20. Multiple batches of the jerseys have sold out across several platforms, an Oregon spokesman said.
Ionescu isn’t freakishly tall or fast. She’s just freakishly good—and fierce. A video from last summer of Ionescu playing an outdoor game with men showed her stuffing an opponent’s shot—then shoving him.
While the men’s college game churns through stars as they jump to the NBA, Ionescu has dazzled fans for nearly four years and become a staple of highlight shows.
“I think she’s the face of college basketball,” Graves said.
To be sure, Ionescu teammates Ruthy Hebard, Satou Sabally and others are helping drive the Ducks, who have had top-notch recruiting. But home attendance at rival Oregon State women’s games has hovered more than 4,000 below Oregon’s despite the Beavers’ similar rise in the rankings in recent years. That suggests that Ionescu’s star power has an effect beyond her team’s record.
The daughter of Romanian immigrants, Ionescu grew up playing pickup games near her home in Walnut Creek, Calif., with her twin brother, Eddy, who plays for the Ducks’ men’s team. Ionescu learned to rebound because pickup players wouldn’t always pass to her. She learned to win because winners stayed on the court.
Having learned the game partly on the playground makes Ionescu stand out in a landscape of young players, especially girls, who are reared on highly structured play, said Carol Callan, women’s national team director at USA Basketball. Rather than look to a coach for direction, players who play pickup ball “understand when something doesn’t work that they have to come up with a solution themselves,” Callan said.
In November, Ionescu’s Ducks became the first college team in 20 years to beat the U.S. women’s basketball team, which was on an exhibition tour ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. There’s a chance Ionescu could represent Team USA in an event debuting at those games: 3-on-3 basketball.
She’s also likely to be the No. 1 selection in this year’s WNBA draft. The top pick is held by the New York Liberty, which after two years in purgatory at a small arena in White Plains, N.Y., will move full-time to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center next summer.
Ionescu’s arrival in the nation’s attention epicenter, as the WNBA expands its broadcast schedule and raises salaries to keep top players in the U.S. year-round, could create a powerful serendipity. Boston Celtics assistant Kara Lawson noted that although Ionescu has exceptional delivery and great shooting range, she’ll face tougher-to-defend point guards in the talent-concentrated WNBA.
But Ionescu already has one thing going for her: Basketball people know her name.
