Michelle Smith notebook: On Utah's climb, Beers and VanSlooten shining, and key absences
“We want to keep it real. We have not arrived,” said Utah coach Lynne Roberts last week after her team ascended to its highest-ever ranking in the AP poll at No. 11.
And then the climb continued.
The Utes have never been ranked this high in program history, breaking into the Top 10 in this week’s Associated Press poll at No. 8. Utah remains one of five unbeaten teams in the country, a group that also includes South Carolina, LSU, Ohio State and St. John's.
Roberts said last week her team “has done a decent job of not making it about all of that.”
“We finished tied for fifth last year. We are not there yet,” Roberts said. “But we keep getting better and that’s what matters. Our kids have been bizarrely mellow about it. We have gotten some big wins and I got in the locker room and they are just in there taking off their shoes like, ‘Yeah, we won.’ Maybe that’s why they have handled it so well.”
Utah got pushed in both of its road games last weekend, defeating Washington State, 71-66, after surrendering a 20-point lead and then battling through a season-low scoring effort to defeat Washington in Seattle on Sunday, 61-53. Both games were well below the Utes’ season-scoring average of more than 90 points a game.
“We didn't shoot the ball great, and we didn't have a great scoring weekend, but we found a way,” Roberts said after the Washington game. “Now we know how teams are going to come after us and the mentality it takes to be successful."
Freshmen shine in Oregon
The state of Oregon may well be ground zero for the Conference’s Freshman of the Year race with the big-time performances from Oregon State’s Raegan Beers and Oregon’s Grace VanSlooten.
Beers followed up VanSlooten as the Conference Freshman of the Week after propelling Oregon State to an upset of then-No. 10 UCLA on Sunday. Beers was the only player in the country with three double-doubles last week, including her 22-point, 15-rebound performance on Sunday to help the Beavers rebound from a loss against USC to defeat UCLA.
Beers is tied for first in the Conference with eight double-doubles so far this season.
The Ducks’ rookie forward VanSlooten, who was both the league’s Player of the Week and Freshman of the Week one week ago, ranks sixth in the Pac-12 in scoring at 15.5 points a game. Beers ranks 10th at 14.9.
Cougars off to slow start without Leger-Walker
An 0-3 start was certainly not what the Washington State Cougars had in mind as a follow-up to their second-place finish in the Conference standings a season ago.
But that is where the Cougars are after a weekend home sweep by Utah and Colorado, games they played without leading scorer Charlisse Leger-Walker, who returned to New Zealand because of a family issue. Leger-Walker’s scoring and presence on the floor are difficult to replace, particularly on short notice.
On Friday night, the Cougars erased a 20-point deficit and battled to tie the game with 2:22 to go, before falling to then-No. 11 Utah, which also ended an eight-game home winning streak in Pullman.
Leger-Walker leads the Pac-12 in scoring at 21.1 points a game. It is unclear when she will be able to return to her team.
UCLA missing Osborne
UCLA’s Charisma Osborne absorbed hard contact in the fourth quarter of Friday’s game against Oregon and was on the sideline Sunday against Oregon State with her left shoulder in a sling. UCLA has said that Osborne has a shoulder sprain and it’s not clear how long she will be out of the lineup. She was evaluated Monday after the team returned to Los Angeles.
The Bruins struggled to adjust without Osborne, the team’s leading scorer at 18.0 points a game, on the floor Sunday against the Beavers, falling 77-72 to end a six-game win streak that had catapulted them into the Top 10 of the national rankings. UCLA shot 37.9 percent from the floor. The Bruins dropped to No. 12 in the rankings released Monday morning.
“She’s our top scorer, but I thought we missed her defense more,” Close said after the game in Corvallis. “I think she’s one of the most elite defenders in the country. She guards multiple positions.”
It’s a one-game week for the Bruins, taking on USC at home on Sunday, followed by two more home games against No. 2 Stanford (Jan. 13) and California (Jan. 15).