OREGON OUTSIDER IN FINAL 4 FIELD
Ducks are new to women’s semifinals; three other teams have title pedigree
Oregon and coach Kelly Graves are going into the Final Four as the only newcomers, surrounded by three other women’s teams that have won multiple national championships.
‘‘Obviously, we’re a little bit different,’’ Graves said Tuesday. ‘‘But those programs and those coaches had to win their first, as well as get to their first Final Four. It’s a new experience for us.’’
It’s not totally unexpected for the Ducks, who have won back-to-back Pac-12 regularseason championships and reached the Elite Eight each of the last two seasons.
‘‘I know one of the focuses this year was to get here to a Final Four,’’ Graves said. ‘‘We didn’t want to be an Elite Eight program; we wanted to be a Final Four program. I know our players were hungry and really determined to get there. Now that it’s here, we’re certainly excited.’’
Oregon will play its first Final Four game Friday against No. 1 overall seed Baylor in Tampa, Florida. In the other Final Four game, defending national champion Notre Dame and UConn will square off in a national semifinal or championship game for the seventh time since 2011.
‘‘I know we’re the No. 1 overall seed, but I’m not sure we’re the hunted,’’ Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said. ‘‘I think we’re one of four teams that can win it all . . . . We’re just happy to get there, to bring players who have never been there and realize Oregon is an unbelievably talented team.’’
The Bears are back in the Final Four for the first time since completing a 40-0 season in 2012.
Wit post players Kalani Brown and Lauren Cox, Baylor has won 27 consecutive games since its only loss, which came at Stanford before Christmas.
‘‘That game was not going to define our season or how good we were, but it would give us a little bit of just kind of what we need to work on,’’ said Mulkey, who is in her fourth Final Four in 19 seasons as the Bears’ coach.
If Oregon wins the semifinal game, the Ducks would play one of the teams that ended their last two seasons. Oregon lost 90-52 to UConn after making its first Elite Eight in 2017, then fell 84-74 to Notre Dame at the same point last season.
‘‘The first year against UConn, they destroyed us,’’ Graves said. ‘‘We really played no good quarters in that game. We weren’t quite ready for that stage. We got a little bit better last year.’’
This is the 12th consecutive Final Four for UConn, which won six of its record 11 national titles during that span.
But this appearance feels a bit different because the Huskies’ most recent championship was in 2016, when they won their fourth in a row.
‘‘It’s odd in a lot of ways,’’ UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. ‘‘It’s odd because it would be viewed as a magical season at every single school in America except ours.’’
The Huskies had won 126 regularseason games in a row until a 68-57 loss at Baylor in January. They also lost at Louisville, but they avenged that loss by beating the Cardinals in the Elite Eight.
Before the Irish won the title last season, they had missed the Final Four in back-toback years. That came after a streak of five consecutive Final Fours in which Notre Dame was the national runner-up four times.
‘‘I think we’re confident, but I don’t think you ever can say, ‘We did it before, we can do it again,’ ’’ Irish coach Muffet McGraw said. ‘‘You know how tough it’s going to be.’’