A star in ascendance, from Orinda to Oregon
Sabrina Ionescu leads the Pac-12 in scoring and assists.
She has recorded more triple-doubles (nine) than anyone in the history of women’s college basketball.
Oh, and she’s also the galaxy’s best-ever floormopper.
“Just watch her,” said Kelly Sopak, Ionescu’s youth coach when she played with the Cal Stars club team and then Miramonte-Orinda high school. “During every game, you’ll see her grabbing towels and wiping up something.”
Ionescu’s game demands attention for its unparalleled mix of vision, strength and coordination, but the videos of her consistently cleaning up puddles after timeout huddles or free throws are probably more telling.
The 5-foot-11 sophomore has led Oregon (20-3, 9-1 Pac-12) to No. 6 in the polls heading into home games against No. 25 Cal (15-6, 6-4) on Friday and No. 24 Stanford (14-8, 8-2) on Sunday.
The Ducks are beating opponents by an average of 21.4 points per game with Ionescu orchestrating an offense that tops the conference in scoring (83.7 points per game), shooting (49.6 percent) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.5-to-1).
She’s putting up 19.5 points on 45.6 percent three-point shooting, 7.6 assists and 7.2 rebounds
per game as an encore to a Freshman of the Year season that led the Ducks into the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.
Amid it all, Ionescu mops. And trains.
“We tell her to take it easy, and as soon as we turn our backs, she’s jumping back into a drill and going at it,” Oregon head coach Kelly Graves said. “We know she’s got to save her legs for a long season and a long career, but that’s just not how she’s wired.”
Ionescu grew up playing against boys, including her twin brother. During her high school days, she trained with the football team in an effort to advance her basketball skills.
The Chronicle’s two-time Metro Player of the Year, Ionescu was the USA Today and Max Preps national player of the year as a senior and recorded a triple-double in the statechampionship game loss to Chaminade-Canoga Park.
But Sopak saw a chance for greatness well before that.
He first coached her in the third or fourth grade, saw her separate herself from the pack by the seventh or eighth grade and challenged her like a pro during high school.
“I pushed her at every turn and on every angle,” he said. “I threatened to kick her off the team a hundred times and told her how terrible she was.”
A flip-the-Monopoly-board competitor, Ionescu responded to every challenge and now Sopak has courtside seats at her games in Eugene. He can make the trip north only two or three times per season, but he was sure to be in attendance when she broke the NCAA record for triple-doubles.
In December, just 48 games into her career, Ionescu found Lexi Bando for a three-pointer that secured her eighth tripledouble ( 24 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists). Penn State’s Suzie McConnell (128 games) and Louella Tomlinson of St. Mary’s (125) previously shared the mark with seven.
“I think she could be an All-American as a point guard, shooting guard or small forward,” Pac-12 analyst Mary Murphy said. “She’s that talented, and when you put the three together, she’s just exceptional. …
“The numbers tell a part of the story, but they don’t tell the whole story. By the time she’s done, that record is going to be ridiculous.”
Ionescu is the right player at the right time in the evolution of basketball. As the game trends toward position-less players with a variety of skills, she’s the perfect representative.
She’s tall for her position, looking unbelievably rangy against smaller guards. She has an amazing skill set based in the fundamentals of dribbling, passing and shooting, and she sees the game and feels its rhythm at an entirely different level than her opponents.
“I think her feel for the game is extraordinary,” Pac-12 analyst Elise Woodward said. “The timing and the detail of knowing when to pass and when to shoot, to recognize that she might be open but someone else is even more open, is phenomenal. It’s innate. You cannot teach that kind of vision. It’s really fun to watch. …
“I think she could average 25 or 28 points per game, if she wanted to. She just doesn’t need to, and she realizes that the team is a lot better if it’s balanced.”
After making an improbable NCAA Tournament run last season, from sixth in the Pac-12 to among the final eight teams standing in the nation, the Ducks appear poised for even bigger things this season.
Oregon has lost only road games to then-No. 5 Louisville, then-No. 5 Mississippi State and then-No. 18 Oregon State.
During a recent trip back to the Bay Area, Sopak beat her 5-0 in a 1-on-1 game.
“That’ll never happen again,” Ionescu joked moments before getting serious about this week’s Top 25 matchups against Cal and Stanford. “… I grew up watching those teams and going to their games. I’ve been around their coaches a lot.
“My connection with them is different than most opponents, but I tell myself that ultimately, it’s just two more games that I have to win.”