In Texas rout, Oregon got a hard look at where it wants to be

AUSTIN – Katie Fiso clapped as the final minutes of Oregon’s season ticked away.

The Oregon sophomore had just subbed out of the Ducks’ 100-58 loss to Texas in the second round of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament after scoring a team-high 16 points. 

The Longhorns had just put on a clinic, shaking free from an Oregon team that shot 82 percent in the first quarter and still trailed by seven. The Ducks kept it within 10 going into halftime before they were overwhelmed in a third quarter where Texas outscored Oregon 28-8.

Madison Booker finished with 40 points, strengthening her case to someday have her No. 35 hanging in the rafters next to Kevin Durant’s. Eleven different Longhorns scored, and the packed Moody Center roared as Texas emptied its bench and the reserves kept producing.

And an exhausted Fiso was standing, smiling and applauding.

No, she wasn’t happy Oregon’s season had ended. But after helping carry the Ducks to 23 wins and back into the NCAA Tournament, Fiso could also see something else.

She could envision the future.

“They’re really great basketball players, so for them to get the home recognition they deserve — they put in a lot of work for their Texas home court,” Fiso said. “I think it was really cool to get a glimpse of what that could be for me and my team.”

A Texas-sized advantage

The Ducks have certainly come a long way in a year that began without their top four scorers from last season. Then they lost the No. 5 scorer from last year’s tournament team when Elisa Mevius’ season ended in November with a knee injury.

These Ducks were carried by underclassmen, and while coach Kelly Graves entered the season with expectations for players such as Fiso and Ehis Etute — who blossomed into a double-double machine — there is always a difference between hope and proof.

For Graves, a seventh NCAA Tournament trip at Oregon and a first-round win over Virginia Tech would have sounded pretty good six months ago.

“We’re a homegrown team in terms of, you know, we had players that had smaller roles last year and they’ve grown into bigger roles,” Graves said. “We didn’t just go out and pay and plug-and-play kids. And I’m proud of that.”

The problem is Texas does do that — and on Sunday showed the gap between a second-round NCAA Tournament team and one that has a realistic chance to win the national championship in the modern era of college athletics.

Texas was bigger at every position. Texas was stronger at every position. The only size advantage Oregon had on Texas’ home court was between the mascots.

“She’s really damn good,” Graves said of Booker, who set a Texas single-game postseason record for points. “We just don’t have anybody physically that can match up with her.”

Building a roster like that doesn’t come cheap, and there is still a sizeable talent gap there even if Oregon’s returners take another leap next season. Oregon needs to add if it wants to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time in the NIL era, which Graves will now try to do.

Building for the future 

At the same time, he also has to fend off poachers with deeper pockets who may want to capitalize on the experience Oregon’s young players gained this year.

Particularly Etute.

Her stock skyrocketed this season as she averaged 12.5 points and 9.0 rebounds despite playing center at an undersized 6-foot. Against Texas, she had 11 points and 10 rebounds. On a deeper roster, Etute might be a small forward — like on the Longhorns, where her younger sister, Joyce Isi Etute, is committed to play next season.

“Unfortunately, we’re in an era where I don’t know if I can afford everybody,” Graves said. “It’s a shame that that’s kind of where we’re at. But hopefully everybody stays. I think this is a good group that got along really well. There were no bad eggs here or there. But at the same time, we have to get better. I think there can be improvement, but I think we also need to find a way to get some people like that.”

Fiso, of course, has little control over how Oregon builds its roster. But she wants to be at Oregon — and she wants the bonds and chemistry this team built to matter.

“We want to win and in order to do that, we got to stick together even through the hard times,” she said. “It’s going to be key and intentional to explain that message to them.”

And now Fiso has seen what that payoff can look like.

She saw the reception Rori Harman got from the Moody Center crowd when the senior checked out for the final time after a five-year Texas career. Fiso saw how Harman improved year after year — and how, after having to carry Texas early in her career, she became even more effective as the roster around her got stronger.

Texas lost 13 games in Harman’s first three years. It has lost four in the last two.

That was inspiring to Oregon’s now-upperclassman, who left Austin not daunted, but determined to get stronger, become a better shooter and grow into a better leader.

“Texas is a top-five team in the country and we want to be where they are,” she said. “You guys saw the jump from freshman year to sophomore year. Just stay tuned for the sophomore year to junior year jump.”