Beavers Women’s Basketball Civil War: Oregon, Oregon State meet again in nation’s ‘best rivalry’ Updated Jan 24, 2020; Posted Jan 23, 2020 Sabrina Ionescu takes the floor before the No. 6 Oregon Ducks host the No. 3 Stanford Cardinal in a women's NCAA college basketball game at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Oregon on Thursday, Jan. 16. Sean Meagher/Staff By Joe Freeman | The Oregonian/OregonLive CORVALLIS — Scott Rueck hovered over the fax machine for nearly an hour, a green “send” button taunting him, as he debated his options, called confidants and even shed a few tears. His gut told him to press the button, to submit his signed contract to Oregon State Athletic Director Bob De Carolis and become the fifth women’s basketball coach in school history. But at the last second, he was having second thoughts about leaving the juggernaut he had built at George Fox. He was staring at a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to return to his alma mater and coach in the Pac 12, arguably the best women’s basketball conference in the country. But he also was leaving behind the best 14 years of his life for a chaotic mess left in the wake of dismissed coach LaVonda Wagner. So Rueck just hovered over that machine, gazing at that damn button. “I knew I was going to Oregon State, I knew I had to do it,” Rueck said. “But it was one of those movie scenes, where I knew when I pushed that green button my life was going to be different forever. And I loved my life. That was the hard part. I had a team that was young and we were going to be the favorites to win the national championship again. I knew this would be chaos and I knew it would mean travel and time away from my family. And I knew it was just going to be totally different. “I had tears. I called my dad. I called my wife. I called my friends. And I was like, ‘Are we sure? Am I sure?’ I hesitated. But at the same time, I knew. It just felt like this was what I was supposed to do. In my gut, I knew I couldn’t say no.” Rueck, of course, eventually pushed the button back in June 2010, and college basketball in the state of Oregon hasn’t been the same since. Fourth-ranked Oregon (15-2, 5-1) and seventh-ranked Oregon State (16-2, 4-2) will renew their heated rivalry this week, with a highly-anticipated two-game series on Friday and Sunday, setting the stage for a Civil War that has never been bigger, more popular or more fiercely contested. Both games will be sellouts, both teams — for the first time in series history — rank among the top seven in the nation and both programs boast national championship aspirations. The asking price for lower-bowl tickets on the secondary market has skyrocketed to as much as $506 for Sunday’s finale at Gill Coliseum, which will air nationally on ESPN2, as fans locally and nationally clamor to catch a glimpse of a few future WNBA players — including the presumed No. 1 pick of the 2020 draft, Sabrina Ionescu — and a matchup that has blossomed into the nation’s best. “This rivalry is huge,” Beavers junior guard Aleah Goodman said. “Obviously the state of Oregon is just blessed with two amazing basketball teams in the same state. It’s a little crazy. The fans are amazing at both places … every year it’s more and more attended, more and more intense. It’s definitely unique for sure.” Added Oregon coach Kelly Graves: “It’s a huge week for college basketball.” And it all started at that fax machine 10 years ago. FROM DISARRAY TO FAMILY Rueck, who graduated from Oregon State in 1991, didn’t know just how big of a mess he was inheriting when he finally pressed that green button. But the program was in disarray, the result of a disastrous five-year run under Wagner that included widespread player discontent, more than 15 transfers and accusations of abuse and intimidation. Six players, including the Beavers’ leading scorer and leading rebounder, had bailed during Wagner’s final season, leaving Rueck with just five players: three incoming freshmen, a junior college transfer and one returner with Pac-12 experience. He was forced to hold open tryouts to round out his 12-player roster, which led to the addition of two athletes from two different Oregon State sports programs (volleyball and soccer). The Beavers and their patchwork roster finished 9-21, winning just two of their final 19 games. “It was drinking water out of a firehose,” Rueck said of his first days on campus. “Total survival. But it was a blast at the same time. It was like this awesome adventure.” The adventure became successful the following season, when the Beavers improved to 20-13 and played in the NIT, and by his fourth season, Rueck had done the unthinkable, guiding the Beavers to a conference championship and the NCAA Tournament. It was Oregon State’s first trip to the NCAA tournament in 18 years and it proved to be the catalyst for the best run in school history. Since, the Beavers have emerged as one of the premier programs in the country, winning three conference championships, making six consecutive NCAA tournament appearances — including four Sweet 16s, two Elite Eights and their first Final Four in 2014 — and producing four WNBA players. Oregon State owns the nation’s seventh-best record (158-33) since the start of the 2014-15 season and is one of four teams in the country to be ranked every week since the start of the 2013-14 season, joining UConn, Baylor and Maryland. Proof of the success hangs on banners along a baseline wall in the Beavers’ basketball facility, and every now and then, Rueck will gaze out from his second-floor office and check them out, admiring evidence of what he has created. He said it took seven seasons to build the program where he wanted it to be, in terms of both culture and success, and he’s surpassed mighty Stanford — which owned the conference for decades — by building a program around three basic tenets: hard work, fun and family. When he sits in living rooms during the recruiting process, Rueck says, he offers a simple message: Come to Oregon State and it will be the best four years of your life. “And it’s not just a phrase,” he said. “It happens. That’s what we do as a staff, that’s what my program’s been built upon. Taking care of them and giving them an experience like they’ll never have again. I always tell them this: It’s better than you think. You can watch our highlight video, you can watch us on TV, you can watch the bench and see how much fun they’re having, you can come sit in here and watch us practice and watch us interact. It's better than you think.” Ask one of Rueck’s players what sets Oregon State apart and the first thing she’ll mention is family. The slogan “We Are Family” is everywhere — Rueck even has it plastered on his social media accounts — but it’s clearly more than a cliche slogan. Most of the players live together, a tradition that started several years ago when Ali Gibson, Jamie Weisner and others occupied a house dubbed “The Zoo," and most spend free time together off the court. The team regularly meets for movie nights or to cook meals, and if there isn’t something planned, someone inevitably organizes an outing through a group text message string. Last summer, the team arranged a jet-ski outing. All the while, players spend time at the coaches’ off-campus homes, talking hoops and life and sharing meals. “We say we are family and that’s really embraced here,” Goodman said. “There’s not many other programs that are like this. I remember coming on my visit here and just feeling like I was already a part of the team. Honestly, you walk anywhere around here and it just feels like you’re home. You’re around sisters, you’ve got the coaches that are like parents, it’s just how we are. The coaches’ families are involved and I hang out with their kids — I’ve babysat for them multiple times — and they’re all awesome.” For a few years, Rueck and Oregon State ruled women’s basketball in the state. But things started to change in 2014, when rival Oregon snatched Graves away from Gonzaga, where he had established himself as one of the game’s most successful coaches. And shortly after accepting the Oregon job, Graves doused a little fire on the Civil War. GRAVES FUELS RIVALRY, ELEVATES DUCKS Graves stood along the baseline at Matthew Knight Arena Wednesday afternoon with a throng of video cameras and microphones in his face, touting the Civil War as the nation’s best rivalry, boasting about Ionescu’s supernatural talent and joking about tickets. Three years ago, Graves said, he told anyone who would listen that they needed to invest in season tickets because, eventually, a seat at an Oregon women’s basketball game would be a commodity. The message, it turns out, was prophetic. The Ducks this season lead the nation in attendance, drawing 101,633 fans — an average of 10,163 per game — to watch the nation’s best and most dynamic player and a team that many predict will play for the national championship. Graves said he’s received more than a dozen ticket requests in recent days and he’s had to turn them all down. His allotment of 20 tickets has been earmarked for “some pretty big-time VIPs.” “We’ve got some celebrities coming,” Graves said. “I can’t name who, but it’s really cool to see.” Despite Graves’ high hopes, few — if any — could have predicted such a scenario back in 2014, when he took over the foundering program from Paul Westhead, who, despite a successful NBA pedigree, could not turn the Ducks into a winner and was dismissed after five underwhelming seasons. Graves said the program was “broken" when he arrived, featuring a nucleus that had never experienced success, didn’t play defense and lacked commitment, and he wasted little time putting his stamp on the program. He dismissed the Ducks’ best player, Chrishae Rowe, the Pac 12’s second-leading scorer and reigning Freshman of the Year, and established a foundation of hard work and accountability. Graves also immediately lit a fire under the Civil War rivalry, stealing Oregon State assistant coach Mark Campbell — who had developed a reputation for being one of the Northwest’s best recruiters as Rueck’s right-hand man — to join his staff. At Gonzaga, Graves for years had his pick of players. But Oregon State had been eating away at that recruiting dominance under Rueck and, after chatting with recruits, it didn’t take long for Graves to figure out why. “When they told me, ‘Hey, I’m going to Oregon State,’ I said, ‘What made the difference?’” Graves said. “They said, ‘Well, I just have a really close relationship with Mark.’ He was the primary recruiter and was getting those kids. So when I got here, I needed recruiting expertise … and I needed someone who knew the Pac 12. And it made sense. Obviously, it was a good hire. I wasn’t trying to steal someone from Oregon State. It just worked out that way.” The move was bold and surprising and only fueled the intensity of the Civil War. “It wasn’t easy, certainly, when he left at the beginning,” Rueck said. “He worked hard for us. And now he’s working hard for them. I think any time you cross a rivalry like that, there’s probably a little bit of an awkwardness to it. But it is what it is.” Graves and Campbell decided early on that they would punt on the Ducks’ first two recruiting classes and throw all their heart into bringing a program-defining group to Eugene in 2016. It was a masterful move that led to an exceptional class featuring the likes of Ionescu and Ruthy Hebard. With three freshmen starters, the Ducks not only made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 11 years, but also reached the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight for the first time in school history. Since, the Ducks have won back-to-back Pac 12 championships, ascended as high as No. 2 in the national rankings and, last year, played in the Final Four for the first time in school history. Ionescu, of course, has become the face of women’s college basketball along the way, scoring more points (2,265) than any women’s player in Oregon history, recording more triple-doubles (22) than any player (male or female) in NCAA history and tying Gary Payton for the most assists (938) in Pac 12 men’s and women’s history. She’s helped transform the Ducks into one of the most alluring programs in the nation and, even when she leaves for the WNBA, they figure to remain among the elite. Oregon has signed three of the top 19 prep prospects in 2020, giving them the No. 1 recruiting class in the country. “You asked: Why Oregon?,” Graves said. "Well, why not Oregon? The facilities, our fans, there’s nothing you can’t get here that you can get anywhere else. Go to UConn, their big sell is tradition and huge support. Well, we have that now. We have better gear. We have a hotter brand. The "O" brand is the hottest in college athletics. Our facilities are second to none. You can win. You can play on national TV. There’s really nothing we can’t sell. That’s why we were able to lure another great class. And for those that thought the program was going to end when Sabrina and Ruthy graduated — sorry, we’re not going anywhere." Neither is Oregon State, which has won 15 of the last 17 games in the series and signed two of the top 40 prep players in 2019. And so here Oregon is, at the epicenter of women’s college basketball, touting two of the nation’s best and most popular college basketball teams, poised to host the most anticipated games in Civil War history. Things have come a long way since Rueck pushed the green button on that fax machine. https://www.oregonlive.com/beavers/...-more-popular-or-more-fiercely-contested.html
Nations best rivalry hahahahahahaha lmao... Even a cursory glance at women's college basketball shows Tennesee/Conn as a bigger rivalry and also because....those teams actual play annually for something.