EUGENE, Ore. — Sabrina Ionescu woke not long after dawn in her small apartment, laced up her black Nikes and walked across a deserted street to the looming arena where she had spent the last four years creating memories.

She needed to find something she could control.

It was March 21, a crisp Saturday. Ionescu and her No. 2-ranked Oregon Ducks had been expecting to host March Madness games that weekend. If not for the coronavirus pandemic and the sudden cancellation of the N.C.A.A. tournament, she would have been playing in front of a buzzing home crowd at Matthew Knight Arena. Instead, the most vaunted player in college basketball used a key to let herself inside the empty complex and began working out alone.

With no one else inside the 12,000-seat arena, the echo of dribbles, of balls slicing through net or banging against the rim, was a symphony of her own making.

Her first shots were from midrange. Dozens of them. Then one-dribble pull-ups. Then from distance.

It felt like therapy, she would recall, describing her morning in a telephone interview.