EUGENE -- Growing up a big sports fan in the southern Willamette Valley, Lexi Bando keenly understood where women's basketball stood in the pecking order of fans' interests.

Hint: It wasn't at the top.

In 2017, football remains king here. But ever since the Oregon Ducks' unprecedented run to the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight last spring, she has noticed the buzz changing around the Ducks women's basketball program where she is a sharpshooting senior.

"There is a lot of hype in Eugene," Bando said. "It used to be all about the football team."

Now coach Kelly Graves' Ducks, whose No. 11 ranking is the program's highest in the AP's preseason poll, are considered a team to watch in college hoops. The Ducks return all five starters and the top seven scorers return from last season's breakout squad, headlined by ESPNW national freshman of the year Sabrina Ionescu.

UO opens its season Friday at Matthew Knight Arena at 5 p.m. against Cal State Northridge as part of the preseason Women's National Invitation Tournament.

Oregon returning starters in 2017-18

G Sabrina Ionescu (5-10, Soph.) 14.6 points per game, 6.6 rebounds, 5.5 assists

G Lexi Bando (5-9, Sr.) 10.2 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 1.4 apg

G Maite Cazorla (5-10, Jr.) 8.1 ppg, 1.4 rpg, 3.9 apg

F Ruthy Hebard (6-4, Soph.) 14.9 ppg 8.5 rpg, 0.8 apg

F Mallory McGwire (6-5, Soph.) 7.3 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 0.8 apg

Oregon was picked to finish second in the Pac-12, behind UCLA, following last season's 23-14 record (including 8-10 in conference play), which was capped by Oregon's victories as a 10th seed against Temple, Duke and Maryland in the NCAA Tournament. Graves is now the only coach in NCAA women's basketball history to lead two double-digit seeds to the round of eight, after his 11th-seeded Gonzaga team did the same in 2011.

Graves was hired at Oregon in 2014 to replicate his success at Gonzaga, where the Bulldogs transformed from winless against conference opponents in his first year to a conference champion by the fifth.

"We were the hunted," he said.

Now Oregon has taken on the role, thanks to a corner-turning last season. From his experience in Spokane, Graves understands that the transition from hunter to hunted can be thrilling while also creating new challenges, especially for a team as young as the Ducks.



"I think it can motivate your team in a different way and challenges you differently knowing that, hey, we're not going to sneak up on anybody anymore," said Graves, who earned a new six-year, $4.125 million contract within days of being knocked out of the Elite Eight. "We're that team that other teams are looking to beat."

The NCAA Tournament's top 16 seeds host a first-round regional, and Graves called that an accomplishable goal for this team.

"The expectations are nice and everything, but the reality is we have a lot of work to do and have to continue to get better," he said. "I don't know how we'll handle it because we haven't had to handle it yet. We'll see Friday night and during this whole NIT. I think it's going to be a great experience for us and challenge for us. If it looks like we're not handling it like we should and need to, we'll adjust how we're coaching them."

Oregon has just two juniors and two seniors, including Bando and fellow guard Maite Cazorla, whose 8.1 points per game were fourth most on the team.

The rest of the team is built around sophomore pillars such as Ionescu, post Ruthy Hebard -- who shot a Pac-12-best 58.8 percent last season while averaging a team-high 14.9 points -- and forward Mallory McGwire. Redshirt freshman Lydia Giomi, a 6-6 forward, is now healthy and ready to contribute after breaking a hand last season, and she'll be a new face in the rotation alongside celebrated recruits Aina Ayuso, a Spanish point guard, and Satou Sabally, a 6-4 German forward who has experience with the national team.

"The team knows we're at least two deep at every position," Graves said. "There's no position that's firmed up, quite frankly."

The 5-foot-10 Ionescu, a point guard who was named the Pac-12's top freshman by coaches and media last season and whose four triple doubles set an NCAA freshman record, earned valuable experience in the offseason of producing despite heavy expectations.

Ionescu averaged 10.3 points during the U23 U.S. national team's run to the gold medal in Tokyo. In the process, she learned from national team coach Geno Auriemma, a coach whose Connecticut team knocked UO out of the NCAA Tournament.

"She could do anything," Graves said. "Literally, if she wanted to focus on getting 25 or 30 on a night, she could do it. If she wanted to just be a double-digit assist player, she could do that and we've seen that she can get you 12 or 15 rebounds. That's the beauty of her game. I wouldn't call her a female LeBron, but she's like that. She can impact the game in so many ways like he does and play at a really high level."

Ionescu called Oregon's NCAA Tournament run "shocking" for how quickly it came, but she won't be surprised if UO now builds on that success.

"I think we're going to be able to go even further," she said.

Bando was an all-conference honorable mention selection last season while averaging 10.2 points and shooting 47.5 percent on three-pointers, the third-highest accuracy rate in the country.

Originally committed to Graves when he coached at Gonzaga, she followed him to Oregon and took a leap of faith that his three-year plan would yield results. UO was 13-17 in their first season together.

They've come a long way since.

"Women's basketball used to be so big here at one point with Bev Smith, and then the program kind of started going downhill," Bando said. "Then Kelly Graves came. We were the underdogs for so long, and now it's like, everyone's going to give us their best game when they play us. We just have to be ready for it."

-- Andrew Greif

agreif@oregonian.com

@andrewgreif