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Oregon State's women's basketball is no stranger to the NCAA Tournament.
The Beavers are headed to the Big Dance for the ninth time since 2010. Along the way, they've reached the Sweet Sixteen five times, the Elite Eight three times and made a Final Four appearance in 2016.
During head coach Scott Rueck's 15-year stretch at the helm of the program, though, OSU has never quite endured a season like this one.
After last year's thrilling run through March Madness, the Beavers lost nearly all of their top players to the transfer portal. That included all-conference standouts Talia Von Oelhoffen and Raegan Beers. In the months that followed, Rueck and his staff worked to quickly rebuild the roster from the ground up while making the transition to the West Coast Conference following the collapse of the Pac-12.
What followed was a rocky start to OSU's 2024-25 campaign that quickly transformed into one of the more impressive feats of Rueck's career.
The Beavers, who sit at No. 126 in the NET rankings, shocked the college basketball world by winning the WCC Tournament and securing an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. No. 14-seeded OSU will face No. 3 North Carolina in Chapel Hill on Saturday.
"I'm ecstatic," Rueck said with a smile during OSU's post-selection media availability Sunday. "You work all year and you hope to get to this point. You hope to be in a position where you see your name on that (selection) show in a positive way. I'm so happy for this team and I'm so happy for these amazing people who stuck with us all year long and believed and stayed positive when things didn't look quite right. Things started to look better and all of a sudden we've got a team worthy of being in the Big Dance."
Led by senior forward Kelsey Rees (12.8 points, 7.6 rebounds per game) and senior guard AJ Marotte (11.4 points, 2.4 assists), the Beavers have found their form during the second half of the season. They are 9-2 since the beginning of February.
Catarina Ferreira, a senior guard from Sao Paulo, Brazil, who spent last season at Baylor, has been an instrumental figure down the stretch for OSU. During last week's win over Portland in the WCC title game, she led the way with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
"To start the year, we were built as an inexperienced Power-4 team — that's ultimately what we are," Rueck said Sunday. "We didn't have the experience and we didn't know who we were yet. Roles had to be defined and people had to step up. Over the course of the year, that's happened. When you look at the point guard play we have, the wing play, the size and the overall athleticism, we look the part.
"Now we're starting to play the part."
In the moments immediately following Sunday's selection show, Rueck admittedly had not yet had time to dive into film study of North Carolina.
The Tar Heels (27-7, 13-5) finished fourth in the ACC under sixth-year head coach Courtney Banghart.
"For a coach, this is like the most fun thing you get to do," Rueck said. "It's like all this mystery, and then there it is. It's like somebody shoots the starter's gun off and is like, 'Race — here we go.' I know that Deja Kelly is in Eugene from a year ago. I don't know much else other than that. They've obviously had some big wins; they beat Duke. They beat NC State. Those are big-time W's. Courtney is a great coach. I know it's gonna be a true test."
Kelly, last year's leading scorer for UNC, is gone. But the Tar Heels still feature plenty of talent up and down the roster.
Forward Maria Gakdeng (11.3 points, 7.7 rebounds), guard Alyssa Ustby (10.6 points, 9.5 rebounds) and guard Lexi Donarski (10.6 points, 2.9 assists) have set the tone for North Carolina this season. Ustby earned first-team all-conference honors, while Gakdeng and sophomore guard Reniya Kelly (9.9 points, 2.1 assists) earned second-team recognition.
Ustby was also named to the ACC all-defensive team.
Saturday's battle on the glass could be crucial. The Beavers rank 24th nationally with 28.3 defensive rebounds per game, while the Tar Heels (27.2) rank 53rd. Oregon State will also look to exploit an opponent that ranks 330th with 13.0 turnovers per game.
The ESPN matchup predictor gives Oregon State a 3.8% chance to beat North Carolina in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Per BetMGM, the Beavers are 20.5-point underdogs on the spread and +1,600 on the moneyline. The over/under point total is set at 120.5.
Jarrid Denney covers high school sports and Oregon State for the Statesman Journal. He can be reached at [email protected] or on X @jarrid_denney
We occasionally recommend interesting products and services. If you make a purchase by clicking one of the links, we may earn an affiliate fee. USA TODAY Network newsrooms operate independently, and this doesn’t influence our coverage.
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Oregon State vs. North Carolina in women's March Madness: TV, stream
Continue reading...
The Beavers are headed to the Big Dance for the ninth time since 2010. Along the way, they've reached the Sweet Sixteen five times, the Elite Eight three times and made a Final Four appearance in 2016.
During head coach Scott Rueck's 15-year stretch at the helm of the program, though, OSU has never quite endured a season like this one.
After last year's thrilling run through March Madness, the Beavers lost nearly all of their top players to the transfer portal. That included all-conference standouts Talia Von Oelhoffen and Raegan Beers. In the months that followed, Rueck and his staff worked to quickly rebuild the roster from the ground up while making the transition to the West Coast Conference following the collapse of the Pac-12.
What followed was a rocky start to OSU's 2024-25 campaign that quickly transformed into one of the more impressive feats of Rueck's career.
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The Beavers, who sit at No. 126 in the NET rankings, shocked the college basketball world by winning the WCC Tournament and securing an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. No. 14-seeded OSU will face No. 3 North Carolina in Chapel Hill on Saturday.
"I'm ecstatic," Rueck said with a smile during OSU's post-selection media availability Sunday. "You work all year and you hope to get to this point. You hope to be in a position where you see your name on that (selection) show in a positive way. I'm so happy for this team and I'm so happy for these amazing people who stuck with us all year long and believed and stayed positive when things didn't look quite right. Things started to look better and all of a sudden we've got a team worthy of being in the Big Dance."
Led by senior forward Kelsey Rees (12.8 points, 7.6 rebounds per game) and senior guard AJ Marotte (11.4 points, 2.4 assists), the Beavers have found their form during the second half of the season. They are 9-2 since the beginning of February.
Catarina Ferreira, a senior guard from Sao Paulo, Brazil, who spent last season at Baylor, has been an instrumental figure down the stretch for OSU. During last week's win over Portland in the WCC title game, she led the way with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
"To start the year, we were built as an inexperienced Power-4 team — that's ultimately what we are," Rueck said Sunday. "We didn't have the experience and we didn't know who we were yet. Roles had to be defined and people had to step up. Over the course of the year, that's happened. When you look at the point guard play we have, the wing play, the size and the overall athleticism, we look the part.
"Now we're starting to play the part."
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A look at the North Carolina Tar Heels
In the moments immediately following Sunday's selection show, Rueck admittedly had not yet had time to dive into film study of North Carolina.
The Tar Heels (27-7, 13-5) finished fourth in the ACC under sixth-year head coach Courtney Banghart.
"For a coach, this is like the most fun thing you get to do," Rueck said. "It's like all this mystery, and then there it is. It's like somebody shoots the starter's gun off and is like, 'Race — here we go.' I know that Deja Kelly is in Eugene from a year ago. I don't know much else other than that. They've obviously had some big wins; they beat Duke. They beat NC State. Those are big-time W's. Courtney is a great coach. I know it's gonna be a true test."
Kelly, last year's leading scorer for UNC, is gone. But the Tar Heels still feature plenty of talent up and down the roster.
Forward Maria Gakdeng (11.3 points, 7.7 rebounds), guard Alyssa Ustby (10.6 points, 9.5 rebounds) and guard Lexi Donarski (10.6 points, 2.9 assists) have set the tone for North Carolina this season. Ustby earned first-team all-conference honors, while Gakdeng and sophomore guard Reniya Kelly (9.9 points, 2.1 assists) earned second-team recognition.
Ustby was also named to the ACC all-defensive team.
Saturday's battle on the glass could be crucial. The Beavers rank 24th nationally with 28.3 defensive rebounds per game, while the Tar Heels (27.2) rank 53rd. Oregon State will also look to exploit an opponent that ranks 330th with 13.0 turnovers per game.
How to watch Oregon State women's basketball vs. North Carolina in March Madness
- TV channel: ESPNU
- Streaming:
- Radio: KBZY (1490 AM, Salem), KEJO (1240 AM, Corvallis) KPOJ (620 AM, Portland)
Oregon State women's basketball vs. North Carolina in March Madness game time
- Date: March 22
- Start time: 1:30 p.m.
Oregon State women's basketball vs. North Carolina in March Madness predictions, picks, odds
The ESPN matchup predictor gives Oregon State a 3.8% chance to beat North Carolina in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Per BetMGM, the Beavers are 20.5-point underdogs on the spread and +1,600 on the moneyline. The over/under point total is set at 120.5.
Jarrid Denney covers high school sports and Oregon State for the Statesman Journal. He can be reached at [email protected] or on X @jarrid_denney
We occasionally recommend interesting products and services. If you make a purchase by clicking one of the links, we may earn an affiliate fee. USA TODAY Network newsrooms operate independently, and this doesn’t influence our coverage.
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Oregon State vs. North Carolina in women's March Madness: TV, stream
Continue reading...
