On Tuesday, April 27, 2021 news broke of another transfer leaving the Oregon women’s basketball program. It was first broken on Twitter and was later confirmed in the only way it could in 2021. An Instagram story share of the original post by the now former Oregon Duck junior, Taylor Mikesell. Mikesell is the third transfer to announce they were leaving the program, following her out the door is sophomore Jaz Shelley, and junior Taylor Chavez. All three are guards in the program and this past year combined to average 17.4 points, 6 rebounds, and 5.8 assists per game for head coach Kelly Graves.
All three transfers shared time at the point and shooting guard positions this year, Chavez and Shelley both missed decent time due to family commitments and injuries respectively. The trio of guards are arguably the most experienced players on the team and losing them leaves a big whole for the five returning McDonald’s American freshman class to fill. Kelly Graves said it himself before spring workouts, leadership is what the Ducks need most going into the 2021-22 season and he was hoping to find it in one of those three, especially Mikesell.
Three transfers are a lot for the Oregon program to lose, but if you thought this was going to be hard for Graves to coach thru; you would be mistaken. Through his first 4 seasons with the Duck’s, he lost at least 1 player each year to either the transfer portal or deciding to leave basketball. After the 2017-18 season he lost 4 players to the transfer portal and others made the decision to play overseas. Needless to say, this will not be the first time Kelly has had to coach his team after losing 3 role players. The year after losing 4 role players he took his team to the 2019 Final Four in Tampa Bay. Graves has said over and over that he prefers coaching with a smaller line-up.
What should also be mentioned in this story is the fact that all three players that have decided to move on from Eugene are all leaving the program on good terms. Two of the players, Chavez and Mikesell, are headed home to play their final season or two, depending on the decision each player must make for their extra “Covid year.” Taylor Chavez (TC3) is headed to Tucson to play for Adia Barnes’ national runner-up Arizona Wildcat program, and Taylor Mikesell (TMike) is headed to The Ohio State to play for a Buckeye program that is just an hour away from home. Jaz Shelley is going as home as home can be 9,000 miles away from Australia. She is joining the upstart Nebraska Cornhusker program who will now feature three Australian citizens in their lineup.
The more we look into these transfers, and where these players end up it leads us back to one thing, home. This past year has been a toll on everyone. No one can blame these players for wanting to play in front of their families and home for their final years playing collegiate basketball. Missing these three terrific guards will be a major loss for the Oregon Duck program but you look at the remaining roster and the underrated freshman class coming in; the Ducks are not going anywhere.
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