Women's College Basketball

Add another accomplishment to Oregon women's basketball star Sabrina Ionescu's resume.

Ionescu and Iowa wrestler Spencer Lee were recognized as co-winners of the Sullivan Award, which goes to the nation's top amateur athlete every year. The Associated Press reported the news, noting they are the third ever co-winners in the award's 90-year history.

Coco Miller and Kelly Miller shared the award in 1999, while Keenan Reynolds and Breanna Stewart shared it in 2005.

Ionescu and Lee were recognized Wednesday during a ceremony that was streamed on Facebook since the event at the New York Athletic Club was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lee finished his season with a sparkling 18-0 record and was coming off back-to-back NCAA titles entering his junior campaign.

He didn't have the opportunity to make it three in a row, seeing as how his junior season was cut short because of the NCAA's decision to cancel winter and spring championships because of the pandemic, but this award underscores his accomplishments.

As for Ionescu, she finished her career as one of the best basketball players in NCAA history and was selected No. 1 overall in the 2020 WNBA draft by the New York Liberty.

The walking triple-double, Sabrina, is heading to New York 🗽

With the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft, the Liberty have selected Sabrina Ionescu pic.twitter.com/Z5i2ctV34T

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 17, 2020

She was the first NCAA player to tally 2,000 points, 1,000 assists and 1,000 rebounds in a career in either the men's or women's game and posted an NCAA-record 26 career triple-doubles. The two-time Wooden Award winner and Naismith Player of the Year was also the unanimous choice as the AP Player of the Year.

The only thing missing was a national championship, which she did not have the chance to pursue with the men's and women's basketball tournaments canceled.

She did lead the Ducks to their first-ever women's Final Four last year.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish found their new women's basketball coach.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Memphis Grizzlies assistant coach Niele Ivey will replace Muffet McGraw after the latter retired Wednesday following a legendary career. Wojnarowski noted Ivey spent 17 seasons as a player and assistant coach at Notre Dame before joining the Grizzlies last season.

Welcome home, @IrishCoachIvey.

Niele Ivey returns to @NDwbb as head coach after playing a part in each of the program's nine Final Fours.

🔗 https://t.co/mlsSFV1CBz#WelcomeHomeNiele pic.twitter.com/00DWSRPeFk

— The Fighting Irish (@FightingIrish) April 22, 2020

McGraw released a statement announcing her retirement following 33 seasons:

pic.twitter.com/iGIrJsz7ie

— Muffet McGraw (@MuffetMcGraw) April 22, 2020

Ivey will be tasked with replacing a legend.

McGraw led Notre Dame to two national championships (2001 and 2018), NCAA tournament runner-up finishes five times (2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2019) and nine Final Four appearances.

She was also inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017.

As if replacing a legend isn't difficult enough, Notre Dame struggled during the 2019-20 campaign with a 13-18 record after Jackie Young, Arike Ogunbowale, Brianna Turner, Jessica Shepard and Marina Mabrey departed for the WNBA.

Ivey has a history of success at Notre Dame, though, dating back to 2001, when she helped lead the team to a national championship as a player. She was also an assistant coach for the 2018 championship run and has been with the program as either a player (two) or coach (seven) for all nine of its Final Four appearances.

"I am thrilled Niele will be the next leader of the Notre Dame basketball program," McGraw said, per Eric Hansen of the South Bend Tribune. "She's one of the best young coaches in the game today, and her success with the Grizzlies has helped make her even more prepared for her new role." 

Ivey became the ninth female coach in the NBA when the Grizzlies hired her as an assistant coach heading into the 2019-20 campaign.

Notre Dame women's basketball coach Muffet McGraw retired Wednesday, the school announced. 

McGraw issued a statement following her decision:

"It has been my great honor to represent the University of Notre Dame these past 33 years, but the time has come for me to step down as your head basketball coach. I want to thank Monk Malloy and Father Jenkins for giving me the opportunity to coach the game I love at a university I love. I have learned much about leadership from the many athletic directors with whom I have served, and in particular, I want to thank Jack Swarbrick for his unwavering support."

pic.twitter.com/iGIrJsz7ie

— Muffet McGraw (@MuffetMcGraw) April 22, 2020

Notre Dame finished as the NCAA tournament runner-up in 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2019, and it claimed its second national championship in 2018.

McGraw retires with 936 victories, sixth-most among all Division I coaches. She led the Fighting Irish to 31 20-win seasons, 24 straight NCAA tournament appearances and nine Final Fours. She also coached 22 All-Americans and 20 players who went on to play in the WNBA.

In 2017, she became the 13th female coach inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. 

The school announced Niele Ivey will succeed McGraw.

Welcome home, @IrishCoachIvey.

Niele Ivey returns to @NDwbb as head coach after playing a part in each of the program's nine Final Fours.

🔗 https://t.co/mlsSFV1CBz#WelcomeHomeNiele pic.twitter.com/00DWSRPeFk

— The Fighting Irish (@FightingIrish) April 22, 2020

Ivey was a member of the 2001 national championship-winning squad. She worked as an assistant under McGraw for 12 years before accepting a role on the Memphis Grizzlies' staff last August.

The Fighting Irish labored through a difficult 2019-20 season.

They opened the year as the No. 16 team in the Associated Press Top 25 and No. 14 in the Coaches Poll, a preseason outlook that didn't take into account how difficult it would be to replace so many key players from a year ago.

McGraw watched three players (Jackie Young, Arike Ogunbowale and Brianna Turner) get selected in the first round of the 2019 WNBA draft. Another two (Jessica Shepard and Marina Mabrey) were off the board in the second round.

Not surprisingly in retrospect, Notre Dame went 13-18, a drop of 22 wins from 2018-19.

The season was not befitting of McGraw's massive legacy on the sideline. She steadily built the Fighting Irish into a national powerhouse and one of the best programs in college basketball over the last decade.

The infrastructure is in place for the Fighting Irish to return to the national title conversation.

Leading scorer Destinee Walker is leaving, but she's the only regular starter out the door. The school has four of the top 50 recruits in HoopGurlz's player rankings for 2020.

Ivey's time as a player and coach at Notre Dame should ease in the transition as well.

However, Tennessee is an example of how difficult it can be to replace a legend.

The Lady Vols reached the Elite Eight in three of their first four seasons following Pat Summitt's retirement in 2012, but Holly Warlick, a longtime assistant under Summitt, was unable to get them back to the apex of women's basketball. Tennessee fired Warlick last March and hired Kellie Harper.

Ivey is facing a tall task to carry on the postseason success the Fighting Irish enjoyed under McGraw.

Amirah O'Neal, the daughter of NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal, announced her college basketball commitment Thursday to her father's alma mater LSU.

She posted the decision on Instagram. Her brother, Shareef O'Neal, confirmed in February he was transferring from UCLA to the Tigers.

"One of the most difficult decisions for a person my age to make, is the jump from high school to college," Amirah wrote. "Although I don't fully know what's ahead of me, I am ready for the challenge. I never imagined myself saying this, but I am excited to say that I have decided to commit to being a student-athlete at LSU alongside my brother Shareef. I am sooooo grateful to spend my next four years as a Tiger."

The 18-year-old Los Angeles native will be a member of the Tigers' 2020 recruiting class. The 6'3" center has been a standout performer for Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California, averaging 17.2 points.

"[She] was an Honorable Mention selection to the MaxPreps 2019 California All-State Girls Basketball Team, as well as the Cal-Hi Sports Division IV All-State Team," per 247Sports.

https://twitter.com/SSJreef/status/1250914656476172294

LSU has yet to announce the signing, though the program added TCU transfer Ryann Payne on Wednesday.

Shaq spent three seasons with the Tigers from 1989 through 1992 before leaving to get selected first overall in the 1992 NBA draft by the Orlando Magic. The 7'1" center averaged 21.6 points, 13.5 rebounds and 4.6 blocks while shooting 61 percent from the field across 90 collegiate appearances.

"It's like we told him, 'You're going to make your own name here,'" LSU men's head coach Will Wade said about the Shareef signing. "Shaq's really excited. He was excited for him to come here. He's excited to see where things go."

Wade added, "The name O'Neal is a part of LSU basketball history."

Amirah will attempt to further that legacy starting next season.

Sabrina Ionescu woke in a panic. She didn't know if she was still dreaming or awake.

Whoa, she thought to herself. What's going on?

It took her a few seconds on this recent night to calm down, to gather herself. To realize she had been dreaming.

But she couldn't let the dream go. Lying under her covers in bed, she replayed it in her head. Every detail, every sound, haunted her. Especially that laugh.

She kept hearing Gigi Bryant's laugh in the dream. That sweet, high-pitched laugh that could jolt joy into the grumpiest of souls.

The dream takes her back to summer. L.A. Last year. Ionescu was standing on the sideline with Gigi's father, Kobe Bryant, who was also Ionescu's mentor and best friend. They watched as 13-year-old Gigi laughed so hard with her Team Mamba teammates that her eyes began to squint into mini moons. Then Ionescu and Kobe started laughing too, sharing the most simple and meaningful joy: being around basketball, being around each other.

These days, Ionescu has grown accustomed to these dreams. They bring sadness, bring joy.

And it's not just in the dreams she'll be transported back to that day. Sometimes she'll be in the backyard of the home of her mother, Liliana, attaching a band to a lemon tree to do defensive slides, and out of nowhere, she'll hear the laugh. Or she'll be looking at her phone, and a name will pop up that looks like Kobe's, and when she realizes it isn't, something will pierce her.

She can't stop it from hurting, so she accepts the feeling—accepts that she may never get over this.

"I think it's going to be one of those things I always feel. I can still think about it anytime and cry," she says, speaking to Bleacher Report over the phone on a tough day in early April. "I'm not normal yet."

Sometimes she thinks about how order in the world seemed to disappear once Kobe did. Not just her world but the entire world, with the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic. She wonders what Kobe would have thought about her backyard workouts, now that her NCAA championship dreams have been shattered. The 22-year-old Ionescu had turned down hundreds of thousands of dollars in WNBA salary and endorsements to return to Oregon as a senior to try to win a ring, and her team was a favorite to do just that.

That dream now dead, she wonders if Kobe would smile at how creative she's being as she prepares for the WNBA future that will arrive beginning with this week's draft, in which she is a certainty to be the first name called. How she takes a sack of onions and potatoes and uses them as weights. How she does squats with her mom's large potted plant, brown with an extra-wide brim. "He'd probably want me to do more," Ionescu says, managing a laugh. Then her voice grows thin. Quiet.

"Thinking about that is hard," she says. "If he was here, we'd probably all be quarantined together in L.A." Her, Kobe, Gigi. Laughing. Enjoying being around basketball, being around one another.

---

Ionescu can't remember ever not having control like this before. She is used to feeling in control of every aspect of the game. The score, the plays, the players, all beckon to her call. When the ball is in her palms, she can slow the game down, speed it up. Put people in the exact places to succeed. Torment defenders whenever she decides to take over, entering what her dad, Dan, calls Bazooka Mode: her all-out attack.

She is always on, always obsessing. She expects herself to make every shot, to be perfect in every drill. "She has to make a half-court shot before every game," says Joe Waltasti, former Oregon assistant director of athletic communications. She vomits before games. She doesn't sleep the night before a game, instead just staring at her ceiling until 3, 4 a.m. She berates herself for misses, challenges teammates for not matching her intensity.

She is this way because deep down she's afraid. Afraid of not measuring up to her own expectations. Afraid of not being good enough.

"She feels like she's inferior," says Kelly Sopak, her former high school club coach at Cal Stars, who talks to her daily. "That's what motivates her. Imagine a 25-year-old athlete playing against a five-year-old in a game of one-on-one, but imagine the 25-year-old thinks he's going to lose. That's Sabrina. She lives in that world of self-doubt."

So she tries to control. Tries to shoot shoot shoot past exhaustion to erase that doubt. To prove that she is good enough. Great enough.

She used to limp through practices from going too hard, from not telling her coaches she felt pain bordering injury.

But the pain she is battling right now, a deep sense of loss—loss of a storybook season on top of loss of a mentor and a friend—cannot be solved the way she is accustomed to solving problems: through hard work. Grief cannot be solved or contained. Only felt.

"Nobody can teach you how to deal with this," Ionescu says. "You just have to go through it."

Both losses happened so suddenly, so unexpectedly. She was having the best year of her life, and then she was having the worst. When the college season was canceled, she didn't want to think about it, didn't want to acknowledge that just weeks after losing the person who'd believed in her the most, she'd played her last college game. It cut too deep. "She's a human being," Liliana says.

But now, Ionescu is finally allowing herself to reflect on it all. "Every day I think about why," she says. She is starting to learn to accept that she doesn't have answers. And she is trying to think less why, and more what's next. "I still have to keep finding ways to get better," she says.

She and her teammates should have been in New Orleans this month, contending for a national title that would have been the exclamation point on a turnaround for a program that had only one winning season in six years before Ionescu arrived and has now won three straight Pac-12 titles and went 31-2 this season.

It stings, but she tries to envision how happy they would have been instead of dwelling on the fact that it's over. She tries to feel gratitude for family, health, food, shelter. The chance to play in the WNBA when the season commences.

"She's gotten to a level of maturity of understanding that nothing is guaranteed," Liliana says. "We have to be grateful for everything we have."

So, Ionescu heads back to her lemon tree. Back to her defensive slides. She pushes herself as hard as she can go. She tries to embrace the uncertainty. To let go.

Of needing control.

Of having to be perfect.

Of the way things were supposed to be.

Peace. That is what Ionescu is searching for. Peace.

---

This break from organized basketball is the first time in a while that Ionescu has really taken a breath. Really breathed. "Nobody's coming after her," says Mark Campbell, Oregon's associate head coach. "She's had a bull's-eye on her back for six years."

She doesn't usually think about that weight, because she's usually busy just carrying it. Her insomnia has even subsided a bit. She is going to sleep at 10:30 and not waking up through the night as much as she did during basketball season. It is a strange feeling, this calmness. She can't tell if it's because she's learning to accept her new normal—life without basketball games—or if it's because it's made her realize that basketball, really, is just a game.

She would have scoffed at that expression a few years ago. Just a game. People who say it's just a game usually have never played, have never felt the rush that basketball creates. How it makes her feel alive. Powerful. Dominant. To her, every game, every shot, matters.

And now they don't. At least, not like they used to.

"You really realize what's important in life," she says. "I think I was so consumed with winning and getting better in basketball, then you realize life is so much more than that. You realize it's not even about basketball at the end of the day. Basketball is so small."

Her mind drifts to Kobe again. She thinks about how he is remembered more for what he did outside of being a basketball player. She thinks about how their trophy cases, their tough days, their brightest days, are really all a blip. Dots in the sand.

Ionescu is currently picking which sports agency she will sign with. In a recent meeting, she and one suitor discussed her writing a memoir. She loves to read books. She wants to write children's books one day too. Ionescu and Sopak tried to come up with a title for her memoir. Maybe Driven, they thought. Ionescu isn't sure yet.

She is still figuring out who she is without that orange leather ball—that ball that makes her laugh, cry, smile, scream. She wonders who she can become, too, in her new normal.

---

Ionescu doesn't remember the details of the games she played after Kobe died. "My head was in a cloud," she says. She was so consumed by grief that they all seem to blur for her.

She continued to communicate with Kobe: "The rest is for you," she texted him once. "Miss you and love you."

She does remember how physically ill she felt, how devastated she felt the first time she had to take the floor.

She sat in the locker room prior to Oregon's game against Oregon State. She didn't go out to warm-ups. "Hey," she called to teammate Minyon Moore. "I'll be up there. You make sure the team's ready." Campbell felt goosebumps watching what happened next: the way she dominated, compartmentalizing her grief. She was there, but she wasn't there.

"That was not normal Sabrina," Campbell says. "You could see it in her eyes, could see it during timeouts."

She played brilliantly, fearlessly, scoring 19 points with eight rebounds and three assists. And, a month later, just hours after speaking at Kobe and Gianna's Celebration of Life, Sabrina came through again, this time against Stanford. She dug deep, finding strength to lead her team. She had 21 points, 12 assists and 12 rebounds in the win and became the first player, man or woman, to reach 2,000 points, 1,000 assists and 1,000 rebounds in NCAA Division I basketball history.

"The best of Sabrina came through that day," says Kelly Graves, Oregon's head coach. "I saw a more focused, more driven Sabrina after Kobe's death. That was the moment she made up her mind: We're not losing."

She also allowed her teammates to see her full self. Not just Powerful Sabrina. Not just Leader Sabrina.

This time she showed Vulnerable Sabrina.

When the Stanford game ended, when she did not have to talk to the media, she let herself not be on. She cried in front of her teammates. She dared to let them see her hurt. See that she was not perfect.

Not together.

Not OK.

That's not something she ordinarily does. "From that day on, every single game, every single practice, everything, the roles were kind of reversed," Ionescu says. "They understood the pain I was going through. They took on a different role, more of a leadership role. They had to carry me."

Liliana was supposed to go home after the game, but instead she stayed the night with Ionescu to make sure she was OK. Liliana knew there was nothing she could say to make her daughter feel better. All she could do was just be there. Hold Sabrina tightly throughout the night. Let her cry.

Sabrina would realize something about herself in the weeks after that: "I'm not going to break," she says. "As long as I have a support system around me to help me through, I'm not really ever going to reach that point of breaking."

One night in particular confirmed that to her. It was two weeks later, and she was sitting in her hotel room before a game against Utah. She looked out the window, asking God for a sign. A sign that she would be OK.

As the sun began to set, she saw a burst of color. Purple and yellow streaks stretched across the sky. Then a helicopter flew by, humming into the distance.

Oh my God, she thought, shaken up. This is it. Kobe's always going to be with me.

---

As the season wore on, she started to feel more calm before games. Less nervous. She felt newfound purpose: It was less about unfinished business, avenging Oregon's Final Four loss last season, and more about the journey.

"It was kind of nice in a way to just be able to have fun and play and not really worry," she says.

She was just happy to be with her teammates. She enjoyed every moment until the team couldn't play anymore.

It felt surreal for the season to be canceled. For it to be taken from her. So quickly, so surprisingly. Then she remembered what Kobe had told her about control. "He was big on controlling what you can," she says. "You can't control your teammates. You can't control how hard other people work. It's kind of you versus you."

She's been thinking a lot about that now, you versus you, in this time of quarantine, of solitude. "I started to realize I never really was competing against the person next to me," she says. "I wasn't trying to beat out the person next to me. I was trying to beat out myself every time."

That self has no regrets. That self spilled her heart out onto the court every time for the Ducks, turning a WNIT team into a national title contender. And there was nothing she could do to change the end of her college career.

She packed up her things in her Ford Fusion and drove home to the Bay Area, staring out onto the road. It is what it is, she thought to herself. Acceptance would be her new compass.

---

Ionescu headed to a local outdoor court one recent afternoon. She was thankful it was even open. Practically all of the gyms and outdoor courts in California have been shut down during the statewide shelter-in-place order.

"It's so nice to be able to just shoot," she says.

Even if she had to do it alone, given social distancing protocol. So she shot and shot, and the balls kept going in. She was slightly disappointed. She needed a challenge. She wished she would miss so that she could feel angry at herself and then feel motivated to correct her form and make all of her shots.

Then, self-doubt swarmed: What if I don't live up to the expectations? What if I don't lead my new WNBA team? She released jumper after jumper, quickly silencing that voice in her head.

Soon she lost herself between the lines, and the ball became part of her hand again. She felt thankful for her hands, looking at them, pausing between shots.

She has fingers. She has wrists. She has joints. She has muscles. Look at this miraculous thing, this beautiful thing she can do with her body, using it to create perfect backspin on her shot.

Then she missed a shot. She laughed. "I was even happy about the miss," she says.

Sabrina, happy about a miss?

She smiled even wider, realizing old Sabrina, normal Sabrina, would never feel such a thing. But where's the fun in normal anyway?

                       

Mirin Fader is a staff writer for B/R Mag. She's written for the Orange County Register, espnW.com, SI.com and Slam. Her work has been honored by the Associated Press Sports Editors, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, the Football Writers Association of America, the Los Angeles Press Club and the Best American Sports Writing series. Follow her on Twitter: @MirinFader.

Sabrina Ionescu was not able to secure Oregon's first women's college basketball national championship because the season was canceled on March 12 by COVID-19.

But she did snag the John R. Wooden Award, given annually to the nation's best collegiate basketball player, for the second straight year.

For the second straight season, Sabrina Ionescu wins the Wooden Award as the national player of the year! 👑

With that, the 🐐 completes a CLEAN SWEEP of the major national player of the year awards for the 2019-20 season! #GoDucks | @sabrina_i20 pic.twitter.com/PVGSfBcdHO

— Oregon Women’s Basketball (@OregonWBB) April 6, 2020

Per ESPN's Graham Hays: "Ionescu is the sixth woman to win the Wooden multiple times, joining Seimone Augustus, Brittney Griner, Maya Moore, Candace Parker and Breanna Stewart. She is also the fifth player to win the award in back-to-back seasons. She and former LSU standout Augustus are the two repeat winners who did not win national championships."

On the men's side, Ralph Sampson is the only back-to-back winner. 

The senior guard averaged 17.5 points and 9.1 assists per game for the No. 2 Ducks in 2019-20.

Ionescu had announced last April that she would be coming back for her senior 2019-20 campaign in an open letter published by the Players' Tribune:

"I won't predict exactly how far we're going to go….. but I'll just say this," she wrote. "We have unfinished business."

The Ducks lost in the Final Four to eventual champion Baylor in 2018-19, leaving Ionescu and Company hungry for the 2019-20 national title. At 31-2 and riding a 19-game winning streak, Oregon was primed to complete that mission before the season was canceled.

Ionescu addressed the abrupt ending in an Instagram caption, calling this "the toughest year of my life":

Sabrina Ionescu gives her farewell to Oregon after an abrupt ending to her senior season 🙏 pic.twitter.com/WmDkbHPN0J

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 16, 2020

The 22-year-old had struggled off the court with the sudden death of Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, her mentor, and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, on Jan. 26:

"You were my mentor, idol, inspiration, and close friend."

Oregon's Sabrina Ionescu opens up about Kobe, Gianna and the seven other victims from Sunday's helicopter crash.

(via @sabrina_i20) pic.twitter.com/PTnU44WD6o

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) February 1, 2020

Ionescu spoke at Kobe and Gianna's memorial at the Staples Center on Feb. 24 before setting NCAA Division I history in a 74-66 win at Stanford that night:

HISTORY!! 🐐👑

Sabrina Ionescu is the first NCAA player EVER with 2,000 points, 1,000 assists and 1,000 rebounds!!#GoDucks | @sabrina_i20 pic.twitter.com/TrJPrWLUW0

— Oregon Women’s Basketball (@OregonWBB) February 25, 2020

Sabrina Ionescu becomes the first player in NCAA D-1 history to record 2K points, 1K rebounds and 1K assists.

Mamba Mentality 💜 pic.twitter.com/HcFgZO8kc2

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) February 25, 2020

The California native's list of all-time accomplishments is too long to include here in-full, and she will almost undoubtedly add No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 WNBA draft to her resume on April 17.

Sabrina Ionescu is one of three Oregon players who has been named to the women's basketball Naismith Starting Five.

Ionescu was honored as the top point guard, while Satou Sabally and Ruthy Hebard were honored as the best small forward and power forward respectively.

         

2020 Naismith Starting Five

• PG: Sabrina Ionescu, Oregon
• SG: Aari McDonald, Arizona
• SF: Satou Sabally, Oregon
• PF: Ruthy Hebard, Oregon
• C: Aliyah Boston, South Carolina

          

The 31-2 Ducks finished the season as the No. 2 team in both the Associated Press Top 25 and Coaches Poll.

Ionescu, Sabally and Hebard helped Oregon enjoy the best run in program history.

Prior to the 2016-17 season, the Ducks had never advanced past the second round of the NCAA tournament. They then reeled off three straight Elite Eight appearances and a Final Four run in 2019. They might have added their first-ever national title this year had the COVID-19 pandemic not forced the cancellation of the 2020 tourney.

Ionescu will be remembered as one of the greatest talents of her generation. She's the all-time leader in triple-doubles and became the first player in Division I history to post 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 1,000 assists.

Ionescu and Hebard are both seniors, while Sabally is forgoing her final year of eligibility to enter the WNBA draft. Their departures will likely force Oregon to take a step backward in 2020-21, even with a star-studded recruiting class on its way to Eugene.

South Carolina, on the other hand, probably isn't going anywhere after a 32-1 season, and Aliyah Boston is a big reason why. The 6'5" center averaged 12.5 points, 9.4 rebounds and 2.6 blocks as a true freshman.

A'ja Wilson left the Gamecocks with a national title and every major individual trophy to her name. That's a tough resume to match, but Boston has the chance to put herself in the same category as Wilson based on her first year.

With a potential power vacuum opening up in the Pac-12—Oregon is the three-time reigning regular-season champion—Arizona could be the biggest beneficiary.

Aari McDonald was eligible for the 2020 WNBA draft but decided to return to the Wildcats for her senior year. She averaged 20.6 points and 3.6 assists while shooting 45.8 percent from the field as a junior.

McDonald could help Arizona lift its first conference championship in 2021.

Texas hired Vic Schaefer as its next women's basketball coach.

Longhorns athletic director Chris Del Conte announced the move Sunday:

Guess who’s coming to the Forty...🏀🤘🏽 pic.twitter.com/hSAyjbvqTH

— Chris Del Conte (@_delconte) April 5, 2020

Schaefer spent the last eight seasons at Mississippi State. The Bulldogs went 221-62 under his watch and reached the national title game in 2017 and 2018.

According to Steve Robertson of Gene's Page, Mississippi State was ready to match or increase Texas' offer to Schaefer, but the Austin, Texas, native preferred to return home. Robertson added that the Longhorns had to pay $1.25 million for his buyout.

Texas announced Friday it wasn't extending Aston's contract after she wrapped up her eighth season in charge. The Longhorns compiled a 184-83 record and made an Elite Eight run in 2016, their first since 2003.

However, ESPN.com's Mechelle Voepel noted how Texas' on-court success paled in comparison to that of Baylor. In the past 10 years, the Lady Bears were national champions twice and had eight Elite Eight appearances.

While Schaefer didn't build Mississippi State from the ground up, the Bulldogs had never advanced past the Sweet 16 prior to his arrival. He's well suited to lead the Longhorns back to the Final Four.

He'll likely need a year or two do deliver tangible results. The Longhorns will lose five players from their 2019-20 squad, including co-leading scorer Joyner Holmes and assist leader Sug Sutton.

Guard Celeste Taylor (9.2 points, 4.9 rebounds) and forward Charli Collier (13.4 points, 10.7 rebounds) are only a freshman and sophomore, respectively, and Texas signed Ashley Chevalier, who's the No. 52 recruit in HoopGurlz's 2020 rankings.

Schaefer will have a solid foundation for the future.

Oregon guard Sabrina Ionescu won the 2020 Wade Trophy on Thursday, becoming the sixth player in history to win the award twice. 

Women's Basketball Coaches Association executive director Danielle M. Donehew said:

"Congratulations to Sabrina Ionescu on winning women's basketball's highest player honor, the Wade Trophy, for the second straight year and to the entire 2020 WBCA NCAA Division I Coaches' All-America team.

"Sabrina had another historic season at Oregon and elevated her game and, in so doing, our sport as well. She is an incredibly talented student-athlete, leader and ambassador for women's basketball. Her mastery of so many skills coupled with her tremendous determination to succeed has excited the national media and fans alike, and has inspired the next generation of student-athletes."

This season, Ionescu became the first player in either men's or women's college basketball to have 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 1,000 assists in a career.

Previous multi-time winners include Nancy Lieberman, Seimone Augustus, Brittney Griner, Breanna Stewart  and Maya Moore, who won the award a record three times. 

Oregon's season ended in March when the NCAA canceled its men's and women's basketball tournaments amid the coronavirus pandemic. Ionescu is widely expected to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 WNBA draft, which will take place April 17.

Oregon's Sabrina Ionescu was named the Associated Press women's basketball player of the year Monday.

The Ducks guard became just the second unanimous winner of the award, joining former UConn Huskies star Breanna Stewart.

"That's pretty crazy. Someone I look up to and have a good relationship with," Ionescu said of joining Stewart as unanimous selections. "To be in that class with her is an honor."

BREAKING: Oregon guard Sabrina Ionescu unanimously voted AP Player of the Year.

The AP's @dougfeinberg informed @sabrina_i20 last night, and @GoDucksKG helped capture the moment.

Full story >> https://t.co/UO4ffIO26s pic.twitter.com/jn1ZNAtuho

— AP Top 25 (@AP_Top25) March 23, 2020

Ionescu, a three-time All-American, averaged 17.5 points, 9.1 assists and 8.6 rebounds this season with eight triple-doubles. She returned for her senior season to try to lead Oregon to a national title, though those hopes were dashed when the NCAA women's and men's basketball tournaments were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

"I have enjoyed everything that I did this year," she said during the Pac-12 tournament, per the AP. "I never second-guess my choice."

She will go down in history as a transcendent star of the college game, setting the NCAA record for career triple-doubles (26) and becoming the first women's or men's player with over 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 1,000 assists in a career.

HISTORY!! 🐐👑

Sabrina Ionescu is the first NCAA player EVER with 2,000 points, 1,000 assists and 1,000 rebounds!!#GoDucks | @sabrina_i20 pic.twitter.com/TrJPrWLUW0

— Oregon Women’s Basketball (@OregonWBB) February 25, 2020

She's also earned the attention of some of the greats of the game, including Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry, who called her a "legend in her own right."

"I love having a relationship with [Curry], just being able to remember when I was little, watching him and kind of emulating my game after him, to now being able to call him or text him any time that I need help with something," Ionescu told ESPN's Maria Taylor in March.

Ionescu will have a chance to build a legacy in the WNBA similar to the one Curry has crafted with the Warriors. Her place in the history of college basketball is already firmly secured.