After spending the summer with USA Basketball playing 3×3 tournaments with teammate Sabrina Ionescu, Ruthy Hebard will have one more stint before playing for Oregon this fall.
Both Ruthy Hebard and Sabrina Ionescu know the role of a professional basketball player while still being a college athlete. Both spent the summer playing for Team USA earning a national championship in May. Sabrina Ionescu hit the free throw that sealed the win and both helped Team USA to their second straight national title.
Next week, Hebard will be the lone Oregon Duck to travel to Quatar to participate in the 2019 World Beach Games. She will be joined by two professionals, Napheesa Collier and Jackie Young, who are both in the WNBA. High Schooler Paige Bueckers is also set to make the trip.
The Oregon Women’s Basketball team started Fall Practices last week and I expect the experience that Hebard has brought and gained over her college career will help her get back into the groove when she returns to Oregon for the upcoming season.
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The World Beach Games will take place from October 13th-16th. It is a six-day competition that includes water sport, as well as action sports and is expected to have over 1200 athletes from 97 nations participating.
Ruthy Hebard is no stranger to international competition playing in several tournaments over her career with Oregon. She helped her team to the gold medal in the 2016 FIBA Americas U18 Championship, earned silver at the U19 FIBA World Cup, helped the 2018 National Team finish 5th in the World Cup, and she also participated in the 2018 USA Women’s Basketball National Team Training Camp.
When she returns to Eugene, there will be work to do. Oregon Women’s Basketball was selected by the media to finish 1st in the Pac-12 Conference this season and they will be a contender for a return to the Final Four this season.