Kelly Graves loses three key Oregon Ducks to the transfer portal

Last season was one of the worst years in the history of Oregon women's basketball. However, some of the promise showed by young players was a highlight and gave fans hope.

Three of those young stars were Chance Gray, Kennedy Basham, and Grace VanSlooten.

On Wednesday, April 6, all three announced that they were entering the transfer portal.

Gray became the starting point guard and a consistent feature of Oregon's squad. While Oregon struggled to find wins throughout the year, she averaged 13.9 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 3.0 assists per game.

She ran the court for the Ducks last season and the team genuinely may have gone 0-32 without her. Over her two years at Oregon, Gray started in all 66 games that she played in.

Basham struggled to find her footing in Eugene for a majority of her two years with the Ducks.. However, as the 2023-24 season progressed, she started to lock in and became quite a sharp shooter for Oregon.

In her last four regular-season games with the team, Basham averaged 11.5 points and became a starter for the Ducks before their blowout loss to Colorado in the Pac-12 Tournament.

VanSlooten was one of the most highly recruited women's basketball players coming out of high school in 2021. With 46 offers, she truly could have gone anywhere but on October 7, 2021, VanSlooten announced she was heading to Eugene.

Through two years with the Ducks, she averaged 14.1 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 2.2 assissts per game. VanSlooten became an anchor on the Oregon squad that was grappling with the fact that they were nowhere near the level of the Maite Cazorla and Sabrina Ionescu eras.

The loss of these three players is a huge blow to head coach Kelly Graves' roster. As Oregon heads to the Big Ten and Graves desperately needs to piece together a winning season, he better hope the transfer portal is kind to him in return.

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