Balance of Power May Be Shifting

It might not have registered on Caltech’s seismographs, but what happened Saturday night in Oregon seemed to represent a seismic shift in Southland women’s basketball.

In USC’s Lisa Leslie era, the early 1990s, the Trojan women beat UCLA nine times in a row.

Then came UCLA’s Maylana Martin years, and the Bruins beat USC five consecutive times.

Saturday, the Trojans, in a stunning upset, beat Oregon, 69-63, at Eugene. While that was happening, the wildly inconsistent Bruins were being hammered by onetime doormat Oregon State, 72-52, at Corvallis. So, is the balance of power shifting again?

Much was expected of UCLA’s senior-rich team this season, but little has been delivered. Ranked fourth at the start of the season, UCLA tumbled out of the national rankings this week, after having lost to Oregon and Oregon State.

Little was expected of USC, 12-12 overall and 7-7 in the Pacific 10 Conference, and in midseason Coach Chris Gobrecht’s team lost nine of 12. But since then, the Trojans have won four of five, upsetting UCLA, Arizona and Oregon, all of whom have led the Pac-10 race at some point this season.

Then there’s this: UCLA (15-9, 9-5) was shut out in the early signing period, whereas USC signed Harbor City Narbonne High’s Ebony Hoffman, said to be the nation’s best low-post prospect. Even Tennessee Coach Pat Summitt came calling on Hoffman.

UCLA loses all its senior inside players--Martin, Janae Hubbard, Carly Funicello and Takiyah Jackson--and if Coach Kathy Olivier can’t find a low-post recruit somewhere, trouble looms for 2000-01. Gobrecht calls Hoffman “USC’s most important recruit since Lisa Leslie,” and the Trojans appear poised to launch another run.

Gobrecht loses four seniors too, but besides Hoffman, she signed two widely recruited guards, Aisha Hollans and Ryane Alexander.

Is Olivier endangered by her team’s slide? Not likely. Her five-year contract was rolled over after last season so she’s in the first season of a six-year deal.

Much of UCLA’s ineffective play can be linked to its inability to score against aggressive, swarming zone defenses, as was again the case at Oregon State.

That problem could be seen coming when the team’s best three-point shooter, Melanie Pearson, told Olivier last February that she was skipping this season to go on an overseas church mission.

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The Bruins’ slump hasn’t discouraged WNBA coaches from scouting Martin, a 6-foot-3 center once projected as the first pick in the April WNBA draft.

Martin will still be a high pick--no lower than third, one coach says--but first is unlikely now, since the WNBA has ruled that all former ABL players who never signed WNBA contracts will go through the draft.

On that list are Beverly Williams, a former Long Beach StingRay who was rehabbing from knee surgery last year, and ex-Olympians Teresa Edwards and Katrina McClain.

Those ABL players who signed with the WNBA but were not drafted last year will be distributed throughout the league by the WNBA office.

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No one will say why it has taken nearly two decades, but it appears that the Los Angeles Athletic Club probably will create a Wooden Award for women next season.

Sam Lagana, executive director of the LAAC’s Wooden Award, says sponsors and TV commitments are being lined up.

“We want to create an award program which will be the model for all women’s sports awards,” he said.

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UC Santa Barbara is 25-3 and has won 21 consecutive games, the nation’s longest winning streak. The ninth-ranked Gauchos have beaten USC, Oregon and Washington State and won at Illinois. In Naismith voting this month, Santa Barbara’s Mark French is on the ballot for coach of the year. . . . Cal Poly Pomona is 24-2, has won 15 in a row and figures to host the NCAA Division II West Regional March 9-11.