Oregon Women's Coach Paul Westhead Working to Get His Ducks in a Row

Paul Westhead spent 18 years coaching college basketball, making stops at La Salle, Loyola Marymount and George Mason. But for the first time in his long basketball life, he said he feels like he's coaching in a true college town.

Westhead is embracing life in Eugene, Oregon, the single-mindedness of its residents when it comes to green and yellow, football Saturdays at Autzen Stadium, and the fact that he's got a ready-made base of rabid fans just waiting for him to turn the Oregon women's basketball program into a winner again.

"I'm doing morning coffee talks with fans, radio shows, they are itching," Westhead said. "This is a whole new world for me. Especially with football. In all of my jobs, I've never been in a program with a football program. It really changes the feeling around campus. Everybody in this town is all about the U of O."

That feeling of change is something Westhead is trying to instill on the team. The Ducks are running, hard and fast every day at practice, implementing Westhead's trademark fast-break system, trying to catch up to success.

Oregon had long been one of the Pac-10's top-tier programs with a regular runs at the NCAA field and strong fan support. But it's been a rough few years for the Ducks, who have finished in the upper half of the conference standings (a tie for second in 2004-05) just once in the last eight years.

Oregon went to the NCAA Tournament every year from 1994-2001 and only once since. Last year's 9-21 mark set a school record for losses. Home crowds at Mac Court have declined precipitously in conjunction with the team's competitive decline.

And so the 70-year-old Westhead took the first women's college coaching job of his career as a replacement for Bev Smith, who was let go after eight seasons.

Westhead is the only coach to have titles in the NBA and WNBA, the latter with the Phoenix Mercury two years ago. He's being paid commensurate -- a reported $3 million over five years with an agreement that he's only required to spend nine months a year in Eugene -- with his long track record of success.

In late-March, when Westhead was hired, Oregon athletic director Pat Kilkenny said he hoped that Westhead's up-tempo system would sell tickets as well as win games. But first he has to teach it to a group of players he didn't recruit.

The returning Oregon players are adapting to fit the system.

"Of the dozen or so players we have, my sense is, whether they are a good fit or not, they are really working to be a fit," Westhead said. "More power to them. Maybe we don't have 12 players who are ideal fast-break players, but we have a dozen players who want to do it."

Senior forward Michaela Cocks said the players are "on the bandwagon", enjoying a system that is opening up their offensive skills and getting them in the best shape of their careers.

"I'm loving it and I know the other players are loving it," Cocks said. "It's just a really good feeling out there. Coach Westhead has made the system very simple ... it's not complicated. The girls are responding really well, conditioning, putting up extra shots.

"There are quite a few of us juniors and seniors who have come from losing seasons and it's not fun," Cocks said. "We understand that we have to change this, and just listening is not enough, we have to believe in it."

Cocks said that no one has said "this isn't the system for me."

"We can change. We are going to go out and do what he needs," Cocks said. "It's not like it's easy, but you don't get results doing things that are easy, and people are starting to see that."

Oregon was the lowest-scoring team in the Pac-10 last season, averaging less than 57 points a game. Westhead's offense almost assuredly will change that.

"I'd be shocked if we didn't score bunches, but notice I didn't say win bunches," Westhead said. "But we are definitely going to increase the energy level."