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M.A. VoepelESPN.com
- M.A. Voepel covers the WNBA, women's assemblage basketball, and different assemblage sports for espnW. Voepel began covering women's hoops successful 1984, and has been with ESPN since 1996.
New York Liberty defender Sabrina Ionescu, the No. 1 prime successful the 2020 WNBA draft, has taken an offseason occupation with her alma mater, the Oregon Ducks, arsenic manager of diversion culture.
Ducks women's hoops manager Kelly Graves announced the part-time unit presumption Friday. He said Ionescu volition assistance with student-athlete improvement and cultivate Graves' 5 pillars: passion, integrity, unity, thankfulness and servanthood.
"Sabrina exemplifies what it means to beryllium an Oregon Duck and she represents everything our programme is about," Graves said of Ionescu, who acceptable an NCAA grounds with 26 triple-doubles astatine Oregon. "Even successful conscionable a part-time capacity, she volition person the quality to marque an contiguous interaction connected our student-athletes and our programme arsenic a whole. She genuinely is simply a hoops icon that volition beryllium capable to link and make our players disconnected the court."
Ionescu led the Ducks to the women's Final Four successful 2019, and Oregon won the 2020 Pac-12 tourney and was favored to marque a instrumentality travel to the Final Four earlier the NCAA tourney was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic. Ionescu is the lone subordinate successful NCAA past with astatine slightest 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 1,000 assists successful her assemblage career.
She missed astir of her WNBA rookie play successful 2020 aft suffering a terrible ankle wounded successful her 3rd game. Ionescu averaged 11.7 points and 6.1 assists successful 2021, and she was an All-Star and second-team All-WNBA enactment this past season, averaging 17.4 points, 7.1 rebounds and 6.3 assists.
"As a kid increasing up successful the game, my household helped maine make my passionateness for hoops and each the values it rewards," Ionescu said. "When I arrived astatine Oregon, I joined a caller household that embraced those aforesaid values and helped maine turn adjacent much arsenic a subordinate and arsenic a person. Part of my bosom remains successful Eugene, and I look guardant to cultivating the aforesaid household ambiance for aboriginal Ducks successful the Oregon women's hoops program."
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