UO women resting easy after securing top talent.

Byline: BOB RODMAN The Register-Guard

Six months ago, there might have been good reason for a kind of nervous condition enveloping the recruiting department of the Oregon women's basketball program.

The Ducks signed no one to a national letter of intent during the early signing period, a weeklong stretch in November. Two years earlier, Oregon had signed only one player - Cathrine Kraayeveld.

Sandwiched between the signing shortages, however, was a class of six athletes that was considered by those who consider such things as one of the top recruiting classes in the country.

"There was some anxiety," admitted Bev Smith, the UO coach who had been on the job just five months before the November signing drought struck the Ducks. "The game depends on getting quality people in your program. We were a little anxious."

That anxiety has been considerably alleviated with the acquisition of five players this spring - three transfers and two Canadian high school athletes.

Two of the players - former Springfield High School star Chelsea Wagner, a 5-foot-10 guard who is transferring from Hawaii, and Corrie Mizusawa, a 5-8 point guard who is transferring from Saint Mary's College in Moraga, Calif. - must sit out the 2002-03 season before becoming eligible for the following season.

A third transfer, 5-8 guard Kayla Steen from Clackamas Community College in Oregon City, is eligible for the 2002-03 season, as are Canadian high school stars Carolyn Ganes of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, a 6-3 post, and Yadili Okwumabua of Winnipeg, Manitoba, a 6-2 forward.

"It was just a matter of six months," Smith said of the signing gap for the Ducks. "We felt good about the people we were pursuing, and we did not panic. We got the people that we wanted, and who wanted us."

Dan Muscatell, an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator, said that "though we signed no one in the fall, we were recruiting the right people to take care of our immediate needs as well as our needs in the future."

Explained Smith, "We will need a point guard after Shaquala (Williams, a senior-to-be and three-time all-Pac-10 Conference player) and Alissa (senior-to-be Edwards) leave. Corrie has Division I experience.

"Kayla brings that outside shooting game," Smith said. "She can shoot from the three-point line (last season Steen shot 49 percent from long range, 89-of-183). Chelsea will bring experience."

And the two of them will be joined by 6-foot guard Brandi Davis, who sat out last season as a freshman partial qualifier but is expected to play a major role for the Ducks next season.

"Scoring-wise, the two freshmen (Ganes and Okwumabua) have a lot of promise to go with Shaq, Andrea (Bills, a sophomore-to-be) and Cathrine on the block," Smith said.

"It is a credit to the program and coaches," Muscatell said, "that we could get someone who had been recruited before by us but not taken (Wagner), someone who saw the program and liked the style of play (Mizusawa), someone who could be the first from the NWAACC to sign with Oregon (Steen) and two Canadian players who want to continue their careers at Oregon."

"This is a very good class," said Smith, who led the Ducks to a 22-13 record and the Women's National Invitation Tournament championship in her first season as coach. "We are going to get better. These are quality young women.

"All of them are going to contribute to us being a better team, and that must happen in practice before it happens in games. We are going to be more competitive in practice and challenge each other."

Did the success of Oregon's season impact the program's recruiting this spring?

"I'm not sure," Smith said, "but it did help give more exposure to the program, and I think more people see us on the radar screen now. There were a lot of questions about how we'd do and how things would go around here."