Ducks Digest

Sabrina Ionescu Named College GameDay Guest Picker for Oregon vs. UCLA Showdown

The former Oregon Women's Basketball star will be back in Eugene for this weekend's festivities.

Graham Metzker

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ESPN's College GameDay has already started unloading their equipment on the University of Oregon campus in preparation for the showdown between the No. 10 Ducks and the No. 9 UCLA Bruins.

The next step of the prep? Naming a famous guest picker from the host school to come on the show and try to convince Lee Corso to throw on their school's mascot headgear.

For the Ducks, it will be Oregon Women's Basketball legend and WNBA All-Star Sabrina Ionescu sitting at the College GameDay desk.

Ionescu was an easy and excellent pick by the GameDay crew. Along with former Ducks' and current Chargers' quarterback Justin Herbert, Ionescu represents the new, gold standard of Oregon athletes.

And her resumé can best just about any Oregon basketball player's -- men's or women's teams. 

Ionescu is the only NCAA Division 1 basketball player, male or female, with 2,000 points, 1,000 assists and 1,000 rebounds. She also leads all men's or women's players in career triple-doubles with 26, destroying the previous record of 12. She is Oregon's all-time leader in all the important categories: points, assists, three-point field goals and double-figure scoring games (134).

Outside of the stats, Ionescu captivated the city of Eugene. She demanded Nike release her jerseys in the Duck Store for fans to buy, something that was rare for a female athlete at the time. Nike concurred, and the #20 Ionescu jerseys sold out in less than two hours.

Since her time in Eugene, Ionescu was selected first overall in the 2020 WNBA Draft by the New York Liberty. In her third season, Ionsecu made her All-Star and playoff debuts.

Ionsecu has by no means been a stranger to Eugene since her departure in 2020 -- she's appeared at various Oregon football and basketball games. But the Duck faithful will still have the warmest of welcomes for her come Saturday morning.

READ MORE: Five UCLA players to watch vs. Oregon

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Graham Metzker
GRAHAM METZKER

Graham Metzker is a junior at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication. Hailing from Long Beach, California, Graham is also a reporter for DuckTV covering news and sports.

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