Sophomore guard Chrishae Rowe, the team’s leading scorer from last season, has been dismissed from the Oregon women’s basketball team for a violation of team rules, first-year head coach Kelly Graves announced Friday.
“Our mission is to create something great here at the University of Oregon and our players need to buy in to all aspects of that mission,” Graves said in a release Friday afternoon. “Our team culture, long-term, is more important than wins and losses short-term.”
When reached by phone Friday night, Graves confirmed that Rowe is still enrolled and on athletic-scholarship at the University. He didn’t know of her plans beyond fall quarter, which concludes in December.
“We’re trying to establish a culture here, the kind of culture that we use to build a successful program, and she was just doing some things that wouldn’t allow for that to happen and so I just thought it was best for both parties,” Graves said Friday night.
Graves was unable to address the violation of team rules directly.
“I really can’t really say. It doesn’t really matter,” Graves said. “You can talk to her. We have a certain list of things that we don’t allow and when people don’t adhere to those, then choices and decisions have to be made. That’s what we made today.”
The native of Corona, Calif. led the Ducks in scoring in 2013-2014, averaging 21.6 points per game while playing in 32 games last season. Rowe set the Oregon record for most points scored in the game against Seattle University on Dec. 4 with 41. Her 690 points last season was just four shy of breaking the Oregon single-season scoring record of 693, set by Alison Lang in 1982-83.
“There’s no question that it’s going to affect us on the court,” Graves said. “She’s a great player and I thought she was making strides in a lot of different ways for us, and what we were expecting of her on the court. I really do. I saw her improving and so, yeah. You take 21-and-a-half, 22 points out of your lineup, that’s significant, especially when she’s been practicing for a few months with us. But again, I thought it was best for the program, which is all that matters, is our basketball program.”
She led the NCAA in scoring among freshmen last season and was a member of the Pac-12 all-freshmen team in both the coaches and media polls.
“I’m expecting and hoping that all of our players—no single player can take her place,” Graves said. “We just don’t have that. But collectively, I’m hoping that we all step our games up just a little bit, including the coaches, and we all take a piece of it and make it work best we can.”
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