EUGENE — Ruthy Hebard sat for only two minutes at the start of a game early in her sophomore high school season. But that brief benching was enough time for her to learn a valuable lesson.
The rule at West Valley High in Fairbanks, Alaska, was simple: No practice, no play. And Hebard had not participated in the most recent workout.
Why did she sit out? Coach Jessie Craig said Hebard kept turning to “what Ruthy wanted to do,” rather than what worked best in the team’s system. Hebard’s assessment her behavior was even harsher: “I had some attitude,” she recalls more than three years later. “I was grumpy and had (bad) body language.”
It’s a time Hebard and Craig chuckle about today, because it was a clear pivot point in the 6-foot-4 post’s development from “just being an athletic kid to being a kid that was athletic but also coachable,” Craig said.
That mindset shift sparked a monster high school career and explosion on the recruiting trail, despite hailing from a state that is not exactly stacked with elite basketball talent.
And now it’s translated to a standout debut season for Oregon. As the Ducks continue their push for an NCAA Tournament berth Friday at Arizona and Sunday at No. 23 Arizona State, Hebard is averaging 14.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game while leading the Pac-12 in field-goal percentage at 64.3.
“We’re not surprised in that we knew she had a lot of potential,” Ducks coach Kelly Graves said of Hebard’s early success. “But it’s a lot to ask for a freshman this early on. It’s incredible what she’s doing.”
Fairbanks is located about 350 miles north of Anchorage and has a population of about 32,000, largely thanks to a nearby Army base and the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus. And it’s the type of community that bands together when the temperature plummets to 50 below zero and, thus, residents take pride in one another’s success.
Count Hebard as somebody the town embraced.
She possessed raw raw athleticism and was “taller than everybody” while playing in youth church leagues and in middle school. As as a high school freshman, Hebard starting working on post moves with Craig, who at the time was an assistant coach for the boys team at the crosstown school. Hebard then transferred to West Valley as a sophomore, before Craig was hired as the head girls head coach.
It was soon after that Hebard missed starting for the only time in 106 high school games. By the end of her high school career career, teammates and coaches? described Hebard as “bubbly” and “humble” and “never in a bad mood.”
An example of her popularity in her community? During a short break during a regional tournament game, young twin girls cruised over to the end of the bench to sit next to her like it was no big deal.
“She lights up a room,” said her club coach, Ryan Hales. “She was the center of attention when we had her.”
Hebard’s skills also kept blossoming. She’d overpower defenders inside, drive to the rim and step out and hit a three-pointer. She tallied 51 points and 32 rebounds in one game, and 11 blocks in another. After playing volleyball in the fall and running track in the spring, she’d spend practically the entire month of July traveling with her club team for tournaments in places like Oregon, Chicago, Phoenix and San Diego.
First came the letters from the smaller colleges, which made Hebard “so excited that anyone was noticing me.” Soon, Hales started getting “hounded” by coaches from major programs, while Hebard’s phone “blew up” after a dead period. By her senior season, she was a five-star recruit and top 50 national prospect.
Shortly after Graves arrived in Eugene, he pulled Hebard and her family into the Founders’ Club at Matthew Knight Arena to offer her one of the first scholarships that staff had extended at Oregon.
There were some natural ties, as Hebard has family in both Keizer and Spokane, where Graves previously coached at Gonzaga. She established a relationship with assistant Mark Campbell, who even missed a game against Washington State to travel to Alaska to visit Hebard. She felt comfortable joining a dynamite freshman class ranked as one of the best in the nation.
Some outsiders wondered, though, how Hebard’s game would translate at the Pac-12 level, given only one other team in the area boasted a player her size. Graves was even curious how Hebard would adapt. When she first arrived in Eugene, Hebard acknowledged she felt out of shape and small, and immediately hit the weight room.
But she’s thrived since stepping on the court. She’s feeding off the passing ability of guard combo Maite Cazorla and Sabrina Ionescu and in playing alongside fellow posts Mallory McGwire and Jacinta Vandenberg, two midrange shooters that defenders must close out on while Hebard is left free inside. Graves is most impressed with Hebard’s finishing ability and her defensive improvement, while Craig notices Hebard’s post moves are more refined after sometimes “cheating” as a high schooler because of her size advantage.
Last weekend’s Civil War — when Hebard went a combined 4 of 16 for 12 points over two games and fouled out of Sunday’s loss — shows she still has plenty of room to grow. She’s working on her outside shot, passing the ball out of double teams in the paint and not traveling when she drives.
But Hebard’s early impact is a big reason why Oregon is challenging for an NCAA Tournament berth. And Fairbanks continues to follow from afar.
Quite the journey from that game early in Hebard’s sophomore high school season, when she spent the first couple minutes on the bench.
— Gina Mizell | @ginamizell
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