Social media erupted with reactions to Chance Gray’s announcement. Some samples:
“So cool to have u join the Duck family! Welcome! #goducks”
“Congratulations!! Amazing talent on & off the Court. Sky is the Limit for you. Can’t wait to watch you light it up on the West Coast. Blessings moving forward.”
“Welcome! I will be at Matt Court to watch you. Great decision — you’ll love the team, Kelly and Eugene. Yay!”
Kelly Graves is Oregon’s coach. The university is located in Eugene. Matt Court is Matthew Knight Arena, the Ducks home court.
“Welcome to the team,” Tweeted current Oregon forward Sedona Prince. “Hope you’re ready for Tik Toks and throwing lobs.”
#home💚 pic.twitter.com/fuenlsGVu9
— chance gray (@chancegrayy) August 1, 2021
The 5-foot-9 Gray was named to the Division I All-Ohio first-team in 2021 and won the Greater Miami Conference Girls Basketball Athlete of the Year award for the second straight year. She lead the GMC in scoring (25.0 points per game) and assists (3.7). Lakota West finished 20-5 overall and 13-3 in the GMC.
Gray ranks seventh in the 2022 class, according to ESPN.com, and she’s the nation’s No. 2 point guard in her class. She reportedly also considered scholarship offers from North Carolina, Ohio State, Arizona, Michigan State, Michigan, Maryland, Mississippi State and UCLA during the recruiting process.
“Five-star point guard Chance Gray of Hamilton (Ohio) just announced on Instagram that she’s committing to Oregon,” wrote Eric Skopil, an Oregon beat writer for 247Sports.com, on Twitter. “The No. 7 player in the country in 2022. She becomes the second highest-rated recruit to pick the Ducks behind Sabrina Ionescu in 2017.”
Ionescu was an Oregon guard who finished her career as the only men’s or women’s player in NCAA Division I history to log career statistics of at least 2,000 points, 1,000 assists and 1,000 rebounds. She is the all-time NCAA leader in career triple-doubles and the all-time Pac-12 leader in career assists,
The Ducks finished 15-9 overall and 10-7 in the conference last season, one year after going 31-2 overall and 17-1 in the Pac-12 during a season cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. They reached the 2019 NCAA Women’s Final Four.
Gray joins a Winton Woods team that finished 6-11 overall and 3-10 during its first season in the Eastern Cincinnati Conference. She will join her dad, the former Lakota West defensive coordinator and girls basketball assistant coach who was named earlier this summer as the girls basketball coach and football defensive coordinator at his alma mater under new coach Chad Murphy.
Amber Gray, a former Lakota West star who played collegiately at Tennessee and Xavier and professionally overseas, also is leaving Lakota West to help her dad at Winton Woods. Amber Gray joined her younger sister in making the Oregon announcement.
Carlton Gray is a 1989 Forest Park graduate who played defensive back at UCLA through 1992 before playing in the National Football League with Seattle, the Colts, the Giants and the Seahawks. He has been inducted into the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame.
“Thank you to the class that UCLA showed when Chance communicated with them what her decision was,” Carlton Gray Tweeted. “Not many understand the stress these young girls experience when having to make a tough choice between two great fits. The words from these coaches means so much to me.”
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