Dan Lanning rocks Sabrina Ionescu hoodie in press conference

Oregon head coach Dan Lanning wore a Sabrina Ionescu sweatshirt to his Monday press conference. The outfit comes a day after Ionescu and the New York Liberty won Game 3 of the WNBA Finals.

The Ducks are coming off their first loss of the season, a devastating 36-33 road loss to rival Washington.

Ionescu is one of the most successful Ducks athletes in recent years. The guard was drafted No. 1 overall in the 2020 WNBA Draft and is playing in her first WNBA Finals this year.

Dan Lanning in a @sabrina_i20 sweatshirt for his weekly press conference tonight. #GoDucks pic.twitter.com/rTvVC0iJtC

— Rob Moseley (@DuckFootball) October 17, 2023

However, she has struggled in the WNBA Finals against the Las Vegas Aces, the defending champions. She is averaging just 8.7 points per game over the first three games of the series, which the Liberty are trailing 2-1.

Ionescu averaged 17.0 points. 5.6 rebounds and 5.4 assists during the regular season as she earned second-team All-WNBA honors for the second straight year.

The Liberty won the game, 87-73, behind 27 points and eight rebounds from Jonquel Jones and 20 points and 12 rebounds from Breanna Stewart. Game 4 of the WNBA Finals will take place Wednesday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

New York also has former Oregon forward Nyara Sabally. She has played five minutes over the first three games of the series.

Oregon is playing Washington State, which is coming off an brutal loss to Arizona. The Ducks have won four straight games over the Cougars.

“Obviously a tough battle on Saturday,” Lanning said for his opening statement at the press conference. “I got an opportunity to come back, really look through the film closely and one thing you can say is our guys played with phenomenal effort in one of the toughest and most unique college football games that I’ve ever had an opportunity to be a part of. I know our players played with great effort, like I said, throughout the game and they came up a little bit short. We came up a little bit short in that game, but credit to them and the way they performed.

“But we are certainly excited about this week going against Washington State. A good team that’s been really explosive on offense, took us everything we had last year to be able to go battle and compete against these guys, and know that they’ll put a great product on the field that we can go compete with this next Saturday.”