Oregon senior guard Sabrina Ionescu made her first public comments Monday afternoon on Instagram regarding the cancellation of the women's NCAA tournament and the sudden end to her college basketball career.
"This year has been the toughest year of my life, and I wasn't expecting to have to end my senior year like this," Ionescu captioned a black-and-white photograph of herself. "Very saddened but wholeheartedly understand. To my teammates, coaches, fans, and the University of Oregon, thank you for providing me with the best 4 years of my life."
Ionescu had a great deal of success on the court this season, leading the Ducks to a 31-2 record and the Pac-12 regular-season and tournament titles. Oregon would have been an NCAA No. 1 seed in the nearby Portland Regional.
Ionescu passed the 2,000-point, 1,000-rebound, 1,000 assist plateau -- finishing with 2,562 points, 1,040 rebounds and 1,091 assists -- which no college player, men's or women's, had achieved. She also finished with an NCAA-record 26 triple-doubles.
She hit the 2K/1K/1K milestone with the last of her triple-doubles on Feb. 24 in a victory at Stanford; earlier that day in Los Angeles, she eulogized her friend and idol, Kobe Bryant, and his daughter Gianna, who died in a helicopter crash with seven others on Jan. 26.
The Ducks played the day of the accident, winning at Oregon State. Ionescu was in tears before the game. She said then she was dedicating the season to Bryant and hoped to win Oregon's first national championship in women's basketball.
Ionescu was draft-eligible last year as a junior because she turned 22 in 2019, and she could have declared for the WNBA draft then and likely been the No. 1 pick. But with the Ducks coming off a national semifinal loss to Baylor in Oregon's first Women's Final Four, Ionescu opted to return to Eugene to take another run at an NCAA title.
She finished her Instagram message referencing that, saying, "Although our unfinished business will remain just that, I have been blessed to be a part of this journey. Thank you for all the memories, that I will forever hold close to my heart. DUCK NATION, THANK YOU!! 20, out."
Ionescu is expected to be the No. 1 pick in this year's WNBA draft, which is scheduled for April 17. At this point, the league has not announced if that date will change, considering the NBA is currently shut down and might not return until June.
The WNBA season was scheduled to start May 15.