The Oregon Ducks defeated the California Golden Bears 80-73 to stay unbeaten in Pac-12 conference play. However, the story of the game was the return of N’Faly Dante after the former First Team All-Pac-12 center missed 14 straight games. Prior to this contest, Dante had played in just the season-opener for the Ducks against the Georgia Bulldogs where he had a dominant 16 points and 21 rebounds while suffering a knee injury that required surgery to fix.

Dante wasted no time in making his presence known in his return. He had a massive dunk on his first offensive possession, then followed that up with a layup on his second. However, much of the rest of his time during the first half was characterized by looking a step slow. He allowed a couple baskets, either by not playing up on a jump shooter, or by not stepping up during a pick-and-roll.

“Obviously his conditioning is not very good,” Dana Altman, head coach of the Ducks, said about Dante’s debut. “But I thought defensively there late, he really did a good job.”

Late in the contest, Dante played seven minutes straight to end the game. He played just 17 minutes total, and prior to the final minutes, had not had a stint of longer than a couple minutes at a time. His defense was pivotal late in the game as Oregon was able to hold off Cal to secure the comeback win.

There were times where the offense looked clunky with Dante on the floor. The struggle to reintegrate a major part of the offense into a team that had found success as a unit in Dante’s absence was apparent. Dante forced some shots, he finished just 3-8 from the field, had three fouls and was only able to grab two rebounds in the game.

“I think we as a team, we’re still figuring it out,” Jadrian Tracey, a forward on the Ducks, said about reintegrating Dante. “We’re going to figure it out. He’s a very good piece coming in to add for us. We’re going to figure it out and we’re going to keep getting better.”

In addition to Dante missing time, Nate Bittle, another starting big man for the Ducks, has also missed the last 12 games. The ability of the Ducks to not only survive long-term injuries to some of their best players, but thrive under poor conditions is a testament to the depth that this team boasts. In Dante’s 14 game absence Oregon went 11-3, including a 4-0 start to Pac-12 conference play.

In this game, the Ducks outscored Cal in bench points 39-11. The bench was led in scoring by the 14 points of Tracey and the 12 points of Keeshawn Barthelemy. Both played heavy minutes in the game and were productive during their time on the floor. Kario Oquendo had one of his worst shooting nights from the field in the game, but has been an integral part of the second unit so far this season. Mahamadou Diawara, who has been starting but will likely move back to the bench with Dante’s return, played very well in his time on the floor.

“We have starters, we have seven, eight, nine starters who can go out there and play big minutes,” Tracey said about the depth. “It can be anybody’s night to step up.”

The team has seemed to take on a next man up mentality. The bench is meant to act as a second group of starters, not just complementary pieces. Kwame Evans Jr. and Jackson Shelstad both found themselves in foul trouble early, but Tracey and Barthelemy were able to slot in and easily take over in their place.

“It’s sometimes me, sometimes you, always us,” Tracey said. “Whatever dude’s night it is to come in and be that spark for us, then let that be. Really we just want to keep winning, keep getting better.”