Spend enough time around Dana Altman, in the Oregon men’s locker room, or at the press conferences and you’ll soon realize there are a few details he constantly harpes on. Aspects of basketball he hopes to inject into each iteration of the Oregon men’s basketball team, ones the head coach in his 13th year believes directly affect winning and, when absent, correlate to losing.
Take the Ducks’ loss against Arizona State for example.
“We didn’t have a deflection for the first nine minutes of the game,” Altman said following the game. “We got beat on the boards; that shows our inactivity.”
See, if it were up to Altman, that’s what basketball would come down to, rebounds and deflections. Defensive activity.
But it’s not that simple. Especially in 2023, when Oregon’s (15-13, 9-8) everlasting issues — which were present in its 68-65 loss to Washington State (13-15, 8-9) — go much deeper than their lack of hustle on defense.
On Sunday, it became glaringly clear that the same timidness that defined Oregon’s loss to Washington on Wednesday would be its downfall yet again. Apart from guard Keeshawn Barthelemy, who led the team with 17 points, not one Duck appeared willing to create his own shot.
Barthelemy willed the Ducks back from the 53-43 deficit they faced with 9:27 remaining. It was a 12-3 run, highlighted by two off-the-dribble floaters where the Colorado transfer slinked into the lane around Cougars’ defenders to find the bottom of the net. Barthelemy then hit a catch-and-shoot three off an offensive rebound from center N’Faly Dante.
The score sat at 56-55 with 6:30 to go. Credit to guard Will Richarson, who once again played deferential, but fed Barthelemy as he recognized his teammate had the hot hand.
The Ducks’ shot creation problem worsened when Richardson appeared to be holding his left wrist — his shooting hand — and was forced out of the game during its most crucial stretch. For all his scoring woes, with him on the bench, Oregon’s offense lacked direction at a time when it was vital, and they failed to find Barthelemy with the same urgency.
Instead they forced shot after shot.
Soares overpowered an eight-foot floater. Guard Jermaine Couisnard took on three defenders and attempted a wayward fast-break layup. Forward Quincy Guerrier’s step-back three toileted out.
Despite getting three defensive stops, the Ducks offense couldn’t capitalize. Barthelemy, again, gave them a final chance knocking down a heavily contested step-back three, but eerily similar to Wednesday, nobody wanted to take onus on the final possession.
After a slew of fouls from the Cougars, who had three to give, halted the flow of the game, Couisnard air-balled a three and the Ducks lost.
If any ill-informed doubts remained regarding the fate of this team, throw them out the window. To make the NCAA Tournament, the Ducks already had to win the Pac-12 Tournament.
That meant Sunday’s bout against Washington State, and their following three games, could act as a runway for Las Vegas. Gain some momentum, and who knows?
Hey, just a month ago this Ducks team beat No. 4 Arizona 87-68.
But that win was just an oasis. There’s no arguing, this is not one of Altman’s team that has bought into his philosophy regarding defensive activity that he tries to preach to each new group, one that recent alums such as Chris Duarte, Payton Pritchard and Eugene Omoruyi embodied. Seemingly their younger teammates Richardson and Dante didn’t receive the message.
When the former made his decision to return to Oregon for his fifth year it was in hopes of righting an erratic ship, a 20-15 season laden with the same problems still evident today, which came to a crashing close with a blowout loss to Texas A&M in the National Invitation Tournament.
“I feel like last year, we didn’t play hard enough, we weren’t together enough, so we’re big on that this year,” Richardson said.
Then he added: “I feel good. It’s just fun to be out here and have another chance to do it. A lot of people don’t get an extra opportunity to do it.”
Well, that opportunity, one that consists of new faces surrounding Richardson and Dante has run its course and is headed for a similar conclusion thanks to the same problems that hindered it last year.
The Ducks will travel to Corvallis to face in-state rival Oregon State on Saturday, Feb. 25 at 7 pm.