The idea that the Oregon men’s basketball team would be sitting in the beginning of March with a 22-8 record and 12-5 showing in Pac-12 play didn’t quite cross head coach Dana Altman’s mind. Oregon is most likely headed to this year’s NCAA tournament, barring any major slipups, and it’s playing some of its best basketball. There was a big question mark looming over its heads before the start of the season. Now, with its final regular season game and Civil War matchup coming Wednesday night in Corvallis, the Ducks are in the position to make an unexpected run and meet their initial team goals.
Here are Altman’s comments from Tuesday’s practice:
Thoughts on the Beavers?
Well, they’ve done a great job at home. Just been a really good basketball team in whole. Numbers are good, defensively, on the boards, they’re just a different team. 15-1 (at home), big win over Arizona, so we’ll have to play well as we’ve played in any ball game to win over there.
How important is it to just keep momentum going?
It’s always important. You want to continue to play well, you want to continue to make progress, and this is a time of year where you hope you’re still continuing to get better. So, it’s a big game for us.
Last time you guys played these guys it was the first conference game of the season. Just where are you guys at with that book ending in terms of what you were expecting?
We still don’t know how it’s going to play out, but the guys have made tremendous progress and I watched that film. It feels like a long time ago when we played them. Watched that film Monday and we’ve come a long way. I’m sure Wayne (Tinkle) feels the same way about their team (Beavers), and so it will be two different teams that played early in January. There’s just no doubt – look at their stats and you look at their record home and road – they’re a different team over there (Corvallis). I think the guys will be ready for that, but we’re still going to have to produce.
Was there anything specific that popped out while watching that tape?
Not really. A lot of the things we’re doing in that game, we’re going to have to do as well or better, but there wasn’t really anything that stuck out. We have just gradually gotten better and hopefully we’ll be able to continue that here in the last couple weeks of the season.
Follow Hayden Kim on Twitter @HayDayKim