By most measures, this was a great season for the Oregon men’s basketball team.
Twenty-two wins, single digits in the loss column for the first time since the Vietnam War ended (or: 2006-07, depending on how long these last few years have felt to you), an National Invitation Tournament berth that, while not optimal, is certainly a step up after last year’s College Basketball Invitational win — all signs of progress for a program that seemed dead in the water not even three years ago. @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205396498@@ @@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?SPSID=4294&SPID=235&DB_OEM_ID=500&KEY=&Q_SEASON=2010@@ @@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?SPSID=4294&SPID=235&DB_OEM_ID=500&KEY=&Q_SEASON=2006@@
As we sulk about a blown chance at the Big Dance, it’s easy to forget that Oregon went 8-23 in 2008-09 and fans really did rush the court to celebrate a completely meaningless Pac-10 victory over Stanford. A mere four years ago, Oregon was where USC is now, albeit with a slightly less atrocious record (seriously — go look up the Trojans’ 2011-12 finish. I have to blink about five times every time I look at it, just to be sure I’m not hallucinating. Somewhere, Tim Floyd roars with laughter). If you would have told me back when I was suffering through a freshman year of “basketball” that Oregon would literally reverse the numbers in its win-loss column by my senior year, I’d have been elated. @@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?SPSID=4294&SPID=235&DB_OEM_ID=500&KEY=&Q_SEASON=2008@@ @@http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/team/_/id/30/usc-trojans@@
So, yes, it’s been a great year. As late fall turned to winter and, now, the dawn of spring, we’ve watched Garrett Sim miraculously evolve into a swaggering, clutch sharpshooter. We’ve seen transfer Devoe Joseph step in seamlessly to become the go-to scoring guard Jabari Brown was supposed to be, fawning all the while at his textbook shooting form (Pac-12 Tournament aside — and hey, everyone has a bad game). We’ve laughed in awe every time Olu Ashaolu introduced an opponent’s face to his crotch, and looked on in playful horror as E.J. Singler’s hair slowly evolved from “half mullet” to “full mullet” and, finally, “Sasha Vujacic.”
“Glue” guys like Carlos Emory, Tony Woods, Johnathan Loyd and Tyrone Nared fit perfectly into their roles, and for the first time in awhile, Oregon felt like a real team.
This is the present, and the present is nice. Should Oregon beat LSU Tuesday at home and make an extended run in the NIT, a successful season would be made all the better.
The future? That’s much less certain.
Consider that Sim, Joseph and Ashaolu — who combined to average 37.3 of Oregon’s 72.2 points per game on a collective 50 percent shooting in 2011-12 — will all be gone next season. Nared, though considerably less effective this year than he was in his junior season, is another key energy guy set to graduate. Ditto to Jeremy Jacob. In all, Oregon’s core next season will consist of Singler, Emory and Woods — a senior trio that will struggle to replicate what Sim, Joseph and Ashaolu did. Loyd will likely start at point guard, and though he’s shown flashes of brilliance, it’s still unclear whether he can be an effective floor general for a top-flight Pac-12 team. @@http://www.pac-12.org/portals/7/images/MBasketball/2011-12-stats/HTML/ORE.HTM@@
We haven’t heard much about Brown since he suddenly and mysteriously departed back in late November, with fellow freshman Bruce Barron following in his wake. As soon as the pair of star recruits left town, they effectively fell off the radar in Eugene, and with good reason. As Dana Altman says, you play with the guys you’ve got — the players who want to compete.
It helped that Joseph filled Brown’s role perfectly, and more capably than a true freshman ever could have managed. We barely knew Jabari — I never even got to see him play in person before he left — and so it wasn’t much of an adjustment to watch him leave for the great state of Missouri. @@http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/7370169/mom-says-jabari-brown-formerly-oregon-ducks-transferring-missouri-tigers@@
But Brown and Barron weren’t brought in for this season. They were supposed to be the future, the crutch to hold the program up after yet another senior exodus. Now that they’ve gone, Altman will be forced to fill the gaps with a roster that’s far from complete.
Help could come from the 2012 recruiting class, but as of Monday that included just three players. The most highly-touted of those prospects is point guard Dominic Artis — ranked eighth in the nation at his position by ESPN — but realistically, it’s hard to imagine that he’ll be able to make an impact right off the bat. @@http://espn.go.com/college-sports/basketball/recruiting/player/_/id/67266/dominic-artis@@
Altman has made a habit of bringing in transfer students or graduates with an extra year of eligibility — see: Ashaolu, Joseph, Woods and Jay-R Strowbridge last year — and maybe he’ll be able to work his magic again. But as of right now, the immediate future for Oregon remains murky at best.
This is the harsh reality of life on the bubble. The Ducks fell just outside of it this year, but it could pop altogether next year.