The Oregon men’s basketball team already had a stiff challenge in front of it Wednesday in Salt Lake City against the University of Utah.
Then the news came out at practice Monday that Oregon freshman center Michael Dunigan is questionable for the game with a hyper-extended right elbow. Oregon coach Ernie Kent didn’t rule Dunigan out, but characterized his condition as “day-to-day.”
The only other center on the roster is senior Frantz Dorsainvil, who is out for at least eight weeks with a broken bone in his right hand, Kent said.
The problem these injuries present for the Ducks is indeed a “big” one, as this Utah squad, which returns all five starters from last season, is led by 7-foot-2 senior center Luke Nevill.
“We gotta go play,” Kent said. “It’s an opportunity for some other guys to step up in the rotation. Josh Crittle, obviously, is going to need to play some very valuable minutes with us and Drew Wiley, too, steps into that rotation.”
The sword has two edges though, said Kent, and the Ducks’ smaller lineup might present problems for Utah on the other end of the floor.
“Obviously it’s a big concern. That’s where Josh Crittle is going to need to do a good job for us,” he said. “The other side of that is, you’ve got to remember, they’ve got to guard us on the other end and that 7-foot-2 guy has got to come out and guard us.”
Nevill led the Utes last season in scoring with 15.2 ppg and rebounding with 6.7 rpg and would have been another great test for young Dunigan in the Ducks’ tough non-conference schedule. Despite a lopsided 98-69 final score against North Carolina last week at the Maui Invitational, Dunigan more than held his own against senior Tyler Hansbrough, notching 18 points, seven rebounds and two steals in the game. Hansbrough managed just 16 points (12 on free throws) and four rebounds.
Dunigan leads the Ducks for the season in scoring at 14.0 ppg and in field goal percentage at 57.6 percent. He is second to junior forward Joevan Catron (8.7 rpg) in rebounding at 7.0 rpg.
“Big Mike, I thought he was one of the more dominant big men over there,” Kent said. “For a freshman, that’s obviously saying a lot with that crew of big guys that were over there.”
In his absence, Kent hopes to get better shots out of the rest of the team, specifically from junior guard Tajuan Porter, who has the worst shooting percentage of any active Duck at 31.0 percent overall, 33.3 percent from three-point range.
Kent said that at times, frustration has caused Porter’s poor shot selection.
“I think he’s frustrated a little bit, but a lot of that is running an offense with so many young guys, that’s what it is,” Kent said. “We get really stagnant at times.”
Kent had been hopeful at the start of practices that the team would develop quickly on the offensive end, but that hasn’t happened so far.
“That’s going to be, as I’m sensing now, the last thing to come,” Kent said. “You’ve got to realize that we’ve been a pretty good offensive team over the last three or four years and we’re going to take a step back from that right now and be a really good defensive team until that offense comes.”
That defensive emphasis may come as a surprise to fans used to the fast-paced, high-flying style of recent seasons, but Kent said tight defense will be a crucial part of the team’s identity this year. That identity surfaced in Maui last week, he said.
“The thing that we got out of (the trip) was, I definitely think, defensively, we came up with who we want to be,” Kent said. “We came up with our identity and that is a pressing, aggressive basketball team.”
Oregon returns home to McArthur Court on Sunday to take on Kansas State at 5:30 p.m.
[email protected]