There were no excuses being made Tuesday afternoon as the Oregon men’s basketball team attempted to move on from its debacle against Arizona State.
The Ducks had Monday off, but returned to McArthur Court Tuesday for practice, and faced the inevitable questions about their shocking 99-72 loss to the Sun Devils.
“It was an embarrassment,” freshman point guard Luke Ridnour said. “It shouldn’t have happened, especially at home. It was unbelievable for us to play so well against Arizona and then come out and play so terrible against Arizona State. We got out-played in every aspect of the game.
“Now, we just have to try to forget about it.”
The game film of Sunday’s ASU loss might as well be thrown out, as it contained the type of footage that no Oregon player should have to live through again.
But the tape of last Thursday’s 79-67 victory against then-No. 7 Arizona should be kept and preserved. In that game, the Ducks played about as well as they could have and won it with heads-up defense and togetherness.
“It was the extremes of basketball,” said junior center Chris Christoffersen, who is expected to return to full-time duty this week after missing most of Sunday’s game with a jammed right thumb. “Going from beating the number seven team in the country to losing to one of the worst teams in the Pac-10 by 30. It was crazy.”
Senior center Flo Hartenstein added, “It’s frustrating to lose like we did. We played a horrible game and there is no excuse for that.”
Obviously, the Ducks (12-7 overall, 3-6 Pac-10) missed a golden opportunity to build off their Arizona win and jump into the NCAA Tournament picture. Even with the loss, though, a postseason appearance is still a strong possibility, although the NIT is the more realistic destination.
The talk Tuesday centered around the theme of a new beginning. After all, this is the halfway point in the Pac-10 season, and the Ducks will be facing teams they’ve played before.
“We’ve got nine games to go, and everybody has seen what we need to expect from each team,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said. “We should be able to make the necessary adjustments and play teams a lot tougher and smarter this time around.”
This new season of sorts begins at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Mac Court against No. 2 Stanford — the highest-ranked team to visit Eugene in 12 seasons.
“We need to understand that our backs are against the wall,” Kent said. “Typically, my teams have been pretty strong coming down the stretch, and we’re still playing for something because the postseason is still on the line for us. We just need to get some W’s.”
In Kent’s previous three seasons at Oregon, he has guided the Ducks to a combined 17-10 record in the second half of the Pac-10 schedule, including 6-3 finishes the last two years.
Should Oregon end its season winning six out of nine games once more, it would find itself at 9-9 in the league, and with a total of 18 wins. That would appear to clinch an NIT berth and keep the Big Dance a remote possibility.
“We’re not giving up as a basketball team,” Christoffersen said. “We still have that bad feeling in our mouths and stomachs [from Sunday], but we need to remember that feeling, move on from that and never feel like that again.”
Note: Both Thursday’s game against Stanford and Saturday’s 3 p.m. contest versus California will be broadcast nationwide on Fox Sports Net. Sunday’s loss to Arizona State was also on national television.