If there’s one recent subject that gets Oregon coach Ernie Kent especially excited, it’s talk of defense.
More specifically, how well his team has played defensively in the latter stages of this season – the best he’s seen during his tenure, the 10-year coach said.
“It’s just kind of been building, building, building and we’re just getting better, better and better,” said Kent, whose team prepares to take on Miami (Ohio) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday in Spokane, Wash. “They’ve just been outstanding.”
And the results have been outstanding for the Ducks, who enter the postseason boasting a six-game winning streak, including a dominating performance in the Pacific-10 Conference Tournament that resulted in wins by 24, 19 and 18 points.
In the Pac-10 Tournament, no team was able to shoot better than 43 percent against the Ducks and each team turned the ball over a combined 34 times in three games. Oregon also managed 18 combined steals in three games.
“I think, finally, we’re back to playing defense the way we began (the season) – even better,” Oregon guard Malik Hairston said. “When you make defense fun, that’s when it’s most effective, when the whole team’s out there talking, we’re communicating, calling out screens, everybody’s doing their jobs, we’re taking charges, it makes the game a lot more fun. It just brings another whole level.”
Kent said the return to a defensive focus stemmed from Oregon’s summer trip to the Bahamas and the team simply maturing.
“They’re a year older, which makes them physically stronger and mentally tougher,” Kent said. “They understand defense. It’s just the ability to sustain for 10 out of 10 possessions. I don’t think we’re 10 out of 10 yet, but we had some 8 out of 10s and 9 out of 10s during some stretches of those games that we were really good.”
Oregon senior point guard Aaron Brooks said the biggest aspect of the Ducks’ defensive turnaround – they ended the season ranked fifth in scoring defense in the Pac-10 – was simply changing the mindset.
“We took a back seat on defense and just kind of hoped they would miss,” Brooks said. “Now we’re trying to make them miss. We’ve got the athletic ability to be great defensive players and now we’re just starting to buckle down.”
Creating missed shots and turnovers on the defensive end has also aided Oregon’s offense as the Ducks averaged 77 points per-game in the three games of the Pac-10 Tournament.
“Defending leads us to being able to get out and run and that’s how we like to play,” Oregon guard Bryce Taylor said. “If a team is scoring buckets on you, then you can’t really run and you can’t really get fast breaks.”
The fast breaks are certainly aided by Oregon’s usually smaller lineup – the tallest player being 6-foot-9-inch forward Maarty Leunen – which poses many problems for opposing teams. And so far this season, the Ducks’ rotations and quickness have neutralized the severe height disadvantages Oregon has faced.
Georgetown’s 7-foot-2 All-Big East center Roy Hibbert scored just four points against the Ducks early in the season, while Nebraska’s All-Big-12 performer, Aleks Maric, scored 12 points in the Papé Jam. The Ducks have also limited most of the Pac-10’s big men – save for Stanford’s Brook Lopez, who scored 26 points against a then-slumping Oregon team on Feb. 17.
“I think size isn’t a big part of the game just because if you play with tons of energy, confidence and tons of heart, it makes up for a lot of the size,” Leunen said.
If the Ducks can maintain that defensive energy, it could equate to a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.
“Without a doubt,” Hairston said. “It’s hard to just outscore a lot of these teams.”
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