Oregon basketball has been more successful, more high-profile and more exciting over the last 10 years then any era in the program’s history, save possibly Howard Hobson’s 1939 “Tall Firs” National Championship team and the consistent success of Oregon teams during Hobson’s nine-year tenure.
The success of recent years has left many fans scratching their heads at this season’s futility. The nay-sayers are lining up to kick coach Ernie Kent and his young team while they are clearly down, off to the program’s worst start since 1992-93, when Jerry Green’s Duck squad dropped its first 11 conference contests before picking up three wins in their last seven to finish 3-15.
But for any Johnny-come-lately Duck fans out there, or maybe some of you current students who have yet to delve into the annals of the Duck basketball program: Here’s a little history lesson.
In the 30 seasons that the Ducks have played in the Pacific-10 Conference, (formerly the Pac-8 and before that the Pacific Coast Conference), the Ducks have managed only eight winning records in conference play. Three times they have finished even at 9-and-9.
That means that nearly 2/3 of the time, the Ducks have lost more conference games than they’ve won.
In Ernie Kent’s 11 seasons, they have had five losing conference records, four winning records and two 9-and-9 records. Now, I understand that those numbers alone aren’t going to blow anyone’s doors off, but they are much better than the program’s historical average. When you put them into the perspective of the program’s
history and consider the draft picks, conference and conference tournament titles, and deep NCAA Tournament runs of Kent’s tenure, the true picture becomes much clearer.
Of course, should the Ducks continue to lose, the results of the past 11 years might pale for some in contrast with the historic futility a winless conference season would represent.
After Saturday’s loss to Arizona, Kent didn’t want to hear any talk about the possibility of an unprecedented 0-18 conference record.
“They know it’s there because some of these guys have never lost and I think that’s why they’re continuing to battle because they don’t want it to (get) there. I don’t need to talk about it too much anymore because it hasn’t happened yet,” Kent said. “The more we talk about it before it gets there, the more it becomes an issue with them.”
I think, and I may be alone on this, that the Ducks have a legitimate chance to get in the win column this weekend. I know it seems like a long shot, on the road against two solid teams in Washington and Washington State, but the Ducks played both teams well last time out and have visibly grown since then. Tajuan Porter is playing what may be his best ball since his freshman campaign, and Joevan Catron has been a more consistent post presence over the last couple of weeks.
On Thursday night the Ducks will take the floor in Pullman with history staring them in the face. Should they lose, it will be the first time ever that the Ducks have gone winless through their first 12 Pac-10 games.
Of course, they’ll need to win a couple more to get clear of the program’s worst conference mark, (2-16; 1991-92) but the pressure of a winless conference season will officially be off these young players.
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