There were glimpses when Oregon looked like it could hang with the big boys in the Pac-10 on Sunday.
The Ducks opened the second half with a Michael Dunigan dunk.
Later in the half, Oregon closed the game to three or four points several times.
And then, youth got in the way.
Garrett Sim and Tajuan Porter were too “anxious,” Ernie Kent said, at times turning the ball over on consecutive possessions when it looked like Oregon was about to tie the game or take the lead for the first time all day.
Dunigan was called for two fouls in the first minute of the second half, giving him four for the afternoon.
And that was the story of the afternoon. Get a break, give it back.
The Ducks gave it back, after all, losing by nine. No one expected these young Ducks to win either game this weekend. After its embarrassment against USC two days before, few expected Oregon to even compete Sunday.
The second half debacle against USC even prompted one reporter afterward to say, “So they didn’t practice during the break?”
In those two days, something clicked.
And here is where we have already seen growth in this team. It showed up and put some fear into the Bruins, who looked like they could win their fourth straight Pac-10 title by their play in the final six minutes.
“I felt like there were a couple times we were right there and all the sudden, boom boom boom, two or three bad things happened and they’re back up eight again,” Kent said afterward.
All the headlines and attention are firmly placed on Corvallis – and rightly so – this week after the Beavers’ upset win against USC. It was the first time the Beavers had won a Pac-10 game since 2007.
Give that team all the credit it deserves. In our own backyard, though, look twice at Oregon.
Understand that this season isn’t going to be about wins. Only if Oregon happens to be winless at the second half of the conference schedule will it be about them.
It will be a season of laying bricks for a foundation, and let’s hope for fewer bricks on the court while we’re at it.
But as for laying an egg like USC, I don’t think that will happen again.
The first two of those steps have already been taken, and they’re more valuable than you might think an 0-2 record could be.
Oregon knows what it takes to compete with the Pac-10 leaders already, and how easy it is to fritter away the chance of victory, be it its entire second half against USC or those careless turnovers against UCLA that stopped Oregon from threatening the lead.
“I thoProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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ht we got better,” Kent said, “that we played a complete game.”
OK, it wasn’t complete, but it was a lot closer than anyone would have expected. It’s the kind of performance that let Oregon fans know Oregon won’t roll over like the Beavers last season when they got closer and closer to history (of the wrong kind). Oregon will get to the Pac-10 Tournament, sure, because it’s by default.
When they get there, three months from now, it could very well be a much different team with some wins under its belt.
If that should be the case, the lessons learned from last weekend, even if it is two losses in the stat book, could be a major reason why.
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