After Oregon fell 60-55 to a banged-up Arizona State squad Saturday night, head coach Dana Altman joked that maybe the move to Matthew Knight Arena in the coming weeks would help his Ducks out of their current shooting slump.
He was not shy in admitting Oregon is struggling to knock down perimeter shots, which was evident in each of the Pacific-10 Conference losses handed to them by Arizona last Thursday and the Sun Devils on Saturday.
Oregon’s shooting struggles have become commonplace over the last several years as the team has rarely eclipsed the 40 percent mark on most nights, particularly in conference play. And as Oregon (7-7, 0-2 Pac-10) gears up for a tough road test against the Washington schools this weekend, the team can be certain things won’t be getting easier.
“Shots are falling in practice, it’s just when it comes game time it’s a little bit different,” sophomore E.J. Singler said. “We’ve just got to get used to Pac-10 play — the speed of it — it’s completely different.”
Singler was optimistic after Oregon’s fourth consecutive loss on Saturday, saying he believes the Ducks will have things turned around soon. Singler, however, has put up arguably the best numbers of any player on the Oregon roster, averaging 12.1 points and 6.4 rebounds per contest.
The forward’s shooting hand has been anything but cold through the first 14 games this season, and he’s made a living at the free throw line when he’s gotten there. Singler’s 85 percent shooting (41 of 48) from the charity stripe has him pinned as the second-best free throw shooter in the Pac-10 behind Cal’s Harper Kamp who sits at 88 percent.
As a team, Oregon also ranks second in the league in free-throw shooting with a 72 percent mark, second only to Arizona.
The trouble with this Duck team is that it doesn’t see the free throw line often enough. Aside from senior Joevan Catron (103) and Singler (48), no one else on the team has attempted even 30 free throws on the season, while senior Jay-R Strowbridge comes in at a distant third with 28.
To Catron, the shooting woes are something the team must get past, and quickly.
“I just think we have to make shots,” Catron said. “It might be more practice, it might be more reps, I don’t really know right now, but I think we need to start from square one and just refine what we need to do to get wins.”
It comes as no surprise after the opening week of Pac-10 play Oregon holds down the No. 10 spot in field goal percentages at 41.4 percent on the year. The Ducks have actually made more shots from the floor than Oregon State, Stanford, California and Arizona State, but have attempted more field goals (867) than every team in the league not named Washington.
It was around this time last season when the field goal percentages really became a noticeable trend for Oregon, and hopefully Altman is right in thinking the change of venue could send a spark of new life into the Ducks.
Following Saturday’s game, Altman said his team had not yet gotten to see any time on the new court, but that will likely change as the Jan. 13 opener steadily approaches.
Regardless of the shooting numbers, Altman said his team must be willing to win games in unusual ways in order to make up for a lack of offense.
“I’m not saying we’re a great shooting team but we’re a much better shooting team than what we’ve displayed,” Altman said. “But to get through that you’ve got to try to win games differently — defensively, on the boards — and you know our guys really haven’t bought into that.
“If the shots aren’t going they hang their head.”
In matching up with Washington and Washington State this coming weekend, Oregon will be facing the top two teams in the league in field goal percentage defense. The Huskies have held their opponents to 39.7 percent from the field, while the Cougars have allowed just 38.2 percent.
“We’ve just got to keep on shooting it,” Singler said. “One of these games it’s going to go in.”
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