If the Oregon men’s basketball season was a football game, the Ducks would be charging out of the locker room ready to dominate the second half.
And they’d be leading the game, with the entire Pacific-10 Conference (except co-leader USC) on the other sideline.
The Ducks are leading the Pac-10, basketball style. And it’s no fluke either. There aren’t five teams bunched at the top, and the Ducks have beaten the big teams — Stanford, Cal, Arizona. They’re a perfect 11-0 at home.
So, this Oregon team is good, right?
Like any team, the Ducks still see room for improvement. There are still hills to climb, still UCLAs and USCs to play.
But there is some time for reflection.
Without further ado, here is a mid-point report card, as laid out by the Ducks themselves.

Overall — Grade: B+
Oregon head coach Ernie Kent is rarely satisfied, and won’t be until the Ducks are crowned national champions. But he is still able to look at the positives, including his explosive offense, the emergence of some key players off the bench and a vastly improved defense.
“For the fact that we’re leading the conference after everybody picked us seventh or eighth, you’ve got to say that we’ve achieved beyond everyone’s expectations,” Kent said. “And it’s not luck. We’ve played well.”
Kent also noted one or two shortcomings, including defensive lapses in the last two games in Washington.

“If there’s some slippage with us, it’s just in the past couple games
defensively,” Kent said.

Offense — Grade: A
Kent said the biggest help to his offense has been the emergence of several key players off the Oregon bench and the general improvement of all his offensive components.
“There’s been so much growth on this team,” Kent said.
That growth has turned Oregon into an offensive force to be reckoned with this season. The Ducks lead the Pac-10 in scoring average (85.8 points per game), scoring margin (+16.7 points per game), field goal percentage (49 percent) and 3-point percentage (42 percent).
The Ducks, arguably, are the best offensive team in the Pac-10.

Defense — Grade: B
Anthony Lever is one of the veterans on this year’s squad, which gives him a unique view on the Ducks’ sordid
defensive history.
But he is still a college student.
“What is this, class?” Lever said about ranking Oregon’s 2002 defense.
All joking aside, the senior guard spoke of the suddenly-strong Oregon defensive system.
“With coach Litz, any time we have any slippage on the defensive end, he’s there to correct us,” Lever said.
Coach Litz is Fred Litzenberger, a noted defensive specialist who brought his style over from the women’s team. The switch worked for the men, who have held opponents to 69.2 points per game and 41 percent shooting from the floor.
But the Ducks have allowed certain players to “go off,” as guard James Davis put it. Which is why Davis gives the Duck guard corps a …

The guards — Grade: B
“We’ve got a long way to go, defensively,” Davis said. “We let (Casey) Jacobsen go off, we let the Washington guards go off. We can’t let those big-name guys have big games.”
“We” refers to Oregon’s guards, who have given up big offensive nights, including 32 points to Stanford’s Jacobsen, 32 to Washington’s Doug Wrenn and 35 to Washington State’s Marcus Moore.
But other than those blemishes, the Oregon guards have been consistently dominant. Starting guards Freddie Jones and Luke Ridnour average 16.4 and 14.9 points per game, respectively, while forward/guard Luke Jackson weighs in with 15.5 points per contest.

The posts — Grade: C+/B-
Chris Christoffersen has come a long way in four years as a Duck, but for The Big Guy there is always more room to grow. Not physically, of course, because he is already 7-foot-2 and 300 pounds.
“I’m always a pessimist,” Christoffersen said, explaining the low grade he gave himself. “I know that I can always become better, and there are still a lot of things about the game that I need to learn.”
Despite his pessimism, Christoffersen has improved this season.
He bumped his average to 8.8 points per game and is shooting 53 percent from the floor.
Christoffersen’s supporting cast has improved to the point where the load is taken off The Big Guy’s huge shoulders.
Robert Johnson has been a welcome addition at forward, and Brian Helquist has been a super substitute off the bench.
Just a couple examples of improvement on a team that is rightfully leading the Pac-10 halfway through the season. They can only hope the final report card is as good.