Those watching the Oregon men’s basketball team must have a high pain threshold these days.
Watching the Ducks on television in their past two games has been almost unbearable because of their inconsistency and ineptitude in the second half, as double-digit leads seemingly evaporate in an instant.
The careless ball-handling, the missed opportunities, the inability to keep teams off the offensive glass, the questionable fouls – all of it creates a strain on the eyes for those who hope to see the Ducks reach the NCAA Tournament for a second-consecutive season.
And given the way the Ducks failed down the stretch in recent games, they will fail to enter the tournament unless they can pull out a miraculous win streak to either get to 20 wins or win the Pacific-10 Conference Tournament.
Neither scenario seems very bright given the circumstances lately.
As well as Oregon has played during stretches in games, they can’t put anything together consistently and that’s doomed them against the better teams in the conference.
While everyone shares blame for the losses, senior Maarty Leunen remains the only Duck that doesn’t make me shake my head in the team’s recent losses.
His performance Saturday – 6-of-10 shooting, 4-of-5 from three-point range, 11 rebounds and 17 points – made his stat line certainly seem to stand above any of his teammates’.
Aside from the performance against Stanford, where no one for Oregon could muster much of an offensive performance, Leunen has been remarkably consistent for a team that likes to flaunt its potential in front of fans on a routine performance.
How’s this for consistency? Leunen has scored double-digits in points in 24 of Oregon’s 27 games. He’s shot 56 percent from the field and 50 percent from beyond the arc.
And while his teammates have tried to give all their effort on occasion, Leunen’s the only one that gives it all throughout the entirety of the game. He’s the only one that doesn’t make mind-boggling mistakes in the final minutes while trying desperately to score much-needed points.
He’ll distribute it when needed and he’ll take the shot if need be.
Against Washington State, the Ducks tried to break through the Cougars’ defense by pump-faking nearly every jump shot they took and then trying to drive the ball.
In case you didn’t see the game, it didn’t work out so well. The Cougars’ defense anticipated nearly every fake and held their ground for the ensuing drive by an Oregon ball-handler.
Leunen was the only one who recognized it and made the adjustment. Rather than faking the shot, he simply released the ball upon touching and was 4-of-7 from three-point range.
Oregon coach Ernie Kent credited Leunen’s aggressiveness after the game, praising Leunen for recognizing the defense and converting his shots.
Leunen was the only Duck to make a three-pointer. The rest simply continued to pump-fake and drive, without positive results.
If a coach has to praise only one of his starting seniors for making the right decisions and being aggressive, maybe he should give up trying to instruct them beyond one simple rule: Follow that guy’s lead.
Maybe then we’d start seeing consistency from Oregon.
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