Most avid hikers are familiar with the term “false peak”.
It’s a term used to describe a time when the top of a mountain seems to be in view, only for one to be further from the top than they think.
Over the past few weeks, Oregon men’s basketball fans are becoming accustomed to the feeling.
After a third unranked loss in just nine days, the Ducks’ season — that once seemed so promising — is experiencing an avalanche of struggles, sending them back to the base of the mountain.
The unranked Nebraska Cornhuskers — who entered losers of six of their last seven — sputtered into Eugene on Sunday, and still walked out with a 77-71 win over the then-No. 16 Oregon Ducks.
In the past, Oregon’s head coach Dana Altman has talked about not stacking losses. A key to that should have been jumping out to a fast start against the Cornhuskers. Reality couldn’t have been much further from the expectations.
With over eight minutes played in the first half, the Oregon offense had mustered six points on 2/11 shooting and 0/3 shooting from range.
A 3-point dagger from Jackson Shelstad temporarily woke the MKA crowd, but the Oregon offense couldn’t follow suit. An uncovered dunk down low from Nebraska’s Juwan Gary (One of two Huskers to score 20+ points in the win) prompted an eruption from the Cornhuskers’ bench and a timeout from Altman.
It didn’t help that Nebraska shot a whopping 52.0% in the first half, but Oregon’s lack of defensive pressure was a direct contributor to the Huskers’ successes.
One of the bigger crowd pops of the night came on a Nebraska 30-second violation. The Ducks provided very few moments to get loud about in Sunday’s snowball loss.
Even the potentially momentum-shifting spurts from the Ducks’ offense were always met with a Cornhuskers’ response, typically on a demoralizing dunk or silencing floater.
“Our progress defensively is not what [it] should be,” Altman said.
Oregon’s longtime coach also said he wished his guys had played tighter in the first half, but a lack of defensive threats haunted the Ducks for 40 minutes, 39 of which they trailed for.
Even when the Ducks would trim Nebraska’s lead to a possession or two, it never felt like Oregon was in any danger of winning the contest.
And yet, that’s what this team has done over and over again this season: come from behind. A string of rallies early in the season led to potentially undeserved wins. These early-season successes may have created a false peak, shadowing some key flaws that this 2024-25 Oregon roster possesses.
The reality is that a team led by Nate Bittle in the paint has a limited ceiling – and not one that deserves a top-10 ranking.
A team that’s comfortable settling for contested shots and living or dying by the 3-point shot (Oregon shot 5/20 from range against Nebraska) has no business being a top threat in the NCAA Tournament. Still, a few unsustainable wins against some legitimate opponents months ago may have made this team think it’s closer to the apex of college basketball than it is.
“It could have slowed our progress,” Altman admitted of early-season success and the team’s current mindset. “There’s a fine line between hitting a shot and missing it and what it does to you.”
But perhaps the main issue, one that Altman admitted to after Sunday’s defeat, is that his team lacks leadership, something any possible contender must have.
“They’re all kind of walking on eggshells,” Altman said of any potential leader. “There’s no way to really consistently play well. Everybody’s been kinda up and down. None of them are walking around like they own the place. They’ve all been inconsistent and I think that keeps any of them from being really vocal. So, we don’t have that.”
The comeback kids need to regroup. The contest just lacked hope, something Oregon fans had a mere month ago that diminishes with each gutting loss.
The snowball continues to roll.
It feels like eons ago that Oregon men’s basketball had a “No. 9” ranking sitting next to that “O” in the polls. In reality, it was less than a month ago. The Ducks were ranked No. 9 for their Jan. 5 win over Maryland.
Now, after the latest polls, Oregon sits unranked and looking back up at the peak of men’s basketball, looming much higher than it was just 30 days ago.
When asked about where the disconnect lies, Altman offered a chuckle before admitting, “If I knew that, we’d get things straightened out real quick.”
The fall from what turned out to be a false peak lives on with the Ducks’ latest loss, and major adjustments need to be on the horizon with March approaching sooner than Altman may want to admit.
