The 5-0 start to conference play seems like seasons ago. The bitter realization of another lost season feels all too familiar.
Oregon’s (19-11, 11-8 Pac-12 ) 79-75 loss to Colorado (21-9, 12-7 Pac-12) was the perfect microcosm of a promising, yet ultimately underwhelming season.
As has been the case all too often this season, The Ducks took an early advantage and quickly gave it up. Oregon went on to trade baskets before faltering late, largely due to its ever-present achilles heel of lousy defense down the stretch.
“Oh my God! We made so many defensive mistakes for March,” Altman said in an unusually animated post-game press conference. “We just gave them baskets. We had seven turnovers and gave them 13 points on layups by not grabbing rebounds… we just made a lot of defensive mistakes.”
He continued: “You shoot 53% at home and if you score 75 points you outta win.”
What’s more, the Ducks’ offense never could fully take advantage of Colorado’s lul of a start. Oregon quickly opened up an 11-0 run and led by as many as 12 nearly halfway through the opening half before sputtering out defensively.
Down the stretch, Colorado rose to almost every moment that mattered; every clutch stanza answered by a timely bucket, every blip to take the lead met with a bitter rebuke.
Jermaine Cousinard’s missed 3-pointer at the buzzer only ended a game lost by Oregon’s sub-par defensive effort the minutes before.
The Ducks fell in another game they absolutely could not afford to lose, and were plagued by the same ailments that have led to this season’s downfall. Colorado shot 47% from three and outrebounded Oregon 36-24.
It was another missed opportunity in a season seemingly full of them. At select moments Altman’s squad has looked like it’s found something. Jackson Shelstad sparkles, Jermaine Cousinard shines, N’Faly Dante dominates, and at the next moment the rest of the team looks dejected and grasping for refuge in a season that has offered little.
“We just missed some positioning that we should have had,” Dante said. “At the end of the day, we all made mistakes.”
This is an injured team, this is a flawed team, regardless, this late in the year. The Ducks’ play has provided Altman with few assurances going down the stretch.
Shelstad is one of those players, showcasing more of his immense potential, dropping a career-high 23 points on an efficient 10-15 shooting.
Dante is another, finishing with 20 points on 10-10 shooting, he played “his tail off.” further cementing himself as an all-time Oregon great.
“I hate it for Dante,” Altman said of the result. “He played so hard, he played so well.”
Couisnard gave it his all, finishing with 17 points after a sluggish first half, but his last-second three — as Oregon has in most big moments — fell short.
Everyone else? Hard to say, nobody else did much. All other players combined for 15 points. Mahamadou Diawara was a -9 in just 2 minutes of action. Cousinard and Dante being celebrated on Saturday’s senior day only deepens the blow of each loss.
“We had seven turnovers and they had 13 points off of them, just layups, ”We got beat on the boards, we didn’t play good enough defense.”
Altman has seen a lot in his 13 years at the helm in Eugene, but this season has been especially maddening, at one point — following one of many costly turnovers — he forcibly slammed his fists down on the scorer’s table in disgust.
Wednesday’s loss was just the most recent example of a season-long quest for consistency. It was the latest step in a journey that has continuously left Altman grasping for answers from a team that has had none— one that leaves even more uncertainty going into Saturday’s senior night matchup and the ensuing Pac-12 tournament’s seeding.
“We’re going to have to bounce back on Saturday [against Utah],” Altman said. “I don’t know how the other games are going tonight…but I do know one thing: We got to win.”
