Politics, an arena of a different kind, was the talk of Oregon’s basketball practice Tuesday as the Ducks prepared to play at Stanford and California this weekend.
The inauguration of President Barack Obama from Illinois was especially poignant for Oregon head coach Ernie Kent, an Illinois native himself, along with four Chicago-area players on the roster.
“It was joy, it was a lot of happiness, it was hoping everybody will understand this is going to take a lot of work and that this is a very emotional time but there’s a lot of work to be done right now,” Kent said. “There’s a lot of us who never thought we’d see this day, so to be able to witness what we saw today was just an amazing thing.”
If it sounded to you like Kent could have easily been talking about his own basketball team, you’re not alone. Few could have seen the Ducks being 0-6 in the Pacific-10 Conference with an away trip to Stanford up first in the weekend set, a place where the Ducks haven’t won since 1986.
Clearly, there is a lot more hard work to be done before Oregon can claim its first win of the conference season.
But for at least a bit after practice, players were able to talk about something other than their losing streak, the program’s longest since losing 11 straight Pac-10 games in 1992-93.
Junior guard Tajuan Porter’s morning classes conflicted with the inauguration, but he wasn’t without an opinion.
“That’s not his goal, just to be the first black man American president,” Porter said. “It’s a job that needs to be done and it’s what he do in office instead of being the first black president. He still has a lot to accomplish.”
As do the Ducks, and as Kent alluded to, Porter. The 1,000-point scorer and third-most prolific three-point shooter in UO history had a resurgent second half on Saturday against Washington State that he says got him back in his groove. His shooting woes (he’s shooting 36 percent from the field this season), and those of the entire team (40 percent, worst in the Pac-10) are still a major concern for Kent.
He said Porter might be left out of Thursday’s starting lineup to give his junior guard fresher legs off the bench, but said any decision wouldn’t come until today.
“I’d love for him to start being the old TP, to tell you the truth,” Kent said. “He makes us a lot better when he plays like he played in the second half against Washington State.”
“I’m ready to go,” Porter said.
Despite Oregon’s dire situation, there isn’t a ‘panic button’ to be found around McArthur Court, said Kent. His players echoed that sentiment, saying their practices this week have shown improvement and some resiliency toward the losses.
“I think we had a great practice today,” junior forward Joevan Catron said. “I hate losing. I’m going to do what I can to get a win.”
Kent mellows on ejection talk
Fired up enough to be ejected by officials during Saturday’s game, the first time in Kent’s career, the coach said Tuesday that some film study of the situation cooled down any lingering feelings toward officials.
“Every time you go back and look at film, it’s not as bad as you think it is,” Kent said. “Usually they’re in a pretty good position to make calls. The only regret I have is that as a basketball team we didn’t start with the energy we finished the game with.”
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