Former Oregon guard Anthony Lever approached Ernie Kent after the Ducks’ 92-67 loss to Arizona last Thursday at the McKale Center.
After watching the youthful Ducks struggle to execute in transition, Lever said to his old head coach, “It looks like they’re stuck in the mud.”
Kent agreed that his team wasn’t running the floor with the efficiency needed for his style of offense to be effective. But Kent also reminded Lever that he too looked like he was “stuck in the mud” when he first transferred to Oregon from Collin County Community College in 1999.
Kent’s run-and-gun style offense is what attracts many young players to Oregon. But like in seasons past, this year’s crop of Duck freshmen have yet to understand all that goes into running a fast-paced offensive attack.
The Ducks (12-11 overall, 4-10 Pacific-10 Conference) have been running when they see a potential transition bucket.
Kent wants them to run on every possession.
“Typically, it takes them a year to really understand and have the mentality that you run every single time regardless if you have a layup or not, and they don’t understand that,” Kent said. “They run when they think they have a score, and there’s a difference there. They have an opportunity to put the pressure on people constantly for the minutes that they’re on the floor and wear teams down like we’ve done in the past, but they will be able to do that down
the road.
“That’s the encouraging thing.”
Kent compared the troubles of Malik Hairston and Co., to those of Luke Ridnour during his freshman year.
“Luke Ridnour would never give up the ball his freshman year,” Kent said. “He would just dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble. We couldn’t run, he wouldn’t hit ahead, he wouldn’t be able to go in the lane and finish plays … and in between his freshman and sophomore year, the offense started flowing and clicking, and he became a great player.
“He just grew and understood
the offense.”
Hairston said he and the rest of Oregon’s young players hear Kent’s message – it’s just a matter of translating it on the court.
“He wants us to be a little unselfish with (running) and then tag-team our teammates and let them get in there,” Hairston said. “We may not be the ones to get the buckets, but the other team will be real tired.”
Entering today’s 7:30 p.m. tipoff against California (12-12, 5-9) at McArthur Court, the Ducks are stressing offensive aggressiveness. Oregon has lost eight of its last nine games and has scored 70 points only twice since beating Oregon State 73-64 in early January.
With four games remaining, the Ducks sit in ninth place in the Pac-10. They trail Cal and Washington State by one game for the eighth and final spot in the conference tournament.
Kent said that while qualifying for the Pac-10 Tournament is important, simply getting another win is the team’s priority.
“Every meeting, every walk-through session, every practice and obviously every ball game is extremely important for this team,” Kent said. “We have not and will continue to not waste one minute of this season.”

[email protected]