The Oregon men’s basketball team, through four games of this young season, has outscored its opponents by a baffling 32.75-points-per-game average. While this figure may be a little skewed because of a 60-point thumping of Savannah State in the season opener, the Ducks still have yet to be threatened, and they’ve played decent opponents (see: Pacific, Rice).
Oregon’s win margins this season – 60, 25, 22 and 24, respectively – still don’t have many convinced that the Ducks are legit.
After all, the waves of promise last season only materialized into a disappointing 14-13 record, a ninth-place Pacific-10 Conference finish and a nonexistent postseason.
Thus, it appears, fans and media alike are entering this season with cautious enthusiasm, despite the return of an All-Pac-10 performer at point guard, two All-Pac-10 freshmen and a vastly improved inside game with the addition of junior college transfer Ivan Johnson. Most teams would be satisfied entering the season with a lineup like that.
So, I ask, where is the love for Oregon basketball?
The Pac-10 media tabbed the Ducks as the sixth best team in the conference, a position Oregon coach Ernie Kent credits to the fact that predictions were made before Johnson, a 6-foot-8 beast, officially joined the Ducks.
Sports Illustrated wised up a little, naming Oregon No. 41, or fifth-best in the conference behind Arizona (6), Stanford (14), UCLA (15) and Washington (20).
Then again, maybe less hype is exactly what this Oregon team needs.
Certainly, it wouldn’t be easy to be tabbed as the “Team of the Century,” a marketing slogan and burden placed upon last year’s squad.
The expectations for a starting five that included two freshmen and two sophomores was admittedly a little unrealistic – especially when then-freshman guard Malik Hairston proclaimed that he wanted to “Carmelo-ize” the Ducks, a reference to Syracuse’s run to the national championship with freshman phenom Carmelo Anthony in 2003.
A reality check may be the best thing that ever happened to Kent’s bunch.
Now the Ducks can quietly enter their Pac-10 schedule improved, prepared and eager to erase the hangover of one bumpy ride through the Pac-10 schedule.
No doubt we’ll get a better judgment of this Oregon team as one of its most difficult stretches awaits with a road trip to Vanderbilt (4-0) Wednesday, Georgetown (2-1) at McArthur Court on Saturday and then national runner-up Illinois (5-0) at the Rose Garden Dec. 10. While Bowie State and Savannah State provided nice warm-ups, this stretch will determine much for the Ducks: Are they for real or will hype quickly fade into oblivion once again?
I, for one, believe the former.

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