Oregon head coach Ernie Kent called it a “blueprint.”
Oregon players called it a “formula.”
By whatever name, the Oregon men’s basketball team has exhibited clear patterns, some positive and some negative, in recent play.
On the positive side, the Ducks have been dominating opponents at home. In five home games over winter break, Oregon beat up its competition by an average of 29.6 points. Two of those wins were over Arizona and Arizona State, Pacific-10 Conference teams that the Ducks beat by a combined 43 points.
In those wins, Kent said, his team exhibited the same qualities, his “blueprint.” The Ducks shot sharply (an average of 52.6 percent from the floor), played tough defense (holding opponents to 38.9 percent shooting), and hit the boards (the Ducks outrebounded opponents 37-30). Heading into last weekend’s games at Arizona and Arizona State, Oregon was 9-3 overall, 3-0 in the Pac-10 and sitting on top of the conference standings.
But that’s where the negative formula comes into view. After an impressive win over the Wildcats 90-80 in Tucson, a game where the Ducks made the formidable McKale Center look like McArthur Court, Oregon reverted back to old ways with a close loss to Arizona State in Tempe. The loss was the Ducks’ fourth by less than 10 points. During break, Oregon dropped a close game on the road to Minnesota, a week after nail-biting losses at Massachusetts and Portland.
Still, the Ducks emerged from the long break in good position to challenge for a spot in this season’s NCAA Tournament in March, if Kent can keep the right half of the blueprint.

Uh, OK, whatever
While the Arizona players remained relatively quiet heading into last Friday’s rematch with Oregon in Tucson, one reporter provided plenty of trash talk.
Arizona Daily Star columnist Greg Hansen ripped on Mac Court, oddly enough on the day of the game at the McKale Center.
“Oregon’s Mac Court is overrated for several reasons, mostly because it is so old, 75 years,” Hansen wrote. “Mac Court is loud, yes, but what place isn’t?”
Adding insult to this injuring statement, Hansen continued.
“McKale is always loud. Not so at Mac Court,” Hansen wrote. “On Page 52 of Oregon’s media guide, Duck standout Freddie Jones is pictured shooting a jumper at the old gym — and the background is a sea of empty seats, most of them up-close, behind-the-bench seats purchased by older people.”
The Emerald took a look at the offending photo. In the picture, which is one of the smaller photos in the media guide, 14 empty seats are visible. Meanwhile, 45 other seats are filled. The next page features a photo of Jones dunking in the same preseason contest against Mississippi Valley State, and those 14 empty seats are all filled.

Pit Packing
Pac-10 play is back. The Students are back. Add the two together, and The Pit Crew is the result.
Oregon’s student-fan organization is back, and giving out T-shirts as they have in previous years. But this season, the T-shirt won’t just be something to wear out to parties. This year, those fans wearing Pit Crew shirts will be allowed to enter games five minutes before the doors open to the non-shirted crowd, giving the yellow-clad folks a leg up in the race for floor seats.
Also new this year, the Pit Crew is asking students not to stand on top of seats, but to instead step down. This will allow fans in the first row above the student section to see the game more clearly.