Both teams seemed rather unprepared for the start of the season. The Oregon fans did not.

A packed student section was on hand at Matthew Knight Arena for No. 21 Oregon’s (1-0) 80-45 victory over Florida A&M (0-1) on Monday night. It was a slower start to the season than the team had hoped, but the Rattlers never did anything to bring the outcome into question. 

“dzespite only dropping 11 points in 33 minutes, fans relished Richardson’s return.”t. 

Oregon head coach Dana Altman said the Ducks missed so many in a row so it was nice to finally see them hit one late in the game.

Poor three point shooting wounded the Ducks last season, and it’s already a serious concern in 2022.

The Ducks opening game raised many questions about the talent of this team. Oregon shot just 57% from the free throw line and was 29-63 on field goal attempts.

“Our practices haven’t been what they should be,” Altman said. “We’re worried about that moving forward with our physicality.”

The Ducks are banged up and the bench lacks depth. The team should get better when the Ducks are back to full strength.

The big men had to take over. And they certainly did. N’Faly Dante collected 16 points and 10 rebounds for his fifth career double double. 

Altman said he’d like to get Dante up to 25-30 minutes per game. He’s still recovering from an ACL injury and going through a recovery process that Altman said “just takes a while.”

Rivaldo Soares, Nate Bittle and Quincy Guerrier also contributed to the Ducks’ domination of the rebound game. The trio combined for 22 rebounds as Oregon out-rebounded the Rattlers 44-26. Bittle also finished with a career high 10 points

Dante doesn’t mind playing with other big guys.

“[Ware] can really play,” Dante said. “It’s good to have someone with a different game as me.”

That lineup is something the short-handed Ducks may have to turn to if they find themselves struggling.

As sloppy as Oregon was on Monday, they still dominated a bad Rattlers team coming off a 13-17 2021-22 season. Florida A&M had 22 fouls and 21 turnovers, and the Oregon student section made sure they knew it with consistent chants of “airball” and “fundamentals” filling MKA throughout the game. 

There were some bright spots to Oregon’s night, however. New transfers and a highly anticipated recruit recorded their first stats as Ducks. 

Matthew Knight Arena erupted when Kel’el Ware first touched the court early in the first half. To say expectations for the five star recruit were high would be an understatement. He had eight points and five rebounds in 19 minutes in his debut. 

Transfers Keeshawn Barthelemy and Tyrone Williams also collected some serious playing time. The two combined for 51 minutes and made an immediate impact on their new team.

Prior to the start of the 2022-23 season, the Pac-12 and Southwestern Athletic Conference announced a partnership for a “Legacy Series” that would feature various games throughout the season. Monday was the first of such matchups. Make that Pac-12: 1 and SWAC: 0.

Prior to the game, Oregon was 3-0 against Florida A&M. Monday’s emphatic win keeps the Ducks perfect against the Rattlers. Their head coach, Robert McCullum, coached at Oregon under Altman for several years. That makes tonight’s win just that much sweeter. 

The win also brings Oregon’s record to 1-0 to start Altman’s 13th season as head coach. The Ducks are now 11-2 in season openers under Altman.

The Ducks have some high caliber teams coming up on the schedule. Montana State and Houston both made the NCAA tournament last season.

 “We’ve got a lot of work to do to get ready for those folks,” Altman said.

Oregon returns to action against UC Irvine (1-0) on Friday night at 8 p.m. at MKA.