Tuesday’s practice was filled with intensity as the Oregon men’s basketball team worked through live game situations at McArthur Court.
Separated by different colored practice jerseys, head coach Ernie Kent’s “energy” group players donned green tank tops and dominated their counterparts in yellow.
Maarty Leunen grabbed a loose ball in the backcourt and jammed it home with authority. Bryce Taylor added a dunk of his own, which he followed with a thunderous yell of aggression. And just to remind everyone of Oregon’s outside shooting ability, Chamberlain Oguchi drilled a three-pointer from the right wing — after which he screamed and hopped, allowing his cornrow mullet to swing freely from the back of his head.
While energy was the key to Tuesday’s practice, Kent said, more importantly, it will be the key to improvement for the Ducks during the second half of the Pacific-10
Conference season.
“They work their butts off for you,” Kent said. “They still have some adjustments to make come game time, but I thought our energy was really good today, and it’s been good the past couple days in terms of intensity.
“Most of our problems are based on energy and competing.”
Oregon’s Pac-10 season got off to a strong start when the Ducks followed up an 8-1 non-conference mark with a 90-83 win against Southern California on Dec. 31. Since then, Oregon (11-7 overall, 3-6 Pac-10) has lost six of eight games, including the last four. The Ducks have looked confused offensively and have been outhustled to many rebounds and loose balls. They have also gotten buried by terrible starts, often falling behind by double digits before starting to play with any coherency.
Kent said his youthful team ran out of gas and needs to find a way to rebound during the second half of the season.
“The biggest thing we’re going to do in the second half is we’re going to play energy guys,” said Kent, referring to Malik Hairston, Jordan Kent, Taylor, Oguchi and a few others. “I think with energy guys, it gets you off to a better start. You compete better, you’re loud and vocal and you talk, which brings energy to the other guys on your team.”
Kent also said the Ducks’ four true freshmen are focused on returning their level of play to where it was earlier in the season. Hairston, Taylor, Leunen and Oguchi all tailed off at one point and will play a crucial role in how Oregon finishes its season.
“All four of them have hit the wall and kind of pushed back over it,” Kent said. “I’m just hoping they can all kind of get on their groove at the same time now, because they’ve all shown moments of brilliance. If I can get them all on the same page at the same time, then I think we have a chance to have a great second half of the Pac-10 season.”
Hairston is the only one of the group to have turned things around at this point. Touted as one of the top prospects in the country coming out of Renaissance High School in Detroit, the 6-foot-6 swing man is starting to play with more aggression and has scored in double
figures in the last five games.
“There’s no such thing as giving up,” Hairston said. “As long as there’s games on our schedule, we’ll be fighting hard. This team still has great potential.”