The Ducks D was smothering in the second half! It was a sight for sore eyes.

Phil wrote:

I liked how the Ducks were missing some shots in the first half and didn't implode like earlier in the season. Young was getting to the hoop and making a lot of plays. Dante got the ball fed to him when he was open too. The D played hard all night. Nice to see the team improve so much in a short period. 

Just like in tennis, a service break isn't really a break until you hold your next service game. Ducks need to beat utah tomorrow night. And realistically, they need to win out the rest of the way, which is no small task.

It was great to see the Ducks end 'the curse' in Boulder.  As of today, Joe Lunardi's bracketology has Oregon as one of four last teams in.  They are listed as a 12 seed with a play-in game against 12 seed San Diego State.  And if they win, they would face five seed Ohio State.  The games are scheduled in Portland so it would have a home game feel to it. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.  The Ducks have ten games left, five at home and five on the road.  The home games are against Stanford, California, WSU, UCLA and USC.  The road games are against Utah, ASU, Arizona, Washington and WSU.  Oregon is currently tied with Washington for forth place but hold the tie-breaker with them.  I think a top four finish is imperative so they get a bye to start the PAC-12 tournament in Las Vegas. Just keep on winning and everything else will fall in place. Thank God for Dana Altman!

bedupivi wrote:

Speaking of the Beavers and Coach Tinkle, they were a very average team that got hot at the end.  They were 10-10 during PAC-12 play and had a six game run defeating UCLA, Oregon, Colorado, Tennessee, Oklahoma State and Loyola Chicago. They ended the season with a loss to Houston.  This 'run' lasted from March 11th to March 27th with the final loss coming on the 29th. I don't think anyone thought they would bottom out like they have this season. John Canzano's article was right. Enough of our rival, Go Ducks!

Yes Canzano's column was brutal but I think it is a fair assessment. While I don't think it could happen in football as easily as basketball, it does sound like Tinkle overreached on the Transfer Portal and / or did a poor job of due diligence.

Speaking of, which amazes me what Altman does year after year. His first few years were not particularly great in terms of bringing in some questionable players character-wise. But now he seems to have mastered having an annual revolving door of players leaving / coming into the program.

Last edited by DucksReign (2/04/2022 8:54 pm)

bedupivi wrote:

The Ducks have ten games left, five at home and five on the road. The home games are against Stanford, California, WSU, UCLA and USC. The road games are against Utah, ASU, Arizona, Washington and WSU.

I think we need to win 7 of the 10.  We can probably handle a loss against one of the weaker teams if we cancel it with a win over UCLA, USC, or Arizona.  Certainly if we get 8 of the 10 we should be in no matter what happens in the PAC tournament (we'd just be playing for better seeding in the NCAA).  But even with 7 of them I suspect we'd be in.

Whew...even if Oregon wins say 8 of their last 10...a bad / ugly loss would be so damaging...and tonight could have been one of those against the second worst team in the Pac-12.

For all of Dana Altman's successes; I continue to be stunned year after year with Oregon's struggles to inbound the basketball under pressure.

Altman goes against the most basic tenet which I learned in my first year of organized basketball (6th grade) and which every coach following reinforced.

DO NOT put all your players on the same half of the court as you are inbounding and especially don't have all of them within 30 feet of the ball. Why? Because that also puts all the defensive players in the same position.

Every coach I played for would immediately send 2 players down to the other end of the court and they were instantly followed by 2 defensive players.

Now you are working with the player inbounding the ball and 2 other players with an open halfcourt to cut; set screens, etc. The 2 defensive players cannot cover half a court against 2 players who have a plan. It really is not as difficult Altman makes it out to be...His approach makes absolutely no sense...I give him an "A" for creativity having all 5 players start out of bounds but it is not necessary.

Another "took care of business" win.  Another game in which we didn't look like we would beat a good team like Arizona or UCLA.  But would anyone really feel comfortable betting that we won't?

Another Altman team looked pathetic early in the year, and is now sitting tied for second in the conference after winning four straight and 10 of 11.  The talent is there to keep winning, and as usual, they seem to be figuring it out in time.