The Ducks struggle with the half-court game on both sides of the ball.  The ball clearly goes through two folks on offense and defenses will crash down on those two and make the rest of the team hit their opportunities.  Defensively all you gotta do is get Dante in foul trouble.  

Still a work in progress, think if they split this next series they are in a good spot.  A top three finish to the regular season will be good to make the field, IMO.  

Jiffy Jeff wrote:

The Ducks struggle with the half-court game on both sides of the ball.  The ball clearly goes through two folks on offense and defenses will crash down on those two and make the rest of the team hit their opportunities.  Defensively all you gotta do is get Dante in foul trouble.  

Still a work in progress, think if they split this next series they are in a good spot.  A top three finish to the regular season will be good to make the field, IMO.  

One of the hallmarks of Altman's best teams was an aggressive press. He seems to have gone away from that in recent years. With the depth on this team, I'd love to see more full court D. It certainly couldn't be worse than the very average defensive effort we've seen so far this year, no? I'd love to see more zone defense from Dana as well. He's really a 80% man-to man guy.
 

Duckball wrote:

bedupivi wrote:

Duckball...here are the stats of how Rigsby and Oquendo stack up.  Each player has played in all 18 games. 
Rigsby's stats are:     446 minutes     56 rebounds     22 assists     139 points     25 minutes per game
Oquendo's stats are: 318 minutes     44 rebounds     17 assists      164 points    18 minutes per game

I have to admit it's a head-scratcher why Brennan gets a lot more minutes than Kario. 
With the upcoming games against the Arizona schools, the talking heads at ESPN give this outlook...
Ducks  82.5% chance of beating the Sun Devils
Wildcats 75.3% chance of beating the Ducks
Concerning Mookie Cook, I thought he would get more minutes and be part of the rotation.  I knew Coach said he was going to bring him along slowly.  With Cook and Nate Bittle healthy for the stretch run, I still think the Ducks can make a run for an NCAA invite. 
 

Thanks for the stats.
It's not so much that I dislike Rigsby. I think he is a decent player, it's just that I'm really puzzled why his minutes are increasing while Oquendo's are decreasing....and in a big way. I don't like it, but it's a small sample size. It's something to keep an eye on going forward. Also, Bittle was cleared by doctors last week and he gets ZERO minutes?? Would it be really asking too much to split Diawara's minutes with Nate while he gets up to speed? C'mon Dana I don't think we'd be losing out on much production lol. 

I'm a little bummed about Cook. I've watched Altman enough to think Cook will be odd man out this year. One thing about Dana, and correct me if I'm wrong, but he really seems to dislike the guys he recruits. He'd rather bring in a transfer than actually develop his young guys. Unless you are a point guard ( Pritchard, Richardson (lol) Shelstad) I can't think of one freshman who he developed and didn't end up transferring. Nate Bittle and a couple one and done's would be an exception to the rule. I see either Cook or Evans transferring out after this season if not both. 

As far as this week, I think Arizona is highly overrated and ASU has Bobby Hurley so I'm actually feeling pretty confident for the sweep! 


 

You make a good point about player development. A lot of these huge supposed and very talented recruits never see the floor. Outside of some guards like you say the most memorable players in recent years have been transfers.  

Phil wrote:

I missed the Utah game, but did see a lot of the Colorado game. 

The Colorado game looked like a typical loss in CO. The Ducks couldn't move the ball well at all down the court or find great shots. I've had a hard time understanding the past few years how bad the Ducks can struggle with the press. I'm not sure why Dana doesn't coach having other players move to get the ball versus the trapped player having to make a long risky pass. 

I'm hoping to tune in more and see the team come together. 

If they don't this year I wonder if Dana will be in the hot seat or my just even consider retiring?  

I've nothing personal against Altman. He's a fine coach and a Hall-of-Famer in my book. I've just personally soured on his abilities the last several years. I think he's a coach for a bygone era. But I must say, his recruiting has remained very top-notch which is great. I'm thankful he's been very loyal to Oregon. We are lucky in that regard. I think he was very close to calling it quits after last season. His final press conference diatribe was one for the ages lol!! Guess he's a glutton for punishment. 😄

This would be a great week to tune in Phil. It's a huge week and like I said, I feel a sweep is on the menu!!

As an addendum to my previous post I can't forget that Dante was a guy that Altman developed. Probably the ONLY big man who's ever been awesome at Oregon under his tenure. I mistakenly thought he transferred in as a soph.

GO DUCKS!!!!!