University of Oregon
Oregon State
Civil War Is Ducks' Next Chance To Grow
01/04/18 | Men's Basketball, @GoDucksMoseley
Oregon took some positive steps over the course of last week to open Pac-12 play, and looks to take another at Oregon State on Friday (7 p.m. PT, FS1).
The Oregon basketball team's most recent result – a 15-point win Sunday over Colorado, in which the Ducks led wire-to-wire – belied what a grind the game actually was.
Oregon committed 12 turnovers in the first half, and shot less than 40 percent in the second. The Buffs won the battle of the boards, 32-30, and had an edge in second-chance points, 13-5, two statistics that speak to a team's hustle.
A wire-to-wire victory in the Pac-12 Conference is nothing to dismiss, particularly for an Oregon team currently starting two true freshmen and two transfers, with more of each coming off the bench. But the grind of the Colorado game also illustrates what figures to be a grind of a conference season for the Ducks, continuing Friday with a Civil War game at Oregon State (7 p.m., FS1).
"I like some of the execution things we did at times," UO coach Dana Altman said postgame Sunday. "But there's so much more we can grow into. We're not anywhere near where we have to be to go beat Oregon State on Friday."
Up just four early in the second half against Colorado, the Ducks pulled away to lead by 16 with 11:47 to go, 55-39, on a three-point play by Troy Brown Jr., who had the best night of his young career. Altman thought the Ducks managed the game well from there, extending possessions to work the clock, and making smart plays by getting to the basket or the free-throw line.
But there was also some risk-taking defensively that led to inopportune fouls, signs of Oregon's youth that Altman sounds prepared to be battling for the foreseeable future.
"We've just gotta get better in every facet of the game," Altman said. "But I thought we did; we definitely weren't as bad as were the other night (in a listless loss to Utah)."
"There's gonna be things to work on with this team all year."
Such is life when rebuilding around two graduate transfers, MiKyle McIntosh and Elijah Brown, still adjusting to Altman's demands, and several freshmen learning the finer points of the game – such as not risking a foul with a late lead.
The good news is, those freshmen continued to flash their potential in the opening week of conference play, in which the level of competition took a significant step up over Oregon's nonconference slate. Individually, Brown set career highs with 21 points and four steals against Colorado. Victor Bailey Jr. came off the bench in the first half and, after Colorado scored eight straight to get within 20-17, made a three-pointer, then a steal-and-dunk to impact the game at both ends of the floor.
And then there's Kenny Wooten, who with his acrobatic shot-blocking has quickly captured the attention of UO fans, who yell "Woooooooo!" whenever he makes a play. Altman hopes Wooten is capturing the attention of his teammates as well, and that they'll look to him more often as a scoring option.
"He's got to start calling for the ball and make guys throw it to him," Altman said of Wooten, who didn't have a field-goal attempt against Utah but scored 13 points on 4-of-4 shooting against Colorado. "He's gotta call for it, but our guys gotta look. And then I just gotta make them throw it in there. Because he's shooting 60-some percent (officially 76.5 percent, 52-of-68). He's giving us so many things, we gotta (reward him with) the ball every now and then. And then he's so unselfish, he'll pass it out if he doesn't have a good one. He doesn't take any bad shots."
Overall, Oregon's freshman class is contributing about 40 percent of the Ducks' points (31.7 per game), rebounds (17.3) and steals (2.5), and 72 percent of their blocked shots per game (4.8). Still, Altman anticipates progress to be halting, or at least was signaling as much after the Colorado game.
The next chance is Friday, against an Oregon State team that also opened Pac-12 play by beating Colorado and losing to Utah. The Beavers thus already have matched their conference win total from last season, and with another victory Oregon State (9-5) will have doubled its overall win total from 2016-17.
Thus, while pleased with Sunday's victory over Colorado, Altman said it would take considerable work in practices Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to have the Ducks ready for the Civil War.
"We've got steps to take with everyone," he said. "And we've got to start taking them quicker."
