EUGENE – Oregon’s season has been off to a rough start, to put it mildly.
Narrowly avoiding embarrassment against Hawaii without Jackson Shelstead and barely beating Rice with a point guard in the lineup, firing a program record 40 three-pointers against South Dakota State and getting off to a 4-0 start with a win over Oregon State, there were more questions than sure things. Coming off an 0-3 trip to the Players Era Festival that included 18 turnovers against Auburn, allowing San Diego State to shoot 67.2% from the field and go 1 of 15 from three against Creighton, the Ducks enter tonight’s Big Ten opener against No. 24 USC circling the proverbial wagons.
“We’re a poorly coached team,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “It’s all on me. Our offense is better than what we’re playing right now. Our players are better. We have a great staff. Coaching is about trust and the players don’t trust what I’m saying. There’s no connection there and it’s on me.
“There’s no aspect of the game that we’re playing well in right now. Really disappointed with the way we’re playing. That’s on me. Attention to detail, not there. When we play hard, we don’t play smart. There were times in transition defense where we didn’t play hard, and that’s on me, too. It’s my job to make them work hard.”
This is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that Altman has taken responsibility for his team’s poor performance on himself. But this team is still scattered; One of the worst shooting teams in the country, weak defensively and prone to turnovers.
The Ducks are not getting to the basket enough, so they are not getting to the free throw line at a high rate. Nate Bittle and Kwame Evans Jr. moving inside has created some free throw opportunities, Altman said, but those opportunities have also been limited by guards willing to settle for threes.
Takai Simpkins is averaging 15.7 points, but scored in single figures in three games. Devon Pryor (5.2 ppg) and Dez Lindsey (4.4 ppg) “haven’t hit their stride yet,” Altman said, while the inside rotation for Shawn Stewart and Ege Demir behind Bittle and Evans “hasn’t been put together at all.” Wei Lin then had a very poor start, shooting only 17.2% from the field and 13.3% from three as he was taking poor shots, leading Altman to not play him against Creighton. Lynn had two good practices after a meeting Friday, Altman said, and hopefully they’re on the same page now.
Oregon is built around Bittle, Shelstead and Evans, but it needs the rest of its roster to contribute more.
“Those three guys are going to have to play well for us to beat good teams — to play anybody,” Altman said. “We haven’t had them all in on the same night, which is going to be important moving forward. We’ve got to have other guys step up and we’ve got to make them comfortable with their role and that’s not easy to define because we have a lot of guys who have missed practice.”
With Bittle (ankle) and Pryor (groin) each questionable tonight, it won’t be an easy task to get back in the win column against the Trojans (7-0), who are averaging 91.9 points. There’s a trip to UCLA on Saturday and a matchup with Gonzaga likely later in the month.
Altman told the Ducks not to worry about the analytics, none of which have been kind to UO right now. Oregon opened Monday at 192 in NET, 17th in the Big Ten and its lowest since the NCAA began using the metric in 2019-20.
“We have to worry about getting better and taking the next step,” Altman said. “We’re going to get a lot of opportunities to play really good teams. Right now we’ve just got to get better. This is an important month for us to get better and we’ve got to make some progress.”
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