EUGENE — Oregon’s season has gotten off to a rough start, to put it mildly.
Narrowly escaping embarrassment against Hawaii without Jackson Shelstad and barely beating Rice with the point guard back in the lineup, firing a program record 40 three-pointers against South Dakota State and slogging through a win over Oregon State made for a 4-0 start that had more questions than sure things. An 0-3 trip to the Players Era Festival featuring 18 turnovers against Auburn, allowing San Diego State to shoot 67.2% from the field and going 1 for 15 from three against Creighton, have the Ducks circling the proverbial wagons heading into tonight’s Big Ten opener against No. 24 USC.
“We’re a poorly coached team,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “This is all on me. Our parts are better than what we’re playing right now. Our players are better. Got a great staff. Coaching is about trust and the players don’t trust what I’m saying. There’s not connection there and that’s on me.
“There’s no facet of the game that we’re playing well in right now. Really disappointed in 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 also on me. It’s my job to get them to play hard.”
It’s not the first time, nor will it be the last, that Altman has put the onus on himself for his team’s under-performance. But this team is disjointed thus far; one of the worst shooting teams in the country, poor defensively and prone to turnovers.
The Ducks are not driving to the basket nearly enough, so they’re not getting to the free throw line at a high rate. Going inside to Nate Bittle and Kwame Evans Jr. has led to some free throw opportunities, but even those chances are limited by guards willing to settle for threes, Altman said.
Takai Simpkins is averaging 15.7 points, but scored in single-figures in three games. Devon Pryor (5.2 ppg.) and Dez Lindsay (4.4 ppg.) “haven’t hit their stride yet,” Altman said, while the rotation inside for Sean Stewart and Ege Demir behind Bittle and Evans “hasn’t been put together at all.” Then Wei Lin is off to a horrific start, shooting just 17.2% from the field and 13.3% from three because he’s taking bad shots, prompting Altman not to play him against Creighton. Lin had two good practices following a meeting on Friday, Altman said, and the hope is they’re now on the same page.
Oregon is built around Bittle, Shelstad and Evans, but it needs the rest of its roster to contribute more.
“Those three guys do have to play well for us to beat good teams – to play anybody,“ Altman said. ”We haven’t had them all on on one night, which is going to be important moving forward. We got to have other guys step up and we’ve got to get them comfortable with their role and that hasn’t been easy to define because we’ve had so many guys miss practice.”
With Bittle (ankle) and Pryor (groin) each questionable tonight, the task of getting back in the win column isn’t going to be any easier against the Trojans (7-0), who are averaging 91.9 points. A trip to UCLA on Saturday follows and a matchup with Gonzaga looms later this month.
Altman told the Ducks not to worry about analytics, none of which are kind to UO right now. Oregon debuted at 192 in NET on Monday, 17th in the Big Ten and the lowest it’s ever been since the NCAA began using the metric in 2019-20.
“We got to worry about getting better and take the next step,” Altman said. “We’re going to have a lot of opportunities to play really good teams. Right now we’ve got to get better. This is an important month for us to get better and we’re going to have to make some strides.”