spartan2785

He isn't even the best center from the past two years I think personally, I think Dante was better. He was truly dominant last year. Just look how he played against Kalkbrenner from Creighton. I love Bittle this season, but I'll take Dante between the two.

One thing that popped into my head today was imagining where this team would be if the NCAA had done the logical and right thing and given Dante another year. This team would be so much different. We would have dominated the boards today with Bittle and Dante serving as twin towers, depressing to think about since it made no sense whatsoever to deny Dante when others who had the exact same amount of games missed were given extra years. I think Dana is getting a ton out of this team, can't really see them doing any better than they are right now. He's severely limited by the height in the backcourt, and the lack of shooter at the 3. He's coached his butt off this year (like always).

Felt bad for Bittle, played really hard and was consistently let down by his teammates, no shooting, only Evans as another rebounder, just a horrible performance from the guards, but they are limited physically. There are better matchups for us out there among the more elite teams, but this game sort of shows how our upside just isn't there. If Bamba had a shooting season like he had every other season he played we might have that upside to compete, but since he's a zero this season when it comes to outside shooting it really limits us on offense.

Great start, 44-43, Bittle taking over, Bamba with a few good plays, Angel with a nice steal, good response after the less than ideal end to the 1st half!

Very true, very tough to compete against the elite with 6'1 and 6'2 unless you have a massive frontline.

Getting exposed, this what I was worried about, Michigan St. killing us on the boards, we don't have the offensive chops against an actual good team....at least in this half.

ridiculous officiating, any time sparty bumps us no foul, any time we touch State whistle. Officials sure seem to favor the old guard.

Personally I've had a difficult read on the B1G, there aren't any teams that would be considered for a top 2 seed, how much of this is manipulation from ESPN over claiming that the SEC is the greatest basketball conference ever is a matter of debate. On one hand Oregon is the only team to really impress during its non-con schedule, then again Oregon lost some bad games against mid competition in the conference. I'm hopeful we'll continue this run.

I want to believe you, I really do, I just sort of wonder how good Indiana actually is. Our stretch of wins only really contains one win that I would consider against a "good" team that would be Wisconsin, and even in that game we sort of got lucky with a deep deep 3 to tie it, we certainly played well in that second half and OT though! Just depends on matchups, I really don't want to be in Auburn or Duke's bracket, I think both those teams aren't good matchups for us. Next game will say a lot of about where the Ducks are now after that tough 5 game losing streak.

This was basically the team I thought we would be coming into the league play. Angel and Bamba acting as the third and fourth scorers who provide another option when Bittle and Shelstad are cold or are just getting doubled. We're playing better on defense, we're rebounding better, I don't think we played particularly well but Indiana went cold down the stretch. I really wish Dana would draw up better positions late in the game when we're up. I'm not totally against running down the clock, but we never seem to get great looks, typically we just throw something up at the shot clock buzzer, seems to be his strategy, makes me nervous. Michigan St. will be a great game for us, they played a great game against us last time, they just couldn't miss in the second half and we crumbled under their great crowd. I of course want a win, but I'll be quite content if we lose in a down the wire game. We really need to play a team that is the caliber of Sparty. It would be really encouraging if Angel and Bamba have back to back efficient games.

Oregon 37- Indiana 29 This is what I thought the Ducks would be like, Angel and Bamba being offensive threats and picking up the slack when Bittle isn't scoring much, unfortunately it didn't happen much during the league season. Very good run at the end of the half

I don't think anybody is saying that staying at Mac Court was the answer, nobody in their right mind would say that, it had to be upgraded, it had to happen as much as the atmosphere was never going to be the same. There are better built facilities that are new, if you look at Auburn and Ole' Miss' facilities, those are much better designed to keep a raucous atmosphere. They were a bit burdened by the fact that they did need to make sure it could be used for various other events, so I'm sure that had an effect, but the athletic department didn't do a good job establishing a feel for the stadium when they moved, it was such a jarring change in how the game was presented, some of that is totally to be expected, but they leaned way too much into the pro style of presentation than they needed to. If we're being honest it's probably too big of an arena for the size of the city and the fanbase. 10,000 or 10,500 might have been better. I'm not sure if that would make much of an effect. A lot of arena are now being built smaller. Texas had a huge downsize in their new arena, Baylor did the same despite their programs being good.

My thoughts are this I would argue there are more people that don't got to games due to the lack of atmosphere than those who didn't got to Mac due to the infrastructure. I don't go to that many games solely because there is nothing at Matt Court that would get me to go to a game, it's cavernous, no atmosphere, kiddie environment, completely misses the point of college athletics, why would I go to the game when I can get the same experience at home? Mac Court was unique and the environment was second to none, you could legitimately say it was a singular experience in college basketball, no other arena had that sort of design, it was one of the loudest, most intimidating atmospheres in the country. People went because it was place where anything could happen despite Oregon not being a great basketball power. Matt Court has produced a few games where it felt intimidating, the UCLA Dillon Brooks buzzer beater comes to mind, but those games are few and far between because the university has done a TERRIBLE job with their fan experience. There really should be nothing when it comes to music other than the band and SHOUT!, there shouldn't be any sort of kiss cam or anything else on the big screen, make everything about what is on the court. I will say the student body is atrocious now when it comes to their support, but that could be different if the environment was different, it's not like the student body is bad at football games. Unfortunately the design of the building isn't great, it doesn't feel very cozy, it's not the worst building, but there is nothing that feels unique or something other than the court design that tells you that you are at Matt Court. In the end it's on the University for not understanding what got people to attend games at Mac Court, they thought people wanted a comfortable setting where they can take the family and relax, but what people want is a intimidating arena which opposing teams both look forward to and dread going to.

You could see the lack of a third scorer in this game, Shelstad had one of his games where he just doesn't show any desire to score at all and was very passive, partially due to Bittle being a such a beast and UW did a good job limiting his easy looks. Classic trap game, I wasn't surprised to see the Ducks struggle in this one, it's survive and advance at this point, nothing else matters now.

Yeah, I think they have as good a chance as anyone else but I don't think they are a big favorite, certainly a wide open race in the B1G this upcoming year. PSU just has more certainty, but I don't think Aller is going to take much of a step further, Moore and Sayin probably both have higher ceiling this upcoming year. PSU also doesn't have the receiving talent to really expect them to dominate. Certainly have a good QB and two very good RBs, but I just don't see the receiving talent to blow teams away.

Yeah, that's the first thing I thought as I read that, just come on! I get it if we were someone like Minnesota, but we were the number 1 team in the nation last year, you would expect someone there to know that Boettcher is coming back. Everything else is just standard fluff, nothing interesting at all really, only thing that might be informative is some stuff on the mid level teams. All the site do it, and they all pretty much read the same, but that's me who will most likely skim these types of articles, so they're still getting clicks from me!

I still think the upside to this team is a sweet sixteen or if they get a favorable matchup an elite eight. I don't think they have the shooting to win against the best teams. At some point they'll have to have a game where they are just on fire and I don't know if they have the firepower to match up against some of the teams in the top 12 or so. Don't get me wrong, I've been impressed that they have been finding ways to win, but at some point they have to be more efficient on offense and not rely on Shelstad shooting some desperation 3 late in the game to win. Shelstad has been awesome in those spots, but it's playing with fire just expecting him to constantly hitting 28 footers late in the shot clock.

I personally don't think Bittle will be an NBA player, in today's NBA you need to be able to guard out to the perimeter, I just don't think he has the foot speed to keep up. He would have to become a 40% plus 3 point shooter (which he might be able to do). He's a classic very good college player who has a long career over in Europe. In today's NIL world it will be interesting to see if it's to his benefit to just stay another year. I would like to see him try to become that type of shooter by next year. That is what I think he'll need to work on along with just improving his pick and roll defense.

Yeah, after the Wiscy game I said I really thought he has completely turned his season around, his shooting hasn't come back, but he plays so damn hard that you have to keep him in the game even if he isn't a threat at all from the outside. Feels like he is the soul of this team. Guys have found their role. You see Evans really finding his niche, even guys like Moss have found a way to help the team even if they aren't a threat on offense, it's cool to see.

Good game, important game since Indiana was a dangerous team desperate for a win. Now finish up with a strong game against UW and you will be looking at a possible 4 seed which is important since it would mean Oregon would be closer to home. Nice turn around they've had. Altman does it again I guess. Really does come down to defense and effort. Might sound simple, but this team isn't an offensive juggernaut, they score a bit, but it will defense that will get them wins. They don't have the consistent shooting to just win a shootout.

Blazers are in a very very weird place. They have some interesting pieces in Avidja, Camara, Sharpe, Scoot, and I think eventually Clingen. None of those players though are a superstar, I think you could get one all star out that group, Scoot has had a very good developing year after looking awful last year. Billiups is an awful coach who has stifled the development of the young players. They're too good to get a high draft pick, not good enough to do anything in the playoffs (if they get there, which would be a miracle). They also can't get rid of Simons or Grant since those two have no value. They'll have to settle for a very meager package for either one, but it's the right thing to do in order to put the young guys as the featured players. It's a mess, a GM who won't pull the trigger on anything, a bad coach who is coaching to win instead of coaching to develop, and finally an owner who has no interest in this team but for whatever reason won't sell the team either! In the end I actually like a lot of the players they have, I even like Ayton this year! But it's not a team that is in a position to actually become a contender due to not committing to a full rebuild which is the worst thing to do as a franchise!!!

Ducks have 3 very winnable games to end the year, they could then win one tourney game, and could possibly get up to a 4 seed even, amazing considering where they were just a week ago. They could also lose all three, get bounced in the first game in the conference tourney and end up a 9 or 10 seed. So who knows with this team.

God I love those uniforms! cream whites are the GOAT when it comes to baseball uniforms (Cardinals and Phillies come to mind), even better with the classic green and yellow. Certainly seems like a very very good class that has come in this year.

Charles while I would love to think that the B1G will care about baseball, they don't seem to have ever really cared in the past since the conference has been horrible in baseball forever. I honestly think they might care more about Wrestling and Hockey (nothing wrong with those sports btw). Baseball and Softball are the only things that I'm kind of bummed out about when it comes to moving to this conference. The Pac-12 wasn't as good as it used to be in Baseball but it was still fun when a good Stanford, Zona, or ASU came to play. I just don't get excited about Ohio St or Minnesota baseball. I'm guessing we'll be pretty dominant in Baseball and T&F.

I have a lot of thoughts I only just watched the game. I had stuff to do on this Saturday, was able to watch the first half until we got down by around 10 or 12. After I got down with my errands I checked the score thinking we probably lost by around 18 or so based on what I had saw so far. Pleasantly surprised of course. After watching the game we got a bit lucky, Wiscy missed some open 3s, not a huge amount, but enough that I thought a normal shooting night by them probably dooms us. What we did do well was play active defense, and it really showed why Angel needs to see his minutes reduced to around 10 a game. Bench him, he give us nothing unless he's hitting some shots. This team needs Evans and Cook getting the majority of the minutes at the 4, they don't give us much in shot making, but the defense is so much better! I will take Evans giving effort and energy, he'll get some hustle buckets and the defense is immensely better, the rebounding is better, everything is better other than the shooting. Cook as well needs to be averaging at least 12-15 minutes a game, he hustles, he can switch on defense, and he'll also give us something in the transition game. We need to go small from here on out. We just can't matchup on defense when we play Angel and Bittle/Cook. I might try Angel at the 5, but I don't think that will go well at all. Bamba really bums me out. If he just had an average shooting season compared to his first 4 years he would be a fan favorite, he has never gotten down on himself, he takes pride in his defense and he seems to be a team first guy, I know that his shooting woes have probably upset himself more than anyone else. He's broken in that regard, but he is still finding ways to help the team. Shelstad is simply clutch, nothing more to be said. Bittle battled, he's trying to lead the team, came up big in the second half and the overtime. He needs help from his teammates on the pick and roll action, but he's working down low. In the end this could be a turning point, it really frustrates me that it took this long to finally bench Angel for significant portions of a game. He's a good player, but he doesn't work in this system as a 4, and I don't see the complementary players that could allow him to play as a 5. I don't think you completely forget about him, but if he's not shooting he needs a tight leash on his minutes.