MicroBurst61 No. 1 Share Posted January 29 February "Ducks" basketball is upon us. Every year that OBD Basketball has made their move to solidify themselves as a conference contender and a tourney team, has always become apparent with Altman teams, in February. OBD's basketball currently has played itself into second place in the PAC by half a game behind Arizona. Arizona who BTW, Earned that win at Matt Knight shooting 50% from both the field and three point line and did what they HAD to do to keep their conference championship alive. No shame in a loss like that. Good news is we weathered a significant part of our conference schedule (part 1) with only 3 conference losses. With 6 of the games in February against teams currently in the bottom half of the conference (two against ORST). Five of those on the road with only Stanford as a possible road loss, and getting a surprising Washington St. here at Matt Knight, I can honestly see this team going 7-1 or 6-2 but entirely possible that the team could also go 8-0. Do this and we have twenty wins and single digit losses for the season. A damn near prerequisite for NCAA bidding conciderations. More than 3 losses and the season just might slip away for a Third year. But I doubt it. The loss of Bartholomew off the bench Will hurt a bit, but this team has worked around injuries all year and I don't expect too much of a drop off (with maybe the exception of 3pters), especially with the team beginning to work well together with our "bigs" being reincorporated into our "flow". If this team can continue to "gel", then by the end of February we could be at a place we need to be to claim a conference championship. This is still a young team and there is a whole lot of basketball left to be played and obviously I am somewhat optimistic about OBD's chances. Would love to hear how others are feeling about the traditional "February" shift into another gear for Oregon Ducks Basketball. As always going to love watching it unfold. Go Quackers!!!! 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JabbaNoBargain No. 2 Share Posted January 29 (edited) Not to be a downer, as I appreciate the enthusiasm, but to me that game felt like a possible deathblow to our at-large hopes. Prior to the UA game I thought we needed to win out at home and have no more than 2 road losses the rest of the way to get an at-large bid. Starting out with an underwhelming loss at home (to a team both OSU and WSU beat at home) in that stretch does not bode well. We might be able to still squeak in if we lose to Arizona again, but run the table otherwise. We also have a decent chance of winning the PAC tourney for the auto, but that’s always a tough thing to count on. I believe that being so much more inside oriented now completely changes our offensive flow and how teams defend us, and also makes us less effective at defending the 3. Difficult transition to make in late January. I do enjoy watching this team and will continue to do so, but we just don’t have any “quality” wins when it come to the tourney. Edited January 29 by JabbaNoBargain Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
anyotherduck No. 3 Share Posted January 29 On 1/29/2024 at 10:05 AM, JabbaNoBargain said: Not to be a downer, as I appreciate the enthusiasm, but to me that game felt like a possible deathblow to our at-large hopes. Prior to the UA game I thought we needed to win out at home and have no more than 2 road losses the rest of the way to get an at-large bid. Starting out with an underwhelming loss at home (to a team both OSU and WSU beat at home) in that stretch does not bode well. We might be able to still squeak in if we lose to Arizona again, but run the table otherwise. We also have a decent chance of winning the PAC tourney for the auto, but that’s always a tough thing to count on. I believe that being so much more inside oriented now completely changes our offensive flow and how teams defend us, and also makes us less effective at defending the 3. Difficult transition to make in late January. I do enjoy watching this team and will continue to do so, but we just don’t have any “quality” wins when it come to the tourney. What the Ducks had prior to the bigs returning was a team that had an offensive/defensive flow that worked. What we have now is a team being forced into playing "big man in the paint", which has ruined pretty much everything positive we had prior to the bigs returning. This is about game flow/style and on court chemistry and I'm not very confident Altman has any idea how to make this all work. Would you rather have Dante scoring 25, no one scoring 3's and losing games? Or just live with Evans as an adjunct big while allowing the younger talent to flourish? Clearly the latter was working while the former is not. I like Altman but don't have a lot of confidence that he can figure any of this out. When the Ducks were killing it with the Brooks/Bell/Pritchard it was Altman that got much of the credit, but I think it was far more about that group of players than it was about the coach. Go Ducks! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
spartan2785 No. 4 Share Posted January 29 On 1/29/2024 at 10:55 AM, anyotherduck said: I like Altman but don't have a lot of confidence that he can figure any of this out. When the Ducks were killing it with the Brooks/Bell/Pritchard it was Altman that got much of the credit, but I think it was far more about that group of players than it was about the coach. Go Ducks! I think Altman's record prior to the final four trip shows that he's on a very short list of coaches out there, he got Oregon, Creighton, and Kansas St. teams to play above their talent level. We've just been decimated by injuries that haven't allowed us to really practice at all with the entire group, it's hard to insert guys when they don't have much experience playing together. Even prior to the season we were injured and that's how it's been for three season now. I think we've just played much tougher opponents than UW or WSU or any of the other teams we played during that winning streak, teams also have film on Shelsted and have a plan against him now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WiseKwacker No. 5 Share Posted January 29 On 1/29/2024 at 10:55 AM, anyotherduck said: What the Ducks had prior to the bigs returning was a team that had an offensive/defensive flow that worked. What we have now is a team being forced into playing "big man in the paint", which has ruined pretty much everything positive we had prior to the bigs returning. This is about game flow/style and on court chemistry and I'm not very confident Altman has any idea how to make this all work. I'm totally with you on this up to the point where you wonder if Altman "has any idea how to make this all work." I believe he does, but that doesn't mean he's going to get this team there. For me, the "problem" is Dante. How, you may ask, is an all-PAC12 center a problem? Well, he's definitely a good player who has improved by leaps and bounds over his years as a Duck. Close to the hoop with the ball in his hands, he's developed an excellent touch coupled with very good footwork, making him almost unstoppable. In addition, he's a very good rebounder, something the Ducks were lacking when he was out. Defensively, he gives the Ducks somebody in the paint that limits opponents' willingness to take the ball inside on offense. He's a good--not great--defender. HOWEVER, Dante has bad hands. Somehow, he was only given three turnovers in the Arizona game. Seems to me, there were quite a few more balls bouncing off his hands than that. Maybe some of those turnovers were given to teammates attempting to pass to him with a bounce pass that he clearly couldn't handle. While Dante's shooting has improved greatly, he's still not a guy you want to see shooting jumpers from 10-15 feet out. Too many times, the offense ran the clock down to the last few seconds with Dante holding the ball beyond the foul line. Not his fault, but not good. I also think that I've seen enough of the Dante/Bittle combo. Their games don't complement one another, or, more specifically, Dante's presence in the post hampers Bittle's game. In my view, it's not a coincidence that Bittle began to blossom last season in the last few games when Dante was out. Frankly, I think Bittle's upside is greater than Dante's. I don't think we'll see that, though, until next season when Dante has moved on. In the meantime, I'd like to see Bittle playing with the second unit, and see Evans--who is really coming into his own the past few games--moved into the starting lineup. Evans is more of a power forward than Bittle, who I'd like to see playing in the paint more often. Having said all that, I think the Ducks can figure this out with more practice time. They've got to figure out how to regain the ball movement they had when the two big men were out. And, losing Barthelemy will hurt. Five or six games ago, he was hardly playing and looked like he was sulking a bit on the bench. Then, as Shelstad hit the freshman wall, Barthelemy really found a groove with increased playing time. For the first time in his Duck career, he began resembling the player we saw in a Colorado uniform. Now, it's on Shelstad to figure it out and adjust to the adjustments his opponents have made to his game. This week will tell us a lot. While both USC and UCLA boast talented teams, neither has played particularly well this season. Both games are winnable for the Ducks. 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MicroBurst61 Author No. 6 Share Posted January 30 On 1/29/2024 at 12:51 PM, WiseKwacker said: HOWEVER, Dante has bad hands. Somehow, he was only given three turnovers in the Arizona game. Seems to me, there were quite a few more balls bouncing off his hands than that. Maybe some of those turnovers were given to teammates attempting to pass to him with a bounce pass that he clearly couldn't handle. While Dante's shooting has improved greatly, he's still not a guy you want to see shooting jumpers from 10-15 feet out. Too many times, the offense ran the clock down to the last few seconds with Dante holding the ball beyond the foul line. Not his fault, but not good. I also think that I've seen enough of the Dante/Bittle combo. Their games don't complement one another, or, more specifically, Dante's presence in the post hampers Bittle's game. In my view, it's not a coincidence that Bittle began to blossom last season in the last few games when Dante was out. Frankly, I think Bittle's upside is greater than Dante's. I don't think we'll see that, though, until next season when Dante has moved on. In the meantime, I'd like to see Bittle playing with the second unit, and see Evans--who is really coming into his own the past few games--moved into the starting lineup. Evans is more of a power forward than Bittle, who I'd like to see playing in the paint more often. Yes. This. Dante is great down low and is the reason his FG% is so high. Inside bankshots and dunks tend to trend to a higher percentage. His hands have been questionable before and hoping it's just shaking off the rust, but we will see during these next eight games. Dante and Bittle Do Not compliment each other when on the floor together and seem to actually get in the way of each other. A rotation between the two of them, with the other talent off of the bench, seems like a better option at this point. Better figure it out because...Roadtrip! And Ducks BB has already blown their road split in the mountains, so need both these to get back to even. Go Ducks! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MicroBurst61 Author No. 7 Share Posted February 2 Wasn't ugly. But wasn't pretty. Shot well and played good defense for 3/4 of the game but let both lapse in the last 7-8 minutes. Went from shooting mid 40, both FG and 3pt'ers, to high 30's by the end of the game. Meanwhile USuCk did the opposite and finished strong. Thank goodness our FREEthrows have been holding up much better or this could have turned into a BAD loss. Love the fact that Shelstad seemed to get his "groove" back and had 4 other players score double digits. Really was impressed with Oquendo who had solid stats all around AND managed to hang onto the ball. Definitely help make up for a subpar game from Cousnard. Even with dealing with a rotating M*A*S*H unit this team (and they seem to be solidifying that term as the season progresses) as a group can play Elite basketball. They genuinely seem to Enjoy playing with/for each other. They just need to do it for a full game, every game. No more sluggish starts and no more lapses, especially in the last 8 minutes of any game. Onto UCLaLaLand with another must win road game. Again on paper we OBD should win by double digits, but UCLaLaLand is a much more rounded team than the one we just beat. See ya all on Saturday! Go Ducks ! (PS: NJDuck attempted a live game thread last night. If NJDuck set up another "live thread" for UCLaLaLand let's see if we can all jump in and "cuss and discuss" as the game unfolds.). Later fellow Ducksters. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
spartan2785 No. 8 Share Posted February 4 (edited) Great comeback in the first half, tough to have such a delay getting to the game, it appears it affected the Ducks, then a furious comeback to lead at halftime, shows a lot of character. I like Dana using the small lineup when Dante isn't in the game, we probably unfortunately for Bittle need to lean into Evans as the backup 5, we just seem to do better with that smaller lineup. We're beginning to understand how to play with Dante, we aren't force feeding him the ball quite as much (still had some questionable decisions with entry passes, but getting better). Character building half. Edited February 4 by spartan2785 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
spartan2785 No. 9 Share Posted February 4 Not liking the second half though, I don't know why we have decided we don't need to defend the elbow jumper, every single time we just let them shoot it completely open. Horrible defense in the second half. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
spartan2785 No. 10 Share Posted February 4 Well I guess I spoke too soon, horrible horrible loss, probably have to win the tourney now, I don't really know how you can absolutely choke like that, absolutely pathetic defense in the second half, it does help though when the refs decide they're going to take over the game and call everything on one team and nothing on the other. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JabbaNoBargain No. 11 Share Posted February 4 (edited) League going out with a whimper in hoops, sorry future PAC2 units “earned”….aww. Edited February 4 by JabbaNoBargain Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duckley Palace No. 12 Share Posted February 4 Oregon Ducks: Results, Picks, Power Rankings, Odds & Stats on TeamRankings.com WWW.TEAMRANKINGS.COM Oregon Ducks team page with results, picks, power rankings, odds and stats. According to, Oregon is projected as a tenth seed. With a 38% chance of making the tourney. If they can get in, I really don't fear any of the seven or two seeds. Purdue has looked like the best team, but until a Big Ten team makes an actual run. I don't fear any of them. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JabbaNoBargain No. 13 Share Posted February 4 I wanna believe, but we’ve lost about 3 “must wins” in the last 3 weeks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MicroBurst61 Author No. 14 Share Posted February 5 Poor start to the game. Great comeback from 18 down to close out the first half. Solid back and forth at the start of the second half. Went cold shooting and stopped defending the last part of the game. This team doesn't give up when things go wrong, but there seems to Always be something that has gone wrong each game. Chemistry and flow seem to still be the major roadblock from being just a good team to becoming a great one. PAC12 basketball this year is still competitive, within the league, but with some bad losses, just not enough Q1 and Q2 games left for the Ducks to impress outside of the league. Three PAC teams within a game of Arizona and three more one game further back, but I don't believe the regular season champion will necessarily get an autobid this year. Can this team close out February with no more losses? Road heavy against some "motivated" teams will definitely challenge them. Need to stay focused and gel as a team more than they have to date. Regular season championship is still within their grasp but no more lapses during games, or that will fail to come to fruition. Most important for this team to secure a top four position in the PAC12 tourney and then make some noise when seeded. This is becoming more and more of the path the Ducks will have to follow to "go dancin'" unless they can darn near "run the table" for the rest of the regular season. Not going to give up on this team, yet, for they are playing more cohesive and more to task than Duck basketball the past few seasons, but they got to "get it together" NOW to make that run to the dance. Would hate to see this team who definitely are trying hard and have worked through a "rotating M*A*S*H unit", to not be rewarded by at least the first weekend of dancing. Let us all hope our roundball ducks will succeed. Go Ducks! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
