Charles Fischer Administrator No. 1 Share Posted March 6, 2022 I could not believe my eyes reading Dana's reaction in the Eugene paper to their loss at WSU. He felt that in order to win in the Pac-12 Tournament, "we need to play much harder." Wow. Have you ever heard that from him? We have heard many forms of that through this season, and he is basically saying at this point, "I know my coaching works, and if we are failing--it is on you, the players." Whew! 1 Mr. FishDuck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haywarduck No. 2 Share Posted March 6, 2022 History is on Dana's side. The free throw shooting average for a team almost always speaks loudly about a team. For this years Ducks the volume is 11 when you look at the free throw shooting. They call it free, and these Ducks won't even work on what is free. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck Moderator No. 3 Share Posted March 6, 2022 This truly an Odd Duck of a basketball team. Between the embarrassing loss to BYU and the sweep of UCLA, to the W in Colorado and the L to Colorado at home. They nearly sweep USC but lose twice to ASU. It makes no sense. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Marsh No. 4 Share Posted March 6, 2022 The team is just not geling and that really has to do with the players. The best teams in any sport are player led, not coach led. This Oregon team needs players to hold each other accountable and to build those bonds amongst themselves. At this point in the year that has either happened or it hasn't and there really isn't a whole lot that any coach can do about it at this stage. The culture will need to be reassurted by the coaches in the off season and players will need those build their bonds in the off season. Unless the players want it now and then we will see what they can do. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Kamikaze Kid Moderator No. 5 Share Posted March 6, 2022 This team was built to be led by Dante and Richardson and it wasn’t. It just is what it is. Or in this case, it just isn’t what it isn’t. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westsalemduck No. 6 Share Posted March 6, 2022 Maybe they miss Stubblefield more than they thought 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudslide No. 7 Share Posted March 6, 2022 (edited) Yeah, I'm of the opinion that the coach needs to work harder. I understand that he has had decades of success with his teams and his coaching philosophy. But that doesn't mean it doesn't have his critics and/or alternatives that better suit the players he uses. Watch any Duck game and you'll see a couple of things. First the 'weave'. To me this is a useless offense unless there is better, more energetic movement off the ball AND guys who can successfully drive the basket (think Payton Pritchard). The only guy that appears to have that ability successfully, and only slightly so, is Young. So the 'weave' is mostly a waste of time with this team. It can't create the necessary mismatches because only one player is particularly good at doing so. And driving to the basket...note the distance between the driving player and the pick. The drives usually leave plenty of space for the defender to go over the top of the pick. (For the absolute class of this play, just take a look at any drive by NBA players.) For a recent game, the Washington team does the tight pick MUCH better. Duck defenders had to go under the pick...easy three shot. Second the 3-point and free throw shooting. Do these guys practice? The only muscle memory I see is laying bricks. My wife has better free throw stats than the team. And she's 72 years old! So...the team can't drive to the bucket and can't shoot over zones. What's left for the offense? Third...what's left is the fast break. The Ducks have been out rebounded in almost all of their conference games. That in spite of having two talented 7 footers. More than just energy is required to rebounding. It's coaching to block out and get into position. And to "want to". So this becomes a net losing offense for this team. Rewind the WSU game and watch the WSU players position and drive for rebounds. And fourth...passing is lazy and inconsistent. This I lay on the players as well as the coaches. That leaves defense. (As an aside, the two bigs experiment in the WSU game was an complete failure for multiple reasons.) But watch the play of the teams that have been creaming the Ducks. Defense matters to them. They front and challenge the Ducks. The Ducks idea of defense, coached by Altman, is to lay off every offensive player (except occasionally with Young and Williams) until they're inside the 3-point line. Defensive rebounding poorly executed (see offensive rebounding above) is yet another jab in the throat of the Ducks chances of winning. I'm not a b-ball coach and don't claim to know much. But I did play a lot of the game in my (sadly) lost youth. The game has not changed that much in 50 years. But I'm in agreement with Charles. The coach is throwing shade at his players and really should look in the mirror with this teams' performances. Is he making best use of his players? I say no. You may disagree. It's obvious that the players have loads of talent. Witness the big Top 10 wins. But...................... I'm open to other ideas. Edited March 6, 2022 by Mudslide 1 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LADuck No. 8 Share Posted March 6, 2022 I think the effort levels of some of the players vary too much from game to game. I am a fan of Coach Altman and normally he is supportive of his teams but in this case I believe he is just telling us the truth and that is that this team doesn't bring it 100% of the time. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck Moderator No. 9 Share Posted March 6, 2022 Mudslide, thanks very much for that breakdown and analysis, I'm in agreement that more than "working harder" is, was needed for this team. They won some big games, but more often lost, were blown out in games where they showed little resistance. There didn't ever seem to be an adjustment in game or overall. They were embarrassed by BYU and beat UCLA twice. In the same weekend they take No.3 Arizona to the end, then lose for the second time to ASU. But the way they played, schemed didn't appear to be different in either game. There was a common cry about the Ducks Final 4 team, "Who's the Alpha?" Dillon Brooks, Dylan Ennis. Tyler Dorsey? They all were capable, and each hit big shots. In his senior year, Pritchard did carry the load, last season Duarte' and Omoruyi were both big shot ready. This season the Ducks don't have the big shot player 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven A Moderator No. 10 Share Posted March 6, 2022 My observation is that this is really the first time we haven't seen an Altman team improve during the year. So, I'm thinking it is more players than coaching. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DUCKED No. 11 Share Posted March 7, 2022 This Oregon team is probably the least talented in recent years. And when you combine that with inconsistent effort, and a propensity to turn the ball over at an alarming rate, an up and down season will assuredly follow. And Altman is right. They need to play harder. Their effort at home, in an important game against a bad Cal team, was flat out embarrassing. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EOFan No. 12 Share Posted March 7, 2022 I completely believe in Coach Altman and his staff! It's been my experience that you are much more likely to win with a good team versus good to great players! I think this team wants to play together, but too many of the players probably have not been Coached in the past to put team first! Coach has been trying all season long! Lastly I would also say you need one or two players who know how to take over late in games and we haven't consistently had that! That kind of leadership takes sometime in most cases, and with so many new players, the roles have been hard to establish! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaiTaiDuck No. 13 Share Posted March 8, 2022 On 3/6/2022 at 11:49 AM, Charles Fischer said: I could not believe my eyes reading Dana's reaction in the Eugene paper to their loss at WSU. He felt that in order to win in the Pac-12 Tournament, "we need to play much harder." Wow. Have you ever heard that from him? We have heard many forms of that through this season, and he is basically saying at this point, "I know my coaching works, and if we are failing--it is on you, the players." Whew! Every time I open up about this BB Team on whatever site and I see they lost to Washington, WSU teams they should have beaten soundly I just can't see this team winning the PAC 12 Tourney. I look at this Roster and Dana has all the ingredients on his team to succeed and they should have not lost many regular season games at all. So it just goes to show you talent alone isn't gonna get it done and I'm sure inside he's racking his brain trying to figure out why this team could go down to the LA area and beat both USC and UCLA and then lose to teams they shouldn't have. I mean do I really believe they can't win the tourney? Well with Dana as the HC we've seen the proof and to me it's insane to think that this roster is this bad, or excuse me doesn't seem to play hard enough to beat lesser teams with way lesser talent. Its like the Football team this year and we saw what the real issues were and I do believe most of that insanity was on the OLD HC that couldn't get back to Miami fast enough. That was all on him being a HC that thought he was the reason they won at all. Thank goodness we know Dana's isn't like that and he's a great HC in my opinion. We've seen him do more with way less and those teams just played hard most nights. Go Ducks as obviously we want you guys to succeed and you guys have enough talent to not only win the Pac tourney and also talented enough to go far in the Big tourney. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Joseph Moderator No. 14 Share Posted March 8, 2022 I apologize if too off topic. I just checked out all of the broadcast times for the Pac-12 CBB tournament. All games are on the Pac-12 Network except for 2 broadcast by FS1 and the champ game on FOX. How do you sell 'this stuff' to recruits? Would you rather play on the off the radar Pac-12 Network with its relatively few subscribers and lack of market reach; or play on the ACC, B1G or SEC Network? Fiddle while Rome burns? The 'leaders' of the Pac-12 have let the Pac-12 network drift for years now with, as far as I can tell, no cogent plan to make the network financially solvent; no plan to obtain more subscribers required to return the network to solvency and no plan to increase distribution. This 'strategy' included not expanding the conference's market size. As far as I can tell this is the plan: Merlin or Harry Potter will stop by, wave a magic wand and all will be well in the kingdom Larry built. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
McDuck No. 15 Share Posted March 8, 2022 Maybe when your background is promoting women's tennis a network with 10-15 million subscribers is deemed a smash hit. Probably good enough to think you should be paid millions per year while you spend your days in an expensive office patting yourself on the back. I'm not sure the stain of Larry Scott can ever be completely erased. 1 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Washington Waddler Moderator No. 16 Share Posted March 8, 2022 On 3/7/2022 at 7:02 PM, MaiTaiDuck said: We've seen him do more with way less and those teams just played hard most nights. When I think of Dana, I see a Nebraska guy with deep, blue collar roots, and an unimpeachable record of success built on the buy-in from guys like himself who were focused on the reason they came to play for him. I don’t think he understands people who are not as selfless and committed to ‘team’ as he is. For my money, you can take the ‘star’ system, and flush it down the toilet. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven A Moderator No. 17 Share Posted March 10, 2022 Well, he has now taken the main blame, Dana Altman opens up about this year's struggles, places blame on himself 247SPORTS.COM Dana Altman is often considered to be one of the nation's very best college basketball coaches roaming the sidelines. It's tough to... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
