Dana Altman and The Boys Midseason Report

 Dana Altman Status Report:

    After last nights loss to UCLA and a 1-1 tour through the LA schools, the Oregon Ducks continue their turbulent season. Sitting at 2nd place behind Arizona in the lame duck Pac-12, Dana Altman has really squeezed the most out of an injured, sloppy, and young group of Ducks. Through varying degrees of health the Ducks have stayed competitive in every game since the nasty loss to Syracuse in December. The loss at Boulder has an ugly score but remained close till the tired Ducks let the flood gates open in the final minutes. The home loss to Arizona showed the capabilities of this Ducks squad and keeping up with top level competition come February and march. Though Arizona gained control early, veteran play from Jermaine Couisnard kept the Ducks within striking distance till the final buzzer. A team like Arizona who is surging now and seemingly is a rolling ball of knifes and dagger 3's, showing the fight the Ducks did is a positive especially for the guys moving forward. Building towards the Pac-12 tournament, staying in that top 4 position, and trying to get anything on the resume for Lunardi is the most important goal of the month of February especially with a weak Pac-12 conference underneath the Ducks. What and who are gonna be the reasons the Ducks rise or fall over the next 29 days? 

The Good: 

The Young Guys have stepped for Dana this year and without so this team would be sitting near the bottom of an already weak conference. The emergence of Jackson Shelstad as a scorer and ball handler is a refreshing gift to Oregon fans who have missed a true point guard since the last West Linn #3. Shelstad can be the real deal for Dana and in each game he shows the flashes of Pritchard, making him a must keep for Dana this offseason. He has paired well with Couisnard and taken a large load off his shoulders especially in the scoring department, and has helped reign in players like Rigsby and Evans. Speaking of which Kwame Evans has been integral to bridging the gap between Dante and his 100% form. Without Evans I would stab my eyes out having to watch Diawara play high level D1 basketball without anyone to help but we'll get to that later. Evans getting a healthy 22 minutes a game and shooting 44% and contributing just under 8 points a game shows he can be valuable to Dana moving forward. Critiquing him slightly, his 3 point shooting is dragging down his overall FG% and has been reigned in since the beginning of the season. While I know Dana values the inbetweener guys, a la Chris Boucher, he doesn't need to be taking more than 2 three pointers a game right now. Evans also sometimes forgets his size and does not get aggressive on the boards but every now and then shows flashes of dominance around the rim. Evans is a net positive on the court for the Ducks he is just young right now and needs to grow into his role and style. Ke'el Ware is an example of that and not that they play similar styles of ball but the growth from year 1 to 2 can be as positive for Evans. 

This is the best 3 point shooting team Dana has had in a while and its one of the best in the nation through January and has won and kept Oregon in a lot of games. Shelstad and Couisnard have carried the bulk of that this season but added 3 point efficiency from Rigsby and Barthelemy(out for the season) and more recently from Oquendo and Tracey has been missing in the last couple of seasons. The depth of 3 point weapons is what has made the difference, relying on one or two 3 point weapons in the past has been an Achilles heel in keeping up with top tier teams. Looking specifically at Rigsby who has a flair of Ehab Amin in him, he feels as though he can take over a game and then over extends his abilities. Early in the season he struggled to find his fitting and has been a constant liability on the defensive end but as mentioned earlier has thrived on the court with Shelstad. Helping to keep him from over ball handing and help him excel with his off ball play which has created better 3 point opportunities for not just Rigsby but everyone else. Continued 3 point success can propel this team to a strong Pac-12 tourney showing which could be enough to sneak them into the tournament.

The Bad: 

Injuries continue to plague the Ducks, Mookie Cook the highest rated freshman of the three 5 stars Dana brought in only was able to log a handful of minutes for the Ducks this season before he was ruled likely out for the season. Keeshawn Barthelemy is done for the season as well after sustaining a leg injury during the Arizona homestand. Jesse Zarzuela done for the season early on. Nate Bittle still is not really back and even when he is its gonna a slow grind getting him worked in and in shape for competitive play. N'faly Dante is currently going through that grind, clearly not in shape still and really only showing flashes of his former dominance and paint presence. Dante is probably only at 75% right now and that depth at center is showing and showing in the form of Diawara playing too many minutes. He is clearly a third stringer and is getting exposed as one every game, too slow, too handsy, just not a high level D1 center. Getting Bittle back into the rotation with Evans and Dante he can get worked out but again it'll be a slow grind to get Bittle back up to speed. 

With the constant injuries and varying rotations this group has yet to fully gel together and that gets obvious in points of every game. Turnovers are higher and the team IQ comes and goes throughout the game. As mentioned, the Ducks have been very competitive this season in almost every game but just have seemed to fail at putting away teams weather it has come to down to poor free-throws shooting(nothing new to the Altman regime) or just panic play, the team is gonna have to use February as a time to learn how and who is gonna put away games. Thankfully that has been Dana Altman's specialty; Getting the Boys ready for March.