Oregon men’s basketball in search of improved, consistent effort

On paper Oregon is simply one-and-a-half video games out of second place within the Pac-12 with 11 video games to play — greater than sufficient to climb the ranks of the weakest energy convention within the nation and hold its postseason hopes alive.

However what’s on paper doesn’t remotely inform the story of this Geese crew, which is coming off its worst lack of the season at Stanford and is sixtieth in NET solely as a result of its losses to the Cardinal and Utah Valley are momentarily greater than they are going to be by the top of the season.

On paper Oregon (11-9, 5-4 Pac-12) is a veteran crew, notably at guard, and has three former five-star facilities. However that have and promise has not come collectively on a constant sufficient foundation to ship profitable outcomes. Much like 2018-19, the Geese are determined for wins coming into a vital six-game stretch, starting Thursday night time (6 p.m., Pac-12 Community) in opposition to Colorado, to make the postseason in any capability.

“Clearly, I’m upset with the inconsistency we’ve proven,” Oregon coach Dana Altman stated. “There’s no excuse for it now. Early within the 12 months I may have given an excuse for it, however now there’s none. We’re nonetheless inconsistent. We’ve obtained to maintain grinding and we’ve obtained a 3rd of our schedule and we’ve obtained to get higher and we’ve obtained to grind it out.”

Protection is on the core of UO’s identification throughout Altman’s tenure, particularly rebounding, and the previous three weekends have every featured wins with robust rebounding and losses that didn’t.

The Geese have reviewed sport movie to underscore what wants to enhance and the areas that may’t turn into lackadaisical.

“We had a extremely good apply (Monday) and you’ll count on that after watching the movie, these guys could be upset,” Altman stated after Tuesday’s apply. “We began out actually good in the present day; we misplaced our focus as the top of it. I advised them we’re going to go lengthy in the present day and so they forgot that. They turned it off after about an hour and a half. We would have liked to get some issues performed.

“Yesterday was nice, in the present day was good for the primary half, not as centered as we have to be. That’s been a part of our downside is that consistency and lengthy intervals of time retaining the main target inside a sport. It’s our problem to attempt to get them higher and attempt to be the most effective basketball crew we may be.”

Altman cited how the crew’s deflections on protection, which had been a season-best in a win over Arizona, dropped considerably within the loss at Stanford. He stated a mixture of things, together with focus, chemistry and energy, have been problematic.

“You need to put effort in there,” Altman stated. “If you happen to’re going to reward them once they give nice effort and do one thing particular then they’ve obtained to be able to take slightly criticism when that effort is just not the identical.

Freshman heart Kel’el Ware’s poor effort, particularly final weekend within the Bay Space, was evident. The 7-footer had no rebounds over 19 mixed minutes off the bench and was crushed quite a few occasions on the defensive finish by far much less expert gamers.

“We’ve had a number of conversations; they haven’t gone in addition to been as constructive as we would like them to be,” Altman stated. “I used to be upset in his effort, I let him know that. He’s going to should make some changes or I’ve obtained to make some selections. His time has been decreased and that doesn’t assist us as a result of he’s gifted, however he hasn’t blocked any photographs recently, he hasn’t gotten any palms on balls and he’s not utilizing that size.

“We nonetheless obtained to attempt to put the most effective crew on the market that provides us the most effective likelihood and if he’s taking part in exhausting that might assist us, but when he’s not that hurts us.”

Oregon’s poor three-point capturing has been a season-long situation that even the return of Jermaine Couisnard (42.9% from three) hasn’t been sufficient to repair. The Geese have topped 35% from behind the arc simply as soon as within the final eight video games and are capturing 30.4% from three, the worst in program historical past (NCAA added three-point shot in 1986-87) and the worst in Altman’s teaching profession.

Guard Keeshawn Barthelemy stated “the hard-nosed stuff,” like diving for unfastened balls, improved defensive communication and rebounding will result in enhancements on the offensive finish.

“Generally we dangle our heads as a result of we’re not making photographs,” he stated, “and the inconsistencies in not making photographs is affecting the little issues.”