Resilient Ducks Look to Fly North in March
What else could happen to this team to deny them a chance at a national title? A decimated roster. A young core group of players. New transfer players in the system. Yet the Oregon Ducks keep finding ways to win.
Head coach Dana Altman has led Oregon to an impressive 20-4 start, while also elevating the Ducks to #11 in the latest Associated Press rankings as of February 9. This is the team’s highest rankings since they were #10 back in January 2014.
Early in the season, nobody would have thought the Ducks could actually contend against the likes of Arizona, UCLA, and California. Fifth year Villanova transfer Dylan Ennis was declared out for the season in early January after aggravating a foot injury. Jordan Bell missed eight games early in the season with a broken foot. Trevor Manuel expressed his interest in leaving Oregon as a transfer. Even Tyler Dorsey’s season looked like it could have come to an abrupt end when his leg collapsed on itself against UNLV, forcing him to miss time.
Somehow, this Oregon team has overcome all of that. Chris Boucher, who is leading the nation in blocks, has been a key asset for Altman. What do you get when you mix veteran-level skills with a young and athletic body? Tyler Dorsey, that’s what. Since the start of the season, Dorsey has become a reliable scoring option despite being just a freshman.
Sophomore Dillon Brooks has perhaps been the most important piece to the puzzle though, as he has averaged 16.9 points per game along with six rebounds. Brooks is even in contention for the National Julius Irving Award, given to college basketball’s best small forward.
Win after win, questions still surround the Ducks. Can this team win the Pac-12 title? Will a depleted rotation catch up with them? Can they contend with the top teams like Kansas and North Carolina and make a deep run at the national championship?
Analysts already tabbed Oregon as the likely Pac-12 regular season champion after the team’s 9-2 conference start. The team also has a two game lead over the next closest team, USC. But while Oregon will most likely win the regular season crown, can they win the Pac-12 tournament?
The Ducks have never won the Pac-12 regular season title and the Pac-12 tournament in the same season. Arizona, the team that usually ends the Ducks’ championship hopes, figures to be the biggest challenger to Oregon in the tournament again. Beating Arizona twice in a season is something Oregon has not accomplished since the 2007-2008 season.
The Ducks have also most likely already cashed in their bid to the NCAA tournament come March. While the Ducks play in one of the nation’s deepest conferences (tied with the ACC for most projected tournament teams with eight), they have not faced the top teams yet. Can the team contend with top tier teams such as Duke, Kansas, and Oklahoma?
Oregon is projected to be a three seed in the NCAA tournament, so the team will end up playing a great team in the Sweet Sixteen, if they get that far. Until then, questions will remain if they can beat the best of the best. If they can get past one or two of those top teams, they have a realistic shot at a national championship, something nobody in Eugene could have imagined at the beginning of the season.
Although national title hopes are real at this point, how real are the Ducks’ chances with a depleted rotation? Ever since the season ending injury to Dylan Ennis, the Ducks have been playing with a seven man rotation. Against the top teams, will a seven man rotation still work to perfection the way it has been for Altman?
Coaches will try to get the Ducks in foul trouble to make Dana Altman dig deep into his weak bench. For the Ducks to keep winning and make a tournament run, the team will need to get more out of its bench players outside of Dwayne Benjamin and Jordan Bell. Besides Bell and Benjamin, the bench is averaging a combined total of 5.8 points per game.
At this point of the season, the Ducks have elevated themselves to realistic championship aspirations. Can this team come out of nowhere and give the University of Oregon its first college basketball championship since 1939? Dana Altman’s answer: “We’ve got a lot more in the tank. I think we can have some fun.”
