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The Oregon Ducks certainly didn’t look like the No. 12 team in the nation on Tuesday night in their 81-49 loss to the BYU Cougars.
Far from it.
However, anyone who knows Dana Altman and the Oregon basketball program should have expected this. That’s not to say that they should have expected a 32-point defeat to an unranked team, but they should have expected an outcome early in the season that makes you scratch your head.
Did we think it would be this bad? No, but in the end, it doesn’t matter.
The Ducks are a team that has a roster in flux and is working to find rotations that work. Their team features 4 transfers who are getting significant minutes, a pair of freshmen that are in the rotation, and a pair of big men who missed the majority of last season with injuries. To expect them to be in mid-season form three games into the year is a bit over-zealous.
“I still believe we have good talent, that we’re a good team but we got it handed to us tonight,” head coach Dana Altman said. “That’s on me. I’m disappointed in those guys but not nearly as disappointed as I am in myself and I sincerely mean that.”
The fact is that this Oregon team is no different than teams of the past. As a utilization of the transfer portal has become more pertinent for Altman, fans have gotten used to the team needing some time to get things going. By the time spring rolls around, we can expect the Ducks to be humming along, likely hitting their stride right before the tournament.
We’ve seen the talent on this roster, and through the first two games of the season, it seemed like they might have skipped the chemistry-building stage of things and jumped right into the thick of it. Regression came on Tuesday, and all of us should rightfully take a step back.
That’s not a slight to Oregon, or Altman, or anyone on the team. It’s just a simple statement of fact that will hopefully reset our bearings and calibrate our expectations going forward.
This isn’t a team that will likely go 29-3 this season. You probably won’t find them with a top-5 ranking going into March with a No. 1 or No. 2 next to their name on the bracket. They will, however, likely have a good chance at winning the Pac-12 Championship, and will hopefully be hitting their stride and clicking on all cylinders a couple of months down the road, with a real chance to make some noise in the tournament.
It’s going to take some time to get there, but we can trust in Dana Altman’s track record, knowing that the time will eventually come. There will undoubtedly be some stinkers along the way, and while Tuesday night’s loss to BYU was stinkier than most, it was necessary for the growth of this team.
They’ll learn from it and get better.
The Rubix Cube is in its early stages of being solved. Let’s allow Altman to keep at it before we start to worry.
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