Dana Altman has never been one to mince words. If he doesn’t feel confident about his team or is frustrated by where they currently stand, then he’s going to let you know about it.
So when Altman spoke with fans and media members last week ahead of the Oregon Ducks tip-off to the season, it shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise that the head coach was rather honest about where his team currently stands heading into their first game of the season against Florida A&M on Monday night.
“We’ve got to make some progress. We are way behind where we should be,” said Altman. “We just haven’t had the practice time with enough guys to get them reps.”
Injuries have been an issue this offseason for the Ducks. Not only has 5-star freshman Kel’el Ware been dealing with a leg injury, but Rivaldo Soares is questionable to play in the opener, while Jermaine Couisnard, Brennan Rigsby, and Lok Wur have already been ruled out.
“There is no magic wand for guys missing practice. Conditioning suffers, your timing suffers, your ability to focus on what we are doing, it’s hard to make progress and put new stuff in when guys are missing practices.”
A new report from Jon Rothstein shows that the Ducks are hoping to have both Ware and Soares healthy for Monday’s game, but that doesn’t nullify the fact that Oregon is still playing catchup before the season even starts.
Fortunately, they may have a pair of veteran players who can make it so those blemishes don’t tank the season.
Fifth-year PG Will Richardson returned to Eugene for one last hurrah this year, and veteran big-man N’Faly Dante is as healthy as he’s been in years, looking every part of a dominant center who could hear his name called in the first round of the NBA Draft next spring.
“We know we can throw the ball to [N’Faly] Dante, and we’ll do that a little bit. We know that Will [Richardson] and Keeshawn [Barthelemy] can handle it, so we know their experience will help there,” Altman said. “Here early, we’re just going to have to grind some out, get guys going, get some timing offensively with new guys. There is no magic wand, it’s going to take a lot of time and a lot of time in practice.”
The Ducks won’t have very long to figure things out, though. While the first few games on the schedule look winnable, Oregon will quickly be put to the test against the No. 3 Houston Cougars before heading up to Portland for the PK85, where they will play UCONN, and potentially Michigan State or Alabama.
It’s not a song and dance that is unheard of in Eugene. Every year, Dana Altman goes into the transfer portal and throws a bunch of pieces together, It usually takes some time to align the Rubik’s Cube.
We’ll see how long it takes this year.
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