It turns out that people with bad heart conditions probably shouldn’t be a 2024-25 Oregon Ducks men’s basketball fan.
Dana Altman has had a history of his teams improving over the course of the season and being really good in the second half of the year. But here in 2025, the Ducks have taken it one step further, hitting their stride early in the season.
While they’ve been winning games, the Ducks haven’t made it easy, though. In many of Oregon’s wins this season, the Ducks have been capable of falling behind by double digits only to make a second-half comeback and pull out the victory.
This pattern isn’t just a few games. It’s a definite trend for this team. But come tournament time, the Ducks hopefully won’t be relying on that trend. In a win-or-go-home tournament, it just takes one game to have a rally come up short and the season is over.
The Ducks still have plenty of time to correct this trend, but arguing with the results is hard. Oregon is 15-2 overall and 4-2 in Big Ten action.
It all began with a home game with Portland. The Ducks were down as much as 13 at 54-41 with 8:15 left. They had a 14.7 percent chance of winning. The Ducks eventually won 80-70 in overtime.
At Oregon State, the Ducks were down 61-50 with 11:30 left and had a 14.2 percent chance at winning before Oregon rallied and won 78-75.
The Ducks overcame an 8.2 percent chance at defeating Texas A&M and just 37.5 percent with two minutes remaining, but Oregon won 80-70. Oregon had a 15.1 percent chance against Alabama and a 22.4 percent chance at USC. The results? A win and a win.
It was 36 percent against Maryland and in the last two road games at Ohio State and Penn State, it was 9.2 and 9.8 percent, respectively. So in short, the Ducks make the last 10 minutes of the game exciting and play their best.
Is that a good sign that this team can handle itself in the clutch? Or rather concerning that Oregon continually digs a hole that it has to get out of? At this point in the year, it’s pretty hard to tell for certain.
In March, nearly every opponent will be as good or better than Oregon and falling into a double-digit deficit against teams like that won’t be ideal. The good news is the Ducks are very capable of playing great basketball and the quicker they do that earlier in games, the better.
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