Tag: Oregon Ducks men’s basketball

Dana Altman announces the return of assistant Tony Stubblefield

Oregon’s level of success wasn’t the same without assistant Tony Stubblefield and now he has returned to Eugene.

To those paying attention, you could see this from a mile away.

From the moment DePaul let head coach Tony Stubblefield go mid-season, the speculation of him returning to Oregon began.

Now it’s official.

Oregon men’s basketball Head Coach Dana Altman has announced the hiring of Stubblefield as an assistant coach.

“We are excited to have Tony back in Eugene,” said Altman. “He’s an excellent coach and will make an immediate impact on our team.”

Stubblefield spent 11 seasons on Altman’s Oregon staff before taking over the Blue Demon program. The Ducks reached seven NCAA Tournaments, including five Sweet 16s, two Elite Eights, and a Final Four with Stubblefield on staff.

During his tenure, Stubblefield helped Oregon assemble four recruiting classes that were ranked among the top 12 nationally (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019). Included in those classes were future NBA players Troy Brown Jr., Louis King, Bol Bol, and Payton Pritchard.

His absence was noticeable as Oregon missed the last three NCAA tournaments before making a run this season. Stubblefield still followed the Ducks during and after he was the coach at DePaul and was seen at the NCAA tourney in Pittsburgh.

Former Duck center Kel’el Ware declares for the NBA draft

The former 5-star Oregon recruit and Indiana transfer is heading to the NBA.

He wasn’t a one-and-done, but he was close.

Former Oregon basketball center Kel’el Ware, who transferred to Indiana after one season in Eugene, has declared for the NBA draft in June.

Ware, a 7-footer from North Little Rock, Ark. played 30 games as a Hoosier this past season after playing 35 games as a Duck in his freshman season. He was hampered with an ankle injury towards the end of this year in Bloomington.

But before the injury, Ware was productive as he averaged 15.9 points a game and 9.9 rebounds for the Hoosiers. Those numbers were significantly better than his only season under Dana Altman. Ware scored just 6.6 points a game and 4.1 rebounds.

Seeing him transfer out of the Oregon program was a disappointment as Ware clearly possesses the talent to have a season like he had at Indiana. But the center was playing behind N’Faly Dante and wouldn’t have received the minutes like he did at Indiana.

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Drake star with close ties to Dana Altman enters transfer portal

A small forward with high scoring averages and ties to Dana Altman and the Oregon Ducks in the transfer portal. Worth a look?

Dana Altman continually reminds anyone who will listen that the world of college basketball is evolving before our very eyes and those who adjust the quickest will be successful and not have to play catch up.

One of those huge changes is the transfer portal with more and more players entering it year by year. To Altman and Oregon’s credit, they’re one of the programs that has adjusted nicely. The Ducks are successful more times than not when it comes to the portal.

Every season. the Oregon roster consists of several players that come through that portal and one player with ties to the Duck program just entered the portal.

Drake star Tucker DeVries, a 6-foot-7 small forward from Waukee, Iowa, averaged over 21 points a game, 6.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists for the Bulldogs. He’s also the two-time Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year.

So what’s the Oregon connection?

DeVries’ father, Darian, was an assistant under Altman while he was at Creighton. But the odds are the younger DeVries heads to West Virginia to play for his dad, who was just named as the Mountaineers’ new head coach. The Ducks also offered DeVries a scholarship when he was coming out of high school.

Teams are going to be lining up to obtain the services of DeVries, however, and nothing is a sure thing. He would fit right in to the Oregon lineup, which needs a shooter on the wing.

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Report: Brennan Rigsby, Jadrian Tracey open up about futures in Oregon

Guard Brennan Rigsby and small forward Jadrian Tracey are set to play in Eugene for the 2024-25 season.

The Oregon Ducks men’s basketball season ended with a second-round loss to Creighton in double overtime and the off-season has officially begun.

Players are going to start to announce their future plans and the first Ducks to announce their intentions is guard Brennan Rigsby and Jadrian Tracey. According to James Crepea of The Oregonian, both players plan to stick around for one more season.

“Oregon is definitely a place I want to be,” Rigsby said.

Tracey repeated Rigsby sentiment as he said he wants to return to Eugene for the 2024-25 season. Both players will be seniors.

Head coach Dana Altman has repeatedly said that he wants players who want to be at Oregon and earn their degrees. It looks like Rigsby and Tracey are two of those types of players.

For the 2023-24 season, Rigsby, a De Beque, Colo. native played in all 36 games, starting 13 and averaged six points per contest. Rigsby also shot 35 percent from the field.

Tracey came to Oregon via SouthWestern Community College in Florida. He played in all 36 games, started 22 contests where Tracey averaged 7.6 points a game, and shot 36 percent from the three-point line.

Photo Gallery: Creighton outlasts Oregon in double overtime classic

Photo Gallery: Jermaine Couisnard goes for 32 and N’Faly Dante adds 28 points and 20 boards, but it’s not enough to defeat Creighton.

No one can say Jermaine Couisnard and N’Faly Dante didn’t give it their all.

In the last game of the season, Oregon fought Creighton for 50 minutes but ultimately ran out of gas and fell 86-73. Couisnard went for 32 points and Dante scored 28 as well as 20 rebounds. Unfortunately, that was the vast majority of the Ducks’ output. Those two scored 60 of the 73 points.

Oregon was right there the entire way and even had a shot at the end of regulation to win it. Couisnard’s long three from the left wing at the end of the first overtime kept the game going. With a short bench and Jackson Shelstad suffering a knee injury, the Ducks didn’t have a chance when the second overtime rolled around.

But just the Ducks being in this position was a minor miracle. They were NIT-bound for the third straight season. It was only a magical run through the Pac-12 tournament that put Oregon in the Big Dance.

They’ll miss Couisnard and Dante, but with some returners such as Nate Bittle, Shelstad and Kwame Evans, Jr. the Ducks should field a really good team in their first foray into the Big Ten Conference.

Jermaine Couisnard joins Stephen Curry in NCAA Tournament record book

Jermaine Couisnard became the first player since 1988 to score 40 points and dish out five assists in an NCAA tournament game.

Just two weeks ago, this would be unthinkable.

Oregon was in Tucson, Ariz. busy getting blasted by the Wildcats and its NCAA tournament hopes were on life support and that’s being generous.

Flash forward to now and the Ducks are a brand new team that has figured out how to play defense. Oregon is on its way to the Round of 32 where Creighton awaits.

The defense might have been on point, but the offensive prowess of guard Jermaine Couisnard helped propel the Ducks to an 87-73 win over his former team, South Carolina. In Thursday’s game against the Gamecocks, Couisnard dropped a career-high 40 points in the win.

That point total put him in elite company in the NCAA history books, joining the greatest shooter of all time, Stephen Curry, as the only player to do that in a win as a double-digit seed.

No matter what you did, ending up on a list with Stephen Curry is usually a pretty good thing.

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Photo Gallery: Ducks advance as Couisnard lights up former team

Photo Gallery: Ducks advance as Couisnard lights up former team

Everyone said Oregon was going to be a dangerous team heading into the NCAA tournament. But talk can be cheap if you can’t back it up.

The Ducks backed up all that talk.

Thanks to a March Madness school record 40 points from Jermaine Couisnard, Oregon advanced to the third round of the tournament with an 87-73 win over 6-seed South Carolina.

Couisnard, who played for the Gamecocks for three seasons before coming to Oregon, lit up his former team on 14-of-22 shooting from the field, including 5-of-9 from the three-point line.

Oregon, an 11-seed, will now face 3-seed Creighton on Saturday. The Bluejays are of course head coach Dana Altman’s former team. Creighton defeated Akron 77-60 earlier in the day.

Here are the best pictures from Oregon’s 14-point win.

Andy Katz says Oregon is a dark horse to make the Final Four

CBS Sports college basketball analyst Andy Katz says Oregon is one of four possible dark horses in the NCAA tournament.

When it comes to the NCAA tournament, 11 and 12 seeds are popular upset picks and a lot of the times, those seeds tend to come through for some reason.

Oregon finds itself as an 11-seed in this year’s tourney as they are matched up with 6-seed South Carolina today at 1 pm PST in Pittsburgh.

According to CBS Sports college basketball analyst Andy Katz, the Ducks are one of four dark horses to keep an eye on as March Madness proceeds over the next three weeks.

Other than Oregon, Katz said teams such as New Mexico, San Diego State and Wisconsin are all possible schools that could play the role of Cinderella.

New Mexico is an 11-seed, like Oregon, in the West Region and the Lobos open with Clemson. San Diego State is a 5-seed in the East Region that opens with UAB. The Badgers, soon to be a Big Ten foe for Oregon, is a 5-seed in the South Region and they begin competition with James Madison.

It’s funny how things can change on a dime in college basketball. Just two weeks ago, the Ducks were getting thumped by Arizona and now they are a possible favorite to advance to the Sweet 16 thanks to their Pac-12 tournament run in Las Vegas.

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11-seed Ducks are being highlighted as potential bracket buster in March Madness

The 11-seeded Oregon Ducks are being highlighted as a potential bracket buster in the NCAA Tournament this year.

One of the many ways the NCAA tournament is one of the best sporting events out there are the upsets. Everyone loves a Cinderella story and there’s at least one in every March.

The 5-12 game is usually one that people point to, but the contest pitting the 11-seed vs. the 6-seed is a definite upset contender. As it so happens, the Ducks find themselves as the 11-seed in the Midwest Regional against the 5-seed South Carolina.

According to USA TODAY writer Jordan Mendoza, Oregon is a team that could make one of those improbable runs in this year’s tournament.

“Another Power Six team that only got in the tournament by becoming conference tournament champion, Oregon’s hot play makes them a dangerous No. 11 seed to go against this upcoming weekend,” he said. “The Ducks got excellent play from guard Jackson Shelstad, who makes the backcourt even more explosive with Jermaine Couisnard. Mix that in with big man N’Faly Dante and Oregon has several ways to attack on offense.”

Those three players mentioned are going to have to have good games in order for the Ducks to survive and advance. But the lack of depth with just eight scholarship players available, should eventually catch up with Oregon.

But the NCAA tournament is usually an event where the point guard dominates and for the first time since Payton Pritchard, the Ducks have a pure point guard in Shelstad. He gives Oregon a fighter’s chance to advance further than anyone thought just two weeks ago when Arizona hung 100 on the Ducks in Tuscon.

Photo Gallery: Ducks cap magical run with Pac-12 Tournament championship

Photo Gallery: Oregon defeats Colorado to win last Pac-12 tournament

Well, that a bit unexpected. But Oregon isn’t going to turn down a dance invitation.

The Ducks are officially in the NCAA tournament after defeating Colorado 75-68 in the last Pac-12 tourney in Las Vegas. It was the first time Oregon has won three straight games since January and it picked a heck of a time putting it all together.

And it wasn’t like they beat three lowly teams. Oregon was a combined 1-5 against UCLA, Arizona, and the Buffaloes before this weekend. After the win, most of the attention was on it being the last game for the Conference of Champions with memories and highlight videos dominating Vegas. Advancing to the Big Dance was almost an afterthought.

But the Ducks are dancing and will find out who they play, where they’ll play and what seed was assigned to them on Sunday afternoon. Here are some of the best photos from the big celebration from Sin City.