Tag: Will Richardson

MBB Recap: Oregon Ducks outlast Oregon State Beavers, 77-68 on New Year’s Eve

The Ducks needed that victory badly, outlasting the Beavers and heading into the new year on a positive note.

The Oregon Ducks looked much better after that 10-day break than they did before it, that’s for sure.

After struggling in the early parts of December, going into the holiday after a loss to Utah Valley, Will Richardson was able to lead the team to an impressive victory over the Oregon State Beavers on New Year’s Eve in Matthew Knight Arena.

The Ducks weathered an early storm from the Beavers but were able to utilize an 18-2 run in the first half that gave them a comfortable lead going into the break. While the Beavers managed to regain the lead briefly in the second half, Richardson and N’Faly Dante ultimately held them off and got Dana Altman’s team a much-needed win to go into the new year.

Oregon MBB recap: Richardson’s triple-double leads Ducks over Nevada

Will Richardson’s triple-double leads Oregon over a very good Nevada team 78-65 to get back to a .500 record.

It hasn’t happened in nearly 20 years.

Will Richardson racked up a triple-double with 19 points, 11 assists, and 10 rebounds in Oregon’s 78-65 win over Nevada. The win put the Ducks back to .500 at 5-5 and the Wolfpack dropped to 8-3.

Luke Jackson was the last Oregon Duck men’s player to accomplish the feat. Of course, Sabrina Ionescu made it a habit throughout her career at Oregon.

Richardson, a fifth-year senior, waited until the waning moments of the game in order to get that 10th board. The game itself was well in hand as Oregon was actively trying to get its point guard that one last rebound.

Not to be overshadowed, however, was Quincy Guerrier’s 26 points and nine rebounds. The Ducks shot the ball well all night long as they were 46 percent from the field and 11-of-27 from downtown.

Oregon MBB recap: Bruins come alive to defeat Ducks

UCLA came to play in the second half and overwhelmed the Ducks 65-56 to hand Oregon its first conference loss.

The Oregon men’s basketball team played one good half.

Unfortunately against a team like UCLA, that’s not nearly enough. The Bruins outscored the Ducks 44-29 in the second half to defeat Oregon 65-56 inside Pauley Pavilion.

With the loss, Oregon falls to 4-5 overall and 1-1 in Pac-12 action. UCLA improved to 7-2 and 2-0 in conference play.

It was definitely a tale of two halves. The Ducks played great defense in the first half, but after the break, Oregon played virtually no defense. It was also crushed on the boards, especially on the offensive end. The Bruins managed to pull down 16 offensive rebounds and scored 13 second-chance points.

Oregon shot 24-of-49 from the field, but just 4-of-17 from long range and they could never get to the free-throw line on a regular basis. The Ducks were just 4-of-7 from the charity stripe.

Forward Quincy Guerrier was off to a good start, but he hurt his ankle late in the first half and although he came back to play, his effectiveness never quite came back.

Oregon MBB recap: Richardson and Guerrier lead Ducks to victory

Will Richardson, Quincy Guerrier and a bunch of inspired role players propelled Oregon to a much-needed win.

Oregon had six scholarship players available and a walk-on started the game.

Despite the enormous adversity, Dana Altman somehow found a way to coach his team to victory. Oregon improved to 2-3 on the season with a 74-67 win over Villanova in the last game of the PK85 Invitational at the Chiles Center.

Guard Will Richardson had his second straight outstanding performance with 19 points and eight assists and forward Quincy Guerrier joined the party with 21 points and eight rebounds. He also was 6-of-10 from long distance, tying a career-high.

But the Ducks needed more than those two and they received some inspired games from the likes of Gabe Reichle and Lok Wur. Reichle had six boards at the guard position and played good defense while Wur added eight points and some key rebounds in the waning minutes of the game.

Oregon held the lead for the entire game, but Villanova briefly took a three-point lead with under four minutes left. Oregon was able to answer and ended the game on a 14-4 run to secure the victory.

Oregon MBB recap: Lack of three-point shooting dooms Ducks

Oregon had No. 3 Houston on the ropes, but couldn’t complete the rally and fell 66-56 inside Matthew Knight Arena.

This game was right there for the taking and an upset over No. 3 Houston was a real possibility. But Oregon never could find its three-point shooting prowess and the Cougars made them pay.

Houston came out with a 66-56 victory inside Matthew Knight Arena. Oregon coach Dana Altman is going to look at the stat sheet and his eyes are going directly to the three-point shooting line where his team was a dismal 3-of-22 from beyond the arc.

Even though they couldn’t find its range and seemingly nothing was going right, the Ducks never gave up and played the entire 40 minutes. They could have rolled over and called it a night with just under seven minutes left with the Cougars up 56-44, but the Ducks were able to manufacture a 12-2 run and with just 2:35 remaining, Oregon was down 60-54 and had the ball.

But a missed three and a made three for Houston on the other end sealed Oregon’s fate and the Ducks suffered their second loss on the season.

Browns bring in 6 for tryouts including Bubba Bolden, Antoine Brooks

The Browns continue on their weekly trend of holding tryouts near the end of the week. This time they brought in six players for workouts.

As the Cleveland Browns continue to prepare for a tough matchup with the Buffalo Bills in Detroit, they have brought in six players for tryouts. This has been common practice for the Browns this season, as they have seemingly held workouts consistently.

The Browns have even signed two players to their practice squad from these tryouts in safety Mike Brown and wide receiver Cyril Grayson (even though Grayson has already been released from the practice squad). This makes it worth getting to know the players the Browns have brought into Berea.

Here are the six players the Browns worked out today.

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Oregon MBB Recap: Ducks get right in big 81-51 win over Montana State

This was much closer to the Oregon Ducks we thought we’d see this year, with a big 81-51 win over Montana State.

This is certainly closer to the Oregon Ducks team we expected to see at the start of the year.

While the first two games of the season — an underwhelming win over Florida A&M and an excruciating loss to UC Irvine — left a lot to be desired from Dana Altman’s squad, the Ducks seemingly turned a corner on Tuesday night, taking down the Montana State Bobcats in dominant fashion, winning 81-51.

The shots finally started falling for Oregon, and the energy levels were certainly improved. While there is still a lot that can get better, particularly when it comes to free throw shooting, this was the best that we’ve seen the Ducks look in a while.

Here are some important takeaways from the game:

Oregon MBB recap: Ducks turn in underwhelming opening-season win over Florida A&M

A win is a win. There’s a lot to clean up for the Ducks, but they got the job done against Florida A&M on opening night.

It certainly wasn’t pretty, and it left head coach Dana Altman wordlessly frustrated at times, sitting on the scorer’s table with his arms crossed in front of his chest, head down and shaking side to side.

Chalk this 80-45 win over Florida A&M up to early season jitters, or growing pains, or the fact that this Oregon Ducks’ team has been so riddled with injuries at times this offseason that they’ve struggled to field a full practice.

Whatever you want to blame, just hope that it’s something that can be fixed relatively quickly. While the Ducks have a couple of easy games coming up, they soon go to Portland for the PK85 tournament, where this type of play won’t stand.

Here’s everything you need to know about Monday’s season-opening win.

Dana Altman’s Ducks look to kick season off with veteran leadership, healthy N’Faly Dante

Injuries have slowed Oregon’s progress this offseason. They’ll now rely on a veteran group of leaders and a healthy N’Faly Dante to get things started.

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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Oregon’s Will Richardson named to preseason All Pac-12 First Team

Oregon Ducks point guard Will Richardson was one of ten players selected for the preseason All Pac-12 first team.

The college basketball season is only a few short weeks away from getting underway, with the Oregon Ducks taking on Florida A&M on November 7 to begin the campaign.

The Pac-12 recently revealed their all conference selections, and fifth year senior point guard Will Richardson was the lone Duck on the 10-man squad.

Richardson was joined by a handful of the conference’s best performers from a year ago, with a few up-and-comers on the list as well.

Oregon is ranked No. 21 to start the season, and Richardson’s outside shooting and facilitating is a big part of their expected success this season.

Freshman big man Kel’el Ware is going to be a big hinge for Dana Altman’s team as well, although incoming freshman are rarely in consideration for preseason all conference awards.

For Oregon to reach their ceiling as a top ten team in the country, they’ll need the best out of Richardson and Ware – along with role players N’Faly Dante, Quincy Guerrier, and transfer guards Jermaine Couisnard (South Carolina) and Keeshawn Barthelemy (Colorado).

The Pac-12 preseason first team is littered with talented players from all over the conference, including two each from UCLA, USC, and Stanford.

Without further ado, here is a look at the entire Pac-12 preseason first team: