Oregon is like Shakespeare … it’s a hard read.
They average over 90 points a game. They are beating the teams they are supposed to (except a letdown at St. Mary’s where they were without Bryce Taylor). They even had a signature road win at Kansas State.
But the Ducks do not have a “Wow!” factor to them yet. They are business-like. For the past fifteen years, the Atlanta Braves have been known throughout baseball as a business-like team. They went out and won. And they usually won enough to clinch the division. They were supposed to win.
Oregon reminds me of that mindset. They come out without much flare and win quietly by 15-20 points. They defeat Sacramento St. 93-66, and do it so quietly. There’s no pizzazz to the Ducks. Joevan Catron went for a career-high 20 points tonight and it was hardly noticeable. Fans were not thinking, “Wow, Catron is dominating.” Catron did have some nice moves on the inside, but you wouldn’t consider him a dominate inside presence.
I was personally surprised to hear that Maarty Leunen had 18 points at halftime. He wound up with 23 points. But again, we were not all sitting there thinking, “Maarty is having a big game tonight.”
So I guess the main question is: “Are the Ducks for real?”
The road win at Kansas State was legit. The Wildcats should make the NCAA tournament. Michael Beasley makes that team that good. Oregon went into Manhattan, Kansas and won (something Cal attempts to do). Oregon goes to Michigan to take on Oakland, a homecoming of sorts for Malik Hairston and Tajuan Porter (It’s too bad to go all that way and not take on Michigan St.). The only well-known name left in the non-league schedule is Nebraska on Saturday (11 a.m., OSN).
But unfortunately, Ducks fans are going to have to wait until the start of the Pac-10, a league that is the toughest in the country from top to bottom. The non-league schedule has been weak. When Kansas St. is the marquee match-up on the schedule, let’s just say Oregon’s RPI won’t be through the roof. The Ducks open conference play Jan. 3 and 5 with the Arizona schools. The Sun Devils are first, followed by the Lute Olsen-less Wildcats. If Oregon gets through that trip 2-0, then we’ll all have a better gage on whether these Ducks are, indeed, for real.
Don Smalley
DSN Contributor
Tags: Basketball, Ducks, University of Oregon
DuckFan4Life Says:
December 12th, 2007 at 12:30 am
I agree with most of these sentiments, but I’m wondering why Ernie doesn’t schedule more difficult pre-season/pre-Pac 10 games? UTAH is the best we can get for the Pape Jam? What happened to the Illinois, Kansas, and Georgetowns of the world coming to Portland? Wouldn’t a UO-Gonzaga game be sweet? I realize that making the tournament is all about reaching a certain number of wins, but quality wins can help also. I wish the Ducks would play some tougher opponents so we really could get a read on how good they are.
kmilk Says:
December 12th, 2007 at 9:18 am
I think Ernie doesn’t schedule more difficult preseason opponents is because he knows that the Pac10 schedule will be brutal. Pac10 has 5 top 25 teams…so he will get his RPI boost during the season. It doesn’t matter if your ranked at the beginning of the season. Its down the stretch that it will matter most and if you look at the schedule, we have to win our league games.
Jay Says:
December 12th, 2007 at 10:46 am
I agree that the Ducks are hard to read. But, you are wrong about the RPI. The RPI (like all computer polls) is a funny thing, you aren’t always so much rewarded for playing “marquee games”. What really happens with the RPI is you are just punished for playing too many home games and too many teams at the very bottom of the RPI. When I say bottom, I’m talking sub-200 RPI teams, not the teams in the middle (100-199).
Oregon is playing a lot of middling teams in the 75-175 range and a lot more road games than most teams. Almost half of our non-conference games are road games and that doesn’t happen very often.
The RPI doesn’t make us any easier to read and doesn’t mean we are great, or even good. But, our RPI actually is actually very good right now.
We are #24 in the RPI, currently.