Dana Altman explains how Oregon must respond after loss against Arizona

Dana Altman believed his Oregon had a chance to defeat No. 9 Arizona on Saturday, but it wasn’t in the cards for the Ducks.

Altman was disappointed after his team suffered an 87-78 defeat to the Wildcats in Eugene. Afterwards, he spoke on how Oregon can regroup and get back on track following the loss, as the Ducks have some tough conference opponents coming up in the next couple of days.

“We just take tomorrow and try to regroup, and we’ll go — got the LA schools this week, so it’s obviously a big road trip. We’re going to have to play well. Guys just have to regroup, and get ready to go,” Altman explained. “Basketball season is a long season. A lot of ups and downs. This is a big down. So we’ll have to fight back. But we’re all judged by how we overcome adversity.

“When times are good, everybody’s good. When times are bad, you’ve got to find a way to bounce back. So hopefully our guys will regroup, and we’ll get some good leadership, and we’ll be ready to go on Thursday.”

Alas, Oregon still has a shot to make something out of their season, but a win at home over Arizona could’ve done wonders for their standing. As it pertained to the actual game, most of Altman’s disappointment came with their play on the defensive end.

The Ducks allowed their third-largest point total of the season of 87 points. It was the third time in four games, all of which were losses, that their defense has given up 80 points or more. That’s an obvious trend as they’ve allowed 80+ in all six of their losses this season.

Arizona scored those points efficiently too as they shot 49.1% from the field, including a 10-19 (52.6%) from distance. Most of that came by way of a career-best scoring effort out of G Caleb Love. Love went 12-18 (66.7%), as well as 5-8 (62.5%) from three, en route to a career-high of 36 points.

That kind of defense just isn’t going to cut it according to Altman, especially when offense looks as easy as it did for their opponent.

“Defensively? We’re not going to be successful giving up that many easy baskets,” said Altman. “Love had a tremendous game. He’s a tremendous player but some of the looks that we gave him were just way too easy.”

Regardless, Dana Altman and the Ducks will be looking to snap their little skid this week, and time is of the essence for Oregon in doing so.