Dana Altman opens up on Oregon's 'atrocious' turnover issues

Oregon hoops suffered their second loss of the season Sunday night as the Ducks hosted the No. 2 team in the country with Houston winning by 10 in Eugene. It was certainly the type of game Cougar coach Kelvin Sampson loves. Houston grinded out the win by forcing turnovers, hitting tough threes and making all the necessary hustle plays. Meanwhile, Oregon coach Dana Altman was ready to blow a gasket in the postgame over his team’s careless job at taking care of the ball.

For good reason. The Ducks turned the rock over 16 times, with his two senior starters, point guard Will Richardson and wing Quincy Guerrier, accounting for most of the cough-ups.

“It was 11 of the 16 turnovers come from Will or Quincy. On one hand the ball is going to end up getting in their hands a lot. But on the other hand, much of the point of frustration is that these are two of your three guys you’re going to lean on a lot and you’re expecting Will to make really good decisions and set them up…” Altman said, upset with the poor decision-making and execution from his super-senior point guard.

Although, Altman admits Richardson may not have been put in the best position to succeed, being asked to run so much of the offense on his own against a swarming Cougar defense.

“Yeah we we put a lot of pressure on Will tonight. And, you know, we had the turnover at the end of the half, and a couple of them weren’t his fault because guys didn’t run the right situation. But no, we’re dependent on him and he had some bad turnovers.”

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It wasn’t helping that every time the Ducks did turn it over, Houston took immediate advantage.

“You give up 30 points on 16 turnovers, it was just atrocious. You know, guys making one-hand passes, not meeting the ball, trying to make plays they are not capable of making. So, you know, no, I was disappointed obviously in our ball handling.”

However, Dana Altman did share a few areas where Oregon played well, particularly on the inside.

“Pleased with the way we competed. I know we out rebounded them. We did some good things. They only went 13-32 inside the arc. But, you know, our bigs didn’t push out on their shooters. They weren’t comfortable getting out there and defending. So a lot to work on. But we showed our inability to to handle the ball and that was a big part of it.”

A lot to clean up on the perimeter for Oregon after a disappointing outing from their veteran guards and wings.