Dana Altman updates injury status of Brennan Rigsby

Oregon guard Brennan Rigsby missed the Ducks’ 69- 67 victory over Oregon State in their previous contest. Rigsby was a DNP game due to an ankle sprain, but the sophomore guard is working hard at returning for the final two games of the season. During Tuesday’s shoot-around, Oregon head coach Dana Altman provided an injury update on his reserve guard and detailed the chances of him playing Thursday against Cal.

“He went a little bit today, and then he left. And I didn’t get a chance to ask him if Clay (Jamieson) pulled him off or if he took himself off. I don’t know,” said Altman. “But he did practice some today; so he’s close. Whether he’s ready to go Thursday night, I’m not sure. He didn’t practice until today. Today was his first day trying to do some live stuff. He’s been doing some shooting, but he did try to do some live stuff today. But I noticed, at the end of practice, he wasn’t practicing. So I didn’t get a chance to talk to Clay before I talked to you guys.”

Getting Rigsby back for the final two games of the season could be huge for Oregon. The six-foot-three sophomore guard from De Besque, Co, has been one of the key contributors off the bench for the Ducks this season.

Altman critical of Oregon’s execution

Oregon has gone 1-2 in the last three games, but that could easily be 3-0. Before picking up a 69-67 victory over in-state rival Oregon State, the Ducks lost back-to-back games in the state of Washington by a combined four points to the Huskies and Cougars. During Tuesday’s shootaround, head coach Dana Altman blamed his Ducks’ lack of execution in critical moments for the losses.

“(We’ve) been really working on execution,” said Altman. “I told the guys our last three games have been one-possession games. And in all of them, our offensive execution hadn’t been good enough. Whether it’s turnovers or not executing a play and you can’t have that in February. We haven’t tightened up our execution nearly as well as we should, and that’s on me.

“This time of year, a lot of games come down to one or two possessions, and our execution offensively hasn’t been good. Defensively, we’ve been getting some good efforts, but we fall asleep at times. So it’s not any one thing, but I thought execution of the offense was one. Two would be our defensive lapses, where somebody falls asleep. And the last thing block outs. We have been beating people on the boards, but we’ve been giving up some very untimely second shots that have really hurt us.”