Dana Altman says lineup changes are coming following Oregon's blowout loss to ASU

Oregon head coach Dana Altman didn’t mince words on Thursday following his team’s disastrous home loss to Arizona State.

“We’re gonna shake some things up — give some guys some opportunities,” Altman said. “Cut the minutes of some guys that we’ve been giving a lot of opportunities to.”

That declaration came 30 minutes after a listless performance resulted in the Ducks being steamrolled, 90-73, on their home floor.

Oregon lacked defensive intensity from the get-go and surrendered a barrage of three-pointers to an Arizona State team that entered the week shooting at a 30% clip from downtown.

Altman said his team got beat in “every facet of the game” but took particular issue with his players’ reluctance to contest shots inside and get their hands in passing lanes.

It was as frustrated as Altman has ever sounded during his 13-year tenure with the program.

“Really disappointed, obviously,” Altman said. “I know our fans are. They should be. That’s not what you expect from our ball team and our program. It’s very concerning.”

With 14 games remaining in the regular season, Oregon finds itself at a fork in the road. The Ducks are 9-8 on the year and 3-3 in Pac-12 play. They sit at No. 76 in Friday’s updated NET rankings — one spot behind the Utah Valley squad that upset them at home on Dec. 20.

At this point, their resume is nowhere near polished enough to garner an NCAA tournament bid.

Something has to change in order for Oregon to get its season back on track. According to Altman, those changes could come as soon as Saturday’s home showdown with No. 9 Arizona.

While he didn’t cite players by name, Altman made it abundantly clear that some players will see their roles reduced.

During the second half on Thursday, when the game was already far out of reach, Altman tinkered with some new lineups. He deployed a 1-3-1 defense that featured 7-foot sophomore Nate Bittle at the top of the zone. He played freshman center Kel’el Ware for 12 minutes in the second half and gave just six minutes to senior starter Quincy Guerrier during the same stretch.

“We’ve gotta try some different things. We can’t keep doing the same thing,” Altman said. “We stayed with the same lineup and then tried to give some guys some chances. I thought Nate gave us some activity. … Kel’el wasn’t as active as I would like to see him, but I thought Nate did some good things. (Lok Wur) did a few good things in his minutes with the 1-3-1 that we needed.

“We’re gonna have to evaluate a lot of things here. But our activity definitely has got to improve.”

Oregon does not have a true rotation at this point, Altman notes, because injuries have made it impossible to establish one. Thursday marked the first appearance since Nov. 20 for junior guard Keeshawn Barthelemy. Senior guard Jermaine Couisnard, sophomore guard Brennan Rigsby, and Bittle have also missed significant time due to injuries.

Couisnard and Bittle returned to the lineup last week, and Oregon appeared to take a step in the right direction when it nabbed a gritty road win over first-place Utah.

But as has been the case far too often this season, the Ducks reverted back to some poor habits on Thursday and simply weren’t competitive.

So, as Altman bluntly stated during Thursday’s presser, players are going to be made accountable for their minutes.

“I’m not saying that’s gonna work,” Altman said. “If I thought they were better going into the game, I would have played them.

“But, we can’t keep doing the same thing. So we’re going to change things up.”