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Oregon MBB falls to No. 16 in latest AP Poll

by:Collin King•01/27/25
Oregon HC Dana Altman
Craig Strobeck | Imagn Images

Another week passes for the Oregon Men’s Basketball squad, and another week in which they had close contests. The Ducks started the week by surviving an upset bid from the Washington Huskies, gutting out an 82-71 win. Oregon was unable to hold on against Minnesota on the road however, despite coming back from an early 18 point deficit. Luckily, Minnesota is heating up a bit, with three straight Quad 1 victories, but nonetheless Oregon shouldn’t be losing to them.

Starting slow has killed the Ducks all season, and typically they’ve been bailed out by fantastic play in the final 10 minutes of the game. That couldn’t have been further from the truth Saturday however, as the Ducks had a stretch of nearly 5 minutes with only two points. Oregon also had zero answer all game for Gophers star Dawson Garcia, who finished with 31 points in the contest.

Going forward, Nate Bittle must be engaged from the tip, which he wasn’t Saturday. On the same note, he and the rest of the team have to find a way to be better at tracking down rebounds. TJ Bamba seems to be picking it back up, and Brandon Angel has been very good over the last two games as well. Jackson Shelstad had a solid showing after doing nothing until garbage time against Washington. Shelstad must be more aggressive throughout the course of the game.

I’d like to take a second to address the ‘Fire Dana Altman’ crowd. This Ducks squad is 16-4, with 8 Quad 1 wins. Did the Ducks play super well early in the season? Yes. Have they reached their peak? No. Trust in Dana to figure things out as he always does, and see why he is the winningest coach in program history.

What’s Next:

The Duck’s upcoming schedule isn’t easy, but should be viewed as an opportunity. Oregon will play at UCLA on Thursday for another Quad 1 matchup before briefly heading home to play Nebraska. If Oregon would like to be a top 4 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, let alone March Madness, they will need to split the following two road matchups against Michigan and Michigan State. After those games on the road, the Ducks will host Northwestern and Rutgers. Rutgers is the lowest quality win remaining on the Duck’s schedule, as a Quad 3 game. Michigan, and Northwestern certainly pose matchup issues with their bigs, we’ll see if Oregon gets things sorted out by then.

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