Grand Canyon State @ Oregon (exhibition)

[oregontrack]

I'm going to speak in sweeping generalizations, because its the first exhibition game and all.

With all the hype surrounding some of our new kids, Singler will remain the team's best player until proven otherwise. A very economical opener for EJ: 16 points in 24 minutes, 5 boards. I was a little surprised by the volume of 3's he attempted, but not discouraged. A lot of us thought he should be shooting more last year.

Ah, the 3-point shooting. 3/19 yesterday. EJ hit 2, Sim hit 1. Very 2010-esqu, but again I'm not discouraged. The ball movement was pretty pathetic last night, matched only by the shot selection. Jabari and Kingma aren't combining to go 0/7 from deep on most nights. We looked like a team that hadn't played with each other much. We'll get in rhythm. I don't think we'll be a prolific team from the arc, but I don't think we'll routinely be this bad.

The starting lineup last night was horrible, and hopefully just a nod to the holdovers (Loyd/Sim/Singler/Nared/Jacob). That's not scaring anybody, and we'll find ourselves in some early holes if that crew finds itself starting together again. But I don't think it will. Sim's clearly the better point guard right now. I like Loyd a lot better as a sparkplug off the bench. Same with Nared. Jabari and Ashaolu both looked like they were pressing, but I have a hard time imagining they aren't our best options at the 2 & 4. I have no problem with starting Jacob and bringing Woods off the bench. I thought Woods like great last night, too.

Jabari did have a pretty horrible game, but he'll settle down. That deer-in-the-headlights look should go away, and I'm be surprised if he doesn't bounce back in a big way Sunday.

Love the frontcourt. I can't remember a time when Oregon had so many options in the paint. Remember when Catron was hurt last year and Nared needed a breather, and we'd play Singler at center? No more of that. We have actual depth and talent inside. Good god, we have a 6'11 walk-on we can just throw out there to hack at people for five possessions. Love it. Last year if any of our bigs were in foul trouble we were SOL. All we need to be a pretty good team is to develop scoring options on the wing; naturally we already have that in EJ, and Jabari will grow. Sim's a good stopgap at PG, he won't turn it over and hey, he did have 8 assists yesterday. But if Devoe Joseph is as advertised and can pick things up before Pac-12 season, that should make for a damn fine backcourt.

All in all I think the team played pretty terrible last night, and I still would be astonished if we finished with fewer than 20 wins.

[TheMaehlMan]

I didn't expect everything to fall in place from the get-go, so this is not terribly concerning. We play these games in order to sharpen up and get game-experience with new pieces being a part of the team, and we will struggle at times in non-conference. Just wait, once this team comes together it will be fun to watch.

[maxduck]

We always expect an exhibition game to be a blowout but this narrow win could have been worse. Last night Arizona lost the battle of the boards and the game to Division 2 Seattle Pacific.

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/ua/arti ... cific.html

[frogsnouts]

We always expect an exhibition game to be a blowout but this narrow win could have been worse. Last night Arizona lost the battle of the boards and the game to Division 2 Seattle Pacific.

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/ua/arti ... cific.html

Didn't one of the Big East powers (Villanova or Syracuse?) lose one of their exhibition games last year? It's certainly nothing to worry about.

[TheMaehlMan]

Didn't one of the Big East powers (Villanova or Syracuse?) lose one of their exhibition games last year? It's certainly nothing to worry about.

I think it was a few years ago, but it may have been last season. I know that Syracuse went onto having a good season anyways.