Eastern Washington @ Oregon

[Greenblood]

Oh yeah -- I will totally take this win. To me, this is exactly the kind of game they needed, to be challenged by a "less-talented" team, to overcome adversity and finally come out with a W. It'll probably be both fun and excruciating for Duck fans to watch this team develop this season.

[UOducksTK1]

Notes...

Our JC transfers suck, way too many turnovers and missed free throws. With them in, we are actually a worse team. Nared is so much better than these guys. He rebounds like a boss too.

Jabari Brown just sucks. He needs less minutes and more practice until he's ready.

Sim FINALLY looks good. His shot is more consistent, he actually finishes his layups. This is key cuz we need a backcourt contribution since Brown is no where near ready.

Loyd has a lot of potential to be a poor man's Collison. Less turnovers and better shooting and we got a winner

Woods is solid, it's nice to have a big inside.

And for the team as a whole: turnovers and missed FTs. So hard to watch.

[woundedknees]

How the heck did EWU stay within 8 points of Zaga?

[distantobserver]

I'm most concerned (for nearly all players) about being sloppy with the ball (both Brown and Ashaolu had zero assists with at least 5 TOs), not boxing out for defensive rebounds (for a team with superior athletes Oregon gave up 17 offensive rebounds to EWU), and FT shooting (Brown went 3-for-9 and Ashaolu). True these are all things that can be corrected but I guess I was hoping to see some improvement with a week between games and EWU being a home game against an inferior opponent. Brown and Ashaolu certainly are not alone but they were some of the most glaring last night.

However, it is nice to see some of the "less-talented" holdovers from last year again provide the spark and somewhat consistent play while the newcomers try to work things out. Hopefully the team regroups in practice and carries some positives over to the game on Sunday. There are talented pieces in place but they are currently trying to do too much and make the flashy play instead of just focusing on executing the offense and defense. They will improve but it will likely take longer than some expected. Also, Devoe Joseph cannot be eligible soon enough.

[buckmarkduck]

Devoe will be ready to go Dec 12.

[Boom]

This team misses Malcom Armstead.

And to the people who said that Loyd is the same player...

[duckfan22]

We should prolly disband this team and just not play this year.

[oregontrack]

what the hell did armstead provide that we're not getting from our current point guards? a couple of steals? armstead was so bad to start last year altman couldn't even start him. sim last night played better than armstead did at any point last season.

anyway, over half our turnovers came from two players (jabari/ashaolu) who are obviously pressing and not comfortable yet in the offense. the vast majority of our team-wide turnovers are a simple byproduct of not playing with each other and taking on too much individually. the to totals will go down.

the talent is obvious, and here's a dirty little secret for those who have not really paid attention to the rest of the pac-12: what we have RIGHT NOW at point guard is better than most of the teams in the pac. a lot of teams are really struggling with their points at the moment. if joseph is the real deal for us, we're looking pretty good for conference play.

the to's didn't bother me as much as the breakdowns in defensive rebounding, the former will be corrected and the latter is just laziness. while neither can sit well with altman, i imagine he'll kick and scream until he gets his point across eventually.

jabari doesn't suck. he's adjusting to the college game, and an offense he most certainly did not play in aau or high school ball. when he figures it out, he'll be great for us. and altman is 100% right for letting him play through his struggles. there will be an adjustment period, but when it's over he'll flourish.

[UOducksTK1]

what the hell did armstead provide that we're not getting from our current point guards? a couple of steals? armstead was so bad to start last year altman couldn't even start him. sim last night played better than armstead did at any point last season.

anyway, over half our turnovers came from two players (jabari/ashaolu) who are obviously pressing and not comfortable yet in the offense. the vast majority of our team-wide turnovers are a simple byproduct of not playing with each other and taking on too much individually. the to totals will go down.

the talent is obvious, and here's a dirty little secret for those who have not really paid attention to the rest of the pac-12: what we have RIGHT NOW at point guard is better than most of the teams in the pac. a lot of teams are really struggling with their points at the moment. if joseph is the real deal for us, we're looking pretty good for conference play.

the to's didn't bother me as much as the breakdowns in defensive rebounding, the former will be corrected and the latter is just laziness. while neither can sit well with altman, i imagine he'll kick and scream until he gets his point across eventually.

jabari doesn't suck. he's adjusting to the college game, and an offense he most certainly did not play in aau or high school ball. when he figures it out, he'll be great for us. and altman is 100% right for letting him play through his struggles. there will be an adjustment period, but when it's over he'll flourish.

Incredibly ignorant IMO. Sim played well last night, but that's really not right to downplay Armstead like that. He had an amazing junior year, and still had some great games as a senior.

[distantobserver]

This team misses Malcom Armstead.

And to the people who said that Loyd is the same player...

Loyd can't make other players convert open shots. Loyd can't make the bigs box out and disallow offensive rebounds (Loyd has one less rebound than Ashaolu in one less minute). Loyd can't stop others form having zero assists and 5+ turnovers. Loyd can't make FTs for them (though, granted, he also missed them in the Vanderbilt game).

Compared to Armstead's numbers from last year: Loyd, per game, averages the same amount of rebounds, more assists, approximately the same turnovers, three fewer points, the same amount of steals, and six fewer minutes. Small sample size, I know, but it illustrates that the production has been approximately the same thus far. Loyd will never be the same scoring threat as Armstead which I know is your main complaint but, in reality, he shouldn't have to be on this team. This current Oregon team has enough offensive weapons that Loyd should be able to simply facilitate and have them execute; so far they have not.

Where this team misses Armstead (the good version) is that currently it doesn't have two PGs to run the show. I'll admit that long-term Loyd is not the solution and likely serves best as a change of pace PG, albeit one that will still play plenty of important minutes per game. Loyd certainly is far from criticism-free thus far and I think that having Armstead (again, the good version) would certainly help this team but I don't think that would be my main complain after watching these two games.

I apologize for the long post but the harping on this issue (going back to last year) is rather annoying. Armstead is gone. Loyd is here. Joseph is available soon enough. This team, with all of the new pieces, was going to go through growing pains regardless of who played PG and hopefully they will all start to play as a unit soon.

[oregontrack]

Incredibly ignorant IMO. Sim played well last night, but that's really not right to downplay Armstead like that. He had an amazing junior year, and still had some great games as a senior.

armstead? malcolm armstead?

he was quite good as a sophomore, but had a very mediocre junior year.. which was last year. he transferred out, he'll play his senior year for wichita state, i believe.

do you remember armstead last year? he NEVER 'got' what altman was preaching and would disappear for games at a time. and what did I say that was 'incredibly ignorant'? i said we didn't get anything from him last year that we aren't getting this year (which is fact), i said sim played better last night than armstead did at any point last year (which is fact), and I said armstead was so bad to start last year altman benched him for loyd (which is fact). your post going off on jabari and the jc kids was far more ignorant than what I said.

[Prf15]

I wasn't able to catch the game, how did Jabari look?

[oregontrack]

I wasn't able to catch the game, how did Jabari look?

pressed all game.

[UOducksTK1]

Incredibly ignorant IMO. Sim played well last night, but that's really not right to downplay Armstead like that. He had an amazing junior year, and still had some great games as a senior.

armstead? malcolm armstead?

he was quite good as a sophomore, but had a very mediocre junior year.. which was last year. he transferred out, he'll play his senior year for wichita state, i believe.

do you remember armstead last year? he NEVER 'got' what altman was preaching and would disappear for games at a time. and what did I say that was 'incredibly ignorant'? i said we didn't get anything from him last year that we aren't getting this year (which is fact), i said sim played better last night than armstead did at any point last year (which is fact), and I said armstead was so bad to start last year altman benched him for loyd (which is fact). your post going off on jabari and the jc kids was far more ignorant than what I said.

Incredibly ignorant IMO. Sim played well last night, but that's really not right to downplay Armstead like that. He had an amazing soph year, and still had some great games as a junior.

Fixed. You said how Sim played last night was better than Armstead at any point his last year here, um...
22points 6assists 5 rebounds 5steals against Stanford
9points 13assists against OSU
14points 6assists 6steals 3rebounds against Creighton

Just saying, Ya Armstead have a rough year last season, but he still had some nice games. You are basically implying he contributed nothing last season. But without him, we would have been a worse team IMO. So yes, ignorant in my books.

[oregontrack]

if you really want to break it down one could still argue that sim's game last night was still better than any of armstead's last year, but the overall point wasn't about needlessly looking up every single game armstead played last year to compare statistics, it was that armstead had a really rough go of it and this team doesn't miss him. if anything, based on your jabari rant, you should be saying that we really miss jay-r strowbridge, because we're not getting the 2-guard production yet, whereas we ARE getting contributions from our current points. but that too would be a silly thing to say.

i still don't know how saying we're able to match a kid's contributions and he isn't missed is 'completely ignorant', but you saying multiple current players 'suck' is somehow an acceptable practice.