Global Sports Hoops Showcase

[UOducksTK1]

North Carolina Central W 58=45
Wed, Dec 21 Prairie View A&M - Eugene, Ore. 7:00 p.m.
Thu, Dec 22 Stephen F. Austin - Eugene, Ore. 7:00 p.m.

[thomas time]

58-45 ducks win, terrible shooting as team, glad it wasn't on tv. 16-49 and 6-18 on 3's, at least 20-22 on ft's.

[dthomas=ddixon]

Yeah that was a pretty awful game. I was planning on going but didn't make it, kinda glad now ha.

[TheMaehlMan]

Our shooting in the first half was truly pathetic, and we really had difficulty getting good shots. In the second half we started making some plays defensively, which helped open up the offense in transition. NCCU isn't as bad as I thought though, they almost beat NC State on the road a little while ago. Still not pleased by the effort though...

[oregontrack]

i thought the effort was okay, we just couldn't hit the ocean from the beach in that first half. 20% shooting at the break. missed plenty of open looks.

[UOducksTK1]

C'mon quackers!

[cordy02c]

ducks win 74-66 got up 13 let them make a run but made enough fts to win. Sim had 20, Devoe 19 and Singler 13

[oregontrack]

my thoughts after watching the last two games:

easy baskets are nice. but for whatever reason, we really hate them. jeremy jacob is the only big we have at the moment who knows how to get an entry pass and finish a play inside. i expected tony woods to come in raw -- and he is -- but i'm surprised oshualu is so fundamentally clumsy. his talent is obvious, but he does things my high school coach would have had an aneurysm over. i've watched our guards closely the last couple nights, and where they lack freaky athleticism or size they make some GREAT entry passes. brett kingma, in particular, who is really struggling with his offensive game right now, has a great lob where he puts the ball over the defense and into the waiting hands of one of our bigs for an easy flush. hard to teach that kind of pass, it's just natural. the problem is that if that lob pass isn't going to jacob, we're not scoring off it. if it goes to woods or ashaolu, the ball is place perfectly but they bring it down low to their body (aren't we taught in 5th grade this is a no-no?) and, much to my own personal dismay (and i imagine dana altman's), they put the ball on the floor, dribble, and sometimes try to spin around a defender unnecessarily when they could have just gotten the pass and gone up with it.

infuriating.

speaking of woods, he had a rough night all-around last night. some of it wasn't his fault: he was called twice for hooking on two plays where i didn't see so much as a hint of an arm going around the defender. the team bench was pretty livid both times, and the crowd was, too. but you have to work past bad calls, he was as invisible as a 6'11 kid can be last night.

sim is SPECTACULAR this year. for all the unjustified hate he's taken the last three years, i feel obligated to point that out each and every game.

20 points for sim, 19 for joseph. a better starting lineup last night: sim/joseph/singler/jacob/woods.

i know these scores the last two nights won't impress anyone, but i don't think they're indicative of much. i think we'll play these types of games against most pac-12 teams. we just don't seem like the team that has many 14-2 runs in us, so we're going to be playing A LOT of close games for the next three months. we're not good enough offensively to sustain long runs, and we're not good enough defensively to keep a team from scoring long enough to put together enough good offensive possessions.

[Boom]

i know these scores the last two nights won't impress anyone,

Probably because it was against North Carolina Central Eagles and the Prairie View A&M Panthers

but i don't think they're indicative of much. i think we'll play these types of games against most pac-12 teams. we just don't seem like the team that has many 14-2 runs in us, so we're going to be playing A LOT of close games for the next three months. we're not good enough offensively to sustain long runs, and we're not good enough defensively to keep a team from scoring long enough to put together enough good offensive possessions.

My worry is that we've been blown out by most of the competitive teams on our schedule so far.... The Nebraska win was a good one, but I don't think we're going to have many games shooting 50% from the field and 40% behind the arc once Pac 12 starts.

I think it's likely that we only win 6-7 games this year... getting blown out by the .500+ teams... but at least we get to play Utah twice.

[oregontrack]

yes, but you're a certified pessimist. the rule of thumb around here is to add 3 wins to any prediction you make. so we may just break even!

[frogsnouts]

Well Oregon finishes off this tournament with a third win. No blowouts, but wins are wins.

We are also one of the few Pac teams who haven't lost a game we "should" have won. Virginia/BYU/Vanderbilt would beat most of the Pac this year.

On to Pac 12 play I predict a final win count of 21. Some of these Pac teams are so bad (ASU, Utah, Colorado, USC), and the rest can be beaten on any given night.

[bellsduck]

Only way we make NCAA is to win the league tourney.

[dthomas=ddixon]

Say what you want but these were all games that past duck teams would have lost. Offensively nothing was working but they stuck with it & played good D throughout. Something EK teams could never seem to do.

And let's not pretend the pac12 is any good this year. Talented yes, but everyone is just as inconsistent & unpredictable as always. This team will come together at some point & when they do we'll be one of the better teams in the conference. The talent is there buts also a very veteran team, something that gives us an advantage over almost everyone else in the conference.

[bellsduck]

Say what you want but these were all games that past duck teams would have lost. Offensively nothing was working but they stuck with it & played good D throughout. Something EK teams could never seem to do.

And let's not pretend the pac12 is any good this year. Talented yes, but everyone is just as inconsistent & unpredictable as always. This team will come together at some point & when they do we'll be one of the better teams in the conference. The talent is there buts also a very veteran team, something that gives us an advantage over almost everyone else in the conference.

Not disagreeing that at some point we should be one of the better teams in the conference. It won't speak very highly though at tourney time because this conference sucks. We don't have any quality wins to date and won't pick up any in the Pac-12 games. So I stick by the opinion that we'll need to win the conference tourney to get to NCAA's.

As to your other point about Ernie's teams. I wanted Ernie gone as our coach. However, as long as we've hosted these little 4 game jamborees if you will, we've been successful.

2009-10 defeated Winston-Salem State by 51, Colorado State by 15, UC Davis by 31
2007-08 defeated Pepperdine by 30, Pacific by 16, Western Michigan by 9
2006-07 defeated Lehigh by 12, CS Northridge by 11, Port St. by 48

I have a hard time thinking any of Ernie's teams would've lost against the competition this year.

[dthomas=ddixon]

I'm not talking about these tourneys specifically. Jut a lot of the mid majors we played in general. Oakland SWEPT the 2 game series against us. Portland & Portland st had their way with us multiple times as well.