We're watching a poorly coached team

[nogerO]

I know Duck fans will hate hearing this, and a lot will call me out, but I've never jumped on the Altman bandwagon, and I don't think I ever will. I sure hope I end up eating crow, but the more I watch this team the more I realize that the firing of Ernie Kent was a mistake. Now I know it was time to move on, but it was handled poorly. Oregon had no plan for a replacement, and Altman was a last resort. He has been lucky that the conference has been so weak these last couple of years. This year, Altman has some talent, and he can inspire, but watching this team all season, every game I've seen lazy and sloppy cuts and screens on offense, way too much perimeter ball movement, confused defense with players out of position, a lack of boxing out, and poor basketball IQ. I hate to say this, and I know people will say this is just a reaction to the UCLA game right now and how poorly Oregon is doing, but since the hire, I've never felt this was the right hire and that Altman was the coach to take this basketball team to the next level. Again, I hope I'm proven wrong, but even with the fans talking highly about Oregon, I never said Altman was a good coach. Please prove me wrong Altman! I would love to see this basketball team reach new levels and bring excitement to the city like the football team has.

It ain't over 'til it's over spanky...

[woundedknees]

Sheesh... Some people's kids!

[Duck07]

the more I watch this team the more I realize that the firing of Ernie Kent was a mistake.

So just how long have you been an Oregon fan 4 life?

[dthomas=ddixon]

We need to add a "yawning" emoticon for posts like this.

[pudgejeff]

you can say that oregon basketball is many things right now, but 'poorly coached' is not one of them. we have gotten the MAXIMUM amount of wins as is humanly possible the last two years with altman. i do not care how many extra games we played last year, winning 21 games with last season's sad sack of talent was a tremendous achievement. we're 15-5 this year with no point guard, a poor homecourt advantage, and players who have been together for months, not years.

even good teams play bad halves of basketball. making threads like this at halftime of ANY game is unwise. good teams make adjustments and keep fighting. ernie kent would be a game or two over .500 with this team; we're in the thick of an ncaa tournament run.

altman is a good coach. you can still have your doubts about whether or not he's the guy to lead this team to consistent contender status; i get that part. got to prove it, and all. but to watch this team and say it's poorly coached? that's embarrassing. you need to do better at life.

This wouldn't be the team Ernie Kent would have been coaching, it would have a lot more talent.

[Duck07]

you can say that oregon basketball is many things right now, but 'poorly coached' is not one of them. we have gotten the MAXIMUM amount of wins as is humanly possible the last two years with altman. i do not care how many extra games we played last year, winning 21 games with last season's sad sack of talent was a tremendous achievement. we're 15-5 this year with no point guard, a poor homecourt advantage, and players who have been together for months, not years.

even good teams play bad halves of basketball. making threads like this at halftime of ANY game is unwise. good teams make adjustments and keep fighting. ernie kent would be a game or two over .500 with this team; we're in the thick of an ncaa tournament run.

altman is a good coach. you can still have your doubts about whether or not he's the guy to lead this team to consistent contender status; i get that part. got to prove it, and all. but to watch this team and say it's poorly coached? that's embarrassing. you need to do better at life.

This wouldn't be the team Ernie Kent would have been coaching, it would have a lot more talent.

and we'd also have a .500 record

[Phenom]

Not...sure...if...serious.

[TheMaehlMan]

Saying we should have kept Ernie because of coaching is really funny...

[karlhungis]

Not...sure...if...serious.

ಠ_ಠ

[OreDucks01284]

Not...sure...if...serious.

ಠ_ಠ

[oregontrack]

you can say that oregon basketball is many things right now, but 'poorly coached' is not one of them. we have gotten the MAXIMUM amount of wins as is humanly possible the last two years with altman. i do not care how many extra games we played last year, winning 21 games with last season's sad sack of talent was a tremendous achievement. we're 15-5 this year with no point guard, a poor homecourt advantage, and players who have been together for months, not years.

even good teams play bad halves of basketball. making threads like this at halftime of ANY game is unwise. good teams make adjustments and keep fighting. ernie kent would be a game or two over .500 with this team; we're in the thick of an ncaa tournament run.

altman is a good coach. you can still have your doubts about whether or not he's the guy to lead this team to consistent contender status; i get that part. got to prove it, and all. but to watch this team and say it's poorly coached? that's embarrassing. you need to do better at life.

This wouldn't be the team Ernie Kent would have been coaching, it would have a lot more talent.

i understand we'd still likely have humphries and crittle and that bunch on the team, i thought we were operating under the hypothetical of how ernie would do with the current bunch of kids. and with this bunch, he'd be in a bit o' trouble.

as an aside, i think altman's 15-5 record with THIS team is better than the record ernie would have if armstead, humphries, crittle, and dunigan were all seniors. that group was seriously flawed.

[northbeachsf]

I went to the NC State vs. BC game the other night in Raleigh and let me tell you that Humphrey was awful. He airballed a copule of threes, then put it on the floor and drove to the hoop, only to get it blocked back into his face. Probably not as big of a loss as everyone originally thought.

However, I wish we would have landed CJ Leslie. Very impressive.

[OregonFan4Life]

I am not all that impressed with what Altman has done this year, it's good, but he has more talent than people realize I think. Sure Ernie may have had more raw talent, but Ernie never had a complete lineup like this, now credit does go to Altman for that. Our starting lineup consists of 5 players starting at their true position, which does a lot for a team. Today's win goes to the players, pretty much all of the credit goes to them. There were so many big plays that weren't caused by coaching or organized plays. For example, Sim's 4 point play, he made a great shot, but Oregon was kinda lucky the ball went to Sim in the first place. Many big offensive rebounds, Altman has coached the team to do well crashing the offensive boards, but there were times where Oregon was unsuccessful when going for the offensive board which created numbers for Cal on offense. And don't get me started on the blocking out, just horrible. The offensive flow is horrible when players can't create on 1 on 1 situations, if you take away 1 on 1 play, you stop the Oregon offense, look at Cal. There is this one play where Ashaulo stands around the free throw line, and sets a screen for someone on the point, seemed like most of the time it was Nared. Ashaulo on multiple possessions set such a lazy and sloppy screen, and that resulted in an equally sloppy and lazy cut from Nared or whoever was setting the screen. On multiple occasions, I saw UCLA's off-ball movement and it was far more advanced and dangerous than Oregon's offensive movement, and UCLA got may easy points from it. Oregon's offense is too easily stopped by solid man to man defense. Oregon won specifically because they played more inspired, got a little lucky, and had better players. Another problem is Woods on defense. He's a great shot blocker but on way too many occasions he gets too greedy going for the shot block leaving his man wide open under the hoop for an easy layup. That needs to be addressed.

Again, I hope I'm proven wrong, I will be very happy if Altman can turn out to be like Chip Kelly which some Oregon fans have compared him to. I want to see this team succeed and become a recognizable face in the NCAA tournament, this is just my honest opinion. Please prove me wrong Altman!

[woundedknees]

This team consistently shows more heart, grit, determination, and "team work", especially in the absence of a superstar, or a proven point guard, than just about any team fielded by Oregon since Harter was the coach... A lot of that is due to in game adjustments and "coaching".

These guys aren't running the show for themselves... Otherwise their results would more closely mirror the result of LSU's recent MNC game.

[TheMaehlMan]

In response to OregonFan4Life:
You do realize that Ernie's teams took multiple years to find chemistry, right? We don't even have a true point guard as a starter and we all know that Ernie needed a great point guard to find success. We have talent, but part of the problem is the lack of a true point guard running the show, and yet Altman has been able to mask that deficiency and make us a very solid basketball team.

With all of the pieces in the fold it was a given that it would take time to look good, but this season should exceed everyone's expectations thus far. What are you looking for in a coach? Did you honestly expect Oregon to win the conference going away, because that seems like your expectation. Kentucky is the exception, not the rule with regards to bringing in a whole new team and being ready to rock. The only issue I have with Altman is the fact that he didn't do nearly enough homework in the recruitment of Jabari Brown and Bruce Barron, but the coaching staff will learn from that. With Ernie we were lucky to be a competitive team for two years out of the four for every massive class he brought in, and we are still trying to overcome his extremely unbalanced classes, that takes time..

Let's stop looking to the past and look to the future, because Altman will find a way to keep us competitive every season in my opinion.