Ducks Attack Message Board Forum

http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindducksb ... es_li.html

Longmire may be gone putting the Ducks at 8 scholarship players. Altman's job gets more and more difficult every week.

Our season (or two) outlook is horrible!

I like DA so I look forward to seeing what he can do moving forward.

GO DUCKS!!

I know this is incredibly frustrating for Duck fans, but how much maturity does it take to keep up your grades, especially with the resources available like the Jacqua Center?

Hasn't this been an issue with Longmire on previous occasions?

Not to point fingers, but somehow, EK's record of graduating players seems a little shaky, right now.

What has been going on behind the scene?

I blame Ernie Kent for a lot of things, but I'm not putting Longmire's problems on him. EK sat Longmire for a couple weeks last winter to work on his academics, and Big Ern was under no obligation to do so. If a player doesn't want to work, the player's not going to work.

I've heard we've brought in a transfer or two (of the JC variety, I would think) to help round out the roster, but I can't find anything online to confirm and link.

Looks like the Oregonian has picked up on the same rumor I heard:

http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindducksb ... es_li.html

There are a couple of rumored scholarship transfers, including a forward/center type. Altman and his staff will hold walk-on tryouts next week once classes begin. Nicholas Lucenti, the grandson of women's coach Paul Westhead, is already in that group.

I know we have had some bad teams in the past, but this will probably be the worst one that I can remember. The starters are going to have to play almost the entire game. Not good at all.

duckgrad99 wrote:I know we have had some bad teams in the past, but this will probably be the worst one that I can remember. The starters are going to have to play almost the entire game. Not good at all.

I tend to agree, it will be important that
as fans we stand behind the players and
the coaches and stay very patient.

DA might be able to pull in a pretty good class though considering our depth and the number of scholarships available and although we are thin on playmakers I think DA will coach the team to a better than expected record. All but 2 of the out of conference games are at home and all but 3-4 of the OOC games the Ducks should win and the conference will probably be down again so the Ducks should win a few (maybe only a couple) to end up probably better than most people would expect. I like the players he is going after, he is not afraid to go after top talent and try to lure them away from the big boys and he doesn't have the World Wide Wes connection that EK had. Unfortunately it will probably be a tough 2-3 seasons before he can get things into place.

Nicholas Lucenti... Now there's a household name.

Then again, if he has Westhead's work ethic, there may be some potential here.

Sometimes coach's kids are the smartest players on the floor.

At 6'2/190, with a 3.3 ppg average, it's hard to guess how much contribution Lucenti will provide. He was practicing with the squad before the cancellation of the Italy trip.

I have often said that a true
measure of a coach is when he
has a team of players he's recruited.
And to give him 3-4 years.

Looks like with the way the players
are dropping that might be sooner
then later.

Call me crazy, but I am actually feeling ok about what is to come. I like the fact that we don't hear about DA trying to stop these kids. I think the turn around for the program may be quicker now that Dana is going to be able to bring in his kids for the style he wants to play. I am not even worried, but expecting our recruiting classes to be lower ranked as he has to prove that his style of play can not only win in the Pac, but has the potential to place you in the NBA.

Here is my prediction. Dana will recruit a 2-3 star player that blows up in his style of play, and gets drafted high. This starts turning recruits heads towards us, and we start getting Chip Kelly type recruiting classes in 3-5 years.

Autzenoise wrote:Call me crazy, but I am actually feeling ok about what is to come. I like the fact that we don't hear about DA trying to stop these kids. I think the turn around for the program may be quicker now that Dana is going to be able to bring in his kids for the style he wants to play. I am not even worried, but expecting our recruiting classes to be lower ranked as he has to prove that his style of play can not only win in the Pac, but has the potential to place you in the NBA.

Here is my prediction. Dana will recruit a 2-3 star player that blows up in his style of play, and gets drafted high. This starts turning recruits heads towards us, and we start getting Chip Kelly type recruiting classes in 3-5 years.

This is just how we as fans should look at it for
the most part. As soon as they hit a rough spot
we cant just jump off the bandwagon. The players and
coaches will need the support. I look forward to a
bright future. Go ducks

duckgrad99 wrote:I know we have had some bad teams in the past, but this will probably be the worst one that I can remember. The starters are going to have to play almost the entire game. Not good at all.

Right now there is absolutely no excitement around the basketball program. That doesn't bode well for ticket sales for our new arena. Hopefully Altman can pull in a nice recruiting class for next year.

Boom wrote:

duckgrad99 wrote:I know we have had some bad teams in the past, but this will probably be the worst one that I can remember. The starters are going to have to play almost the entire game. Not good at all.

Right now there is absolutely no excitement around the basketball program. That doesn't bode well for ticket sales for our new arena. Hopefully Altman can pull in a nice recruiting class for next year.

I don't think this is how the athletic department envisioned going into the new arena, but they are going to have to wait it out for the BB program to get turned around. I have all the faith in the world in Altman to get it turned around, but I don't think that much of the rest of the fan base will. The only way this thing gets turned around is if Altman can at least get a couple playmakers in the first recruiting class to build the team around for the future. Even with those young guys in, it will probably take another year or two to get them up to speed and ready for being good Pac-10 players. This is looking to be a 3-4 year turnaround for the program.

I just hope we recruit good basketball players. Ernie fell into the recruiting trap of bringing in stars... athletic kids who can jump through the roof but can't shoot, don't know how to rebound, comically low basketball IQs. Michael Dunigan, for instance, is great, if you like tall kids who foul a lot, can't score with his back to the basket, doesn't put any effort into boarding, etc. We need guards who can actually shoot, move without the ball, hustle on defense, and bigs who can score, defend the post, and position their body to rebound. Whether those are 4 star high-level recruits or under-the-radar 2 stars from small schools, I don't care. Just get 'em here.