The Oregon Ducks are failing the progress report
The men leave Eugene with a whimper as Ducks embark on toughest test of the year.
This is not how Dana Altman would draw it up.
Heading into the Oregon men’s basketball team’s hardest stretch of the season, the Ducks aren’t just riding a three-game losing streak, they seem to have lost their fire.
On Sunday, Oregon fell again at home, 77-71, this time after allowing Big Ten basement dweller Nebraska to zip out to a 15-point lead in the first half.
The unranked and largely unnoticed Cornhuskers outrebounded the Ducks, outshot the Ducks, outhustled the Ducks and certainly made more plays for each other. Granted, that hasn’t been far from the norm in a frustrating opening half to a Big Ten schedule that has Oregon treading water at 5-6 in league play after starting 11-0 out of conference.
Yes, the Ducks are 16-6. And yes, they still have an 8-4 record in Quadrant 1 games on their NCAA Tournament resume. But the Ducks were once 5-0 in those games, and Sunday’s loss dropped the Ducks’ NET rating to a season-worst 37.
What was supposed to be a smooth sendoff1 has turned into a flat tire on the on-ramp to the Autobahn. On Tuesday, the Ducks play Michigan, where the Wolverines are 10-0 in Ann Arbor. On Saturday, the Ducks play Michigan State, where the No. 7, conference-leading Spartans are 11-0 in East Lansing.