Oregon Basketball Starts Season 3-0, Not Happy With Performance vs Utah Valley

Nov 19, 2013; Eugene, OR, USA; Utah Valley Wolverines guard Hayes Garrity (2) defends along with Utah Valley Wolverines guard Holton Hunsaker (12) as Oregon Ducks guard Johnathan Loyd (10) dribbles the ball at Matthew Knight Arena. Mandatory Credit: Scott Olmos-USA TODAY Sports

Oregon Transfer Joseph Young had a game high 20 points as the Ducks took care of business beating Utah Valley on Tuesday night 69-54. There were some issues with the Ducks if you watched the game in person or on tv. The #17 team in the country had some issues down the stretch of the 1st half. They were unable to score and Utah Valley came storming back in what should have been a sizable deficit making it 29-25 Oregon at the break.

The Ducks took care of the ball in the second half and pulled away to start their season 3-0, but the questions about Oregon’s Defense began in the first half of the game. How will this team look from this point going forward. Will Oregon be able to play Defense? Head Coach Dana Altman talked about inserting a full court defense, and did – but was admittedly several players short of being consistent. At the end of the game Altman said it came down to taking care of fundamentals.

"“Coach is not happy; guys are not happy. If we want to be good, that’s not good enough.”Oregon Senior Guard Jason Calliste on the Ducks Performance vs Utah Valley"

The Ducks Waverly Austin showed that he is coming around with three blocks in the first half. There were some positives in the game and I know your not always going to perform your best 100 percent of the time. I just hope through the ups and downs of the Pac 12 season the Ducks don’t have too many games of not firing on at least half of their cylinders or they could be in trouble. The one saving grace for this team is they know they did not perform as they should. Even though they won the game they acted like they did not. That is a good sign that Oregon knows what they have to do moving forward.

Up Next the Ducks host San Francisco on Sunday at 5pm PT on the Pac 12 Networks.

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