Oregon Basketball will have a lot of new faces this season and the talent level could be off the charts.
The Oregon Ducks return to the hardwood for the first official game of the season in just over a week. Through two exhibition games, the Ducks have showed promise on the Offensive end of the floor, but are lacking on the Defensive side. Head Coach Dana Altman seems to find the knack for working with players and shoring up the Defense at the right time, and he will have to do it again before Conference Play begins at the end of December.
The Oregon Men’s Basketball team will also continue to work on team chemistry, one thing that had some work early with a trip overseas, but this season Freshman dominate the Ducks Roster as Payton Pritchard will work with some very talented incoming talent led by Troy Brown.
Last Saturday, the Ducks had 15 assists. On Monday night vs Northwest Christian they had 31 assists, led by Troy Brown with 9. He said postgame that he likes spreading the ball around and giving his teammates opportunities to score, “We have a lot of different guys who can do a lot of different things.” That was the one thing about Brown that I noticed. When he speaks, he does not sound like a Freshman. He sounds like a Veteran who is primed to do good things this season for the Oregon Ducks.
New Mexico Transfer Elijah Brown has shown through two games that he will also be one to watch this season. He has 39 points in the Ducks’ two games and is shooting 8 for 11 combined as Oregon is hovering around hitting 50 percent of their shots from beyond the arc. Brown also has a combined 8 assists and impressed me with his on-court communication. He was the most vocal player on the floor on Monday night.
More from Autzen Zoo
- Oregon football: Ducks and Coach Prime playing it cordial leading up to Saturday
- Oregon Basketball: Non-conference slate features Michigan coming to Eugene
- Oregon football: Ducks find complete game effort in win vs Hawaii
- Oregon Ducks must get run game going against Hawaii
- 8 Pac-12 teams represented in Associated Press Top 25 after Week 2
I remembered two seasons ago when Altman spoke about the lack of communication. That will not be the case this season. The floor general for this team is Payton Pritchard. Like many of the underclassmen, he spent time this summer playing for a National Team. The effort will pay off this season.
Even though he did not start vs Northwest Christian, he led the team with 25 points and was near perfect from the floor going 10 for 13 from the floor and 4 of 5 from three-point range. Altman is expecting big things from Pritchard in 2017, “I think because of his experience he’ll score more than he did a year ago. He’ll take more shots.”
Oregon will have a closed scrimmage later this week with Oklahoma in Las Vegas, which also happened last year. The regular season begins with Coppin State on Friday, November 10th for a 9 pm Pacific Time on Pac-12 Network.
Quotes obtained first hand after game with NCU