Dana Altman and Oregon Men’s Basketball will have some old and new faces coming into 2019, but some injuries, youth, and mystery enrollment complications make the season-opening starting lineup a bit of an enigma.
Today’s College basketball culture has a reputation for high profile “one-and-done” players, but Dana Altman—at his best—is a total throwback compared to that.
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Even after another high-profile recruiting season that has Oregon seeing a ton of interesting incoming freshmen, Altman will look to continue coaching his game by leaning on experience.
Frosh ballers CJ Walker, Addison Patterson, Chandler Lawson, and N’Faly Dante (once the UO registrar figures their stuff out) will surely meld into the team soon enough, but Altman has built this program by leveraging returning leaders and a steady flow of transfers.
I’m going to operate under the assumption that seniority will prevail as I take a stab at predicting the starting lineup for Game 1 vs. Fresno State. I’m fully aware that the lineup will look very different when we get to March 2020, but we’ll start with the obvious:
Point Guard: Payton Pritchard
Payton Pritchard opted to return for his senior season after helping lead the Ducks to the Sweet Sixteen last year and testing the NBA waters ever-so-slightly. Pritch is the unquestioned leader of this squad, and he’ll surely be called upon once again to help Altman develop the whole group. Pritchard increased his aggressiveness in driving to the hoop, and I expect him to keep evolving his game all year to be a shoe-in for pro roster after he graduates.
Pritchard is also one of three UO student-athletes (with Ionescu and Herbert) who decided to “come back” for one more season with the Ducks. Sabrina is obviously the GOAT, and Herbie is just going to keep winning, but I think Pritchard’s return is sneakily the most important of the three. Women’s Basketball and Football are incredibly strong team units, and they are both full of veteran leadership outside of their icons. But Men’s Basketball would’ve felt significantly less stable without a leader like Pritch.
Oh, and he also dunked on Washington last year in the Pac-12 Tournament Championship Game. That was pretty cool.
Wings: Anthony Mathis & Will Richardson
Of all the offseason additions to this Ducks team, I think that the transfer from New Mexico, Anthony Mathis, is one of the biggest. I believe he’ll part of the first five to step on the floor for the 2019-20 Ducks.
Mathis will definitely find a special role on this team as the year goes on, but the most important thing Mathis brings to this seemingly disjointed team is immediate chemistry. Pritchard and Mathis grew up together. They’re both just kids from West Linn. They can’t wait to get on the floor together and win a couple more championships. We’re going to see a lot of special connections between these two.
Sophomore Guard Will Richardson is coming off a pretty successful freshman year. He made an appearance in every single game last year, and his experience throughout the Sweet Sixteen run cannot be undervalued. Richardson is probably a safe bet to get a good amount of minutes as a wing playing alongside Pritch, but I personally think he could prove to be an ultra-important PG2.
The Ducks are going to ask a lot of Pritchard throughout the year, and so if Richardson can prove he can take care of the ball, he could be a huge asset in giving Pritchard some much needed mid-game rest.
Posts: Shakur Juiston & Chris Duarte
Sophomore Forward Francis Okoro became a late-season rebound machine in March. I also fully expect Okoro to be a force down low for a good chunk of the year, but he didn’t play in last week’s Green-Yellow scrimmage due to an unspecified injury. All reports as of writing this article expect him to miss Game 1 against Fresno State.
Okoro will rest up and will be a huge contributor this year, but his injury coupled with 5-star Center N’Faly Dante’s absence due to UO enrollment issues, the Ducks’ front-court might be a bit jumbled throughout the non-conference schedule.
That’s why I think Dana will once again default to veterans to start out. Shakur Juiston is a 6’7” graduate transfer from UNLV, and even though he is listed as a Small Forward by 247Sports, he may be asked to play a little bigger in Okoro and Dante’s absences. Juiston was listed as the nation’s number 3 immediately eligible transfer when Altman signed him, and the Ducks will surely be hoping that he’ll be another name added to a storied list of Matt Knight-era transfers.
RETRACTION FROM ORIGINAL POSTING:
"“I think the “Power Forward” role is difficult to predict in this smaller lineup, but I think we could easily see Duquesne transfer Eric Williams Jr. start out in that spot.” – Me, in the original publishing of this article."
I DON’T KNOW WHAT KIND OF DUMB IDIOT WOULD PREDICT ERIC WILLIAMS JR. WOULD START TONIGHT OR EVEN PLAY AT ALL THIS YEAR.
Hand up. I didn’t do my homework and originally predicted that Williams would start.
Williams Jr. must sit out one year per NCAA transfer rules. Big whoops.
But what I did say in the original publishing of this article was:
"“In the interest of hedging my prediction just a tiny bit, I could also easily see 2018-19 Junior College National Player of the Year, Chris Duarte, get the starting nod for Fresno State.”"
So yes, I made a huge mistake. But also credit to me for also having a back up on this one.
In Conclusion:
I think Altman and the Ducks will set a tone with their seasoned vets first, and let the freshmen grow into their roles. The whole unit should be playing like a real team right as Pac-12 play begins.
And even if it takes a little longer than that to totally gel, we can rest assured knowing that Altman can rattle off 10-wins in a row to end the year. While Dana is on the record in saying that he’d sure like to not have to do that, it’s still kind of nice to know that it’s possible.
Happy Men’s Basketball season, everyone.
Go Ducks.