The new-look Oregon men's basketball team opens their 2025-26 season Friday night with an exhibition game at Matthew Knight Arena against former PAC-12 foe Utah, 7:00 p.m. PT with TV on Big Ten+.
Dana Altman's 16th team at Oregon (370-162, .695) begins the season ranked the equivalent of 27th in the AP Poll, just behind No. 25 North Carolina and North Carolina State.
It's a promising, intriguing year for the Ducks as they return their big three from last season, 7-0 center Nate Bittle, their leading scorer and rebounder, guard Jackson Shelstad, the sharpshooter from West Linn High who scored 13.7 points a game, and Kwame Evans, the 6-10 junior from Baltimore and a former McDonald's All-American.
Evans scored 6.1 points per game and pulled down 4.6 rebounds coming off the bench last season, expected to be a full-time starter in his third year with the program. Shelstad will start the year in street clothes as he's awaiting clearance from the doctors after breaking his right hand in practice earlier this month.
What makes this team exciting is the supporting cast Altman and his staff gathered in the Transfer Portal and international recruiting. He picked up Sean Stewart, a 6-9, 225 forward from Duke and Ohio State who scored 5.7 points a game and ranked second on the OSU team in rebounds with 5.8 a game.
To spell Bittle under the basket the Ducks picked up 6-11, 275 center Ege Demir, a native of Nigeria who has spent the last three seasons playing in Turkey. Demir is powerful with unlimited potential.
🚨 NEW DUCK ALERT 🚨
— Barstool Ducks (@BarstoolDucks) July 21, 2025
Ege Demir The 20 year old 6’10” 250 pound Center from Turkey 🇹🇷
😳
pic.twitter.com/uTncihHtdc
The Ducks added size up front in 6-7 Devon Pryor from Texas, an athletic wing, plus another international veteran in Efe Vatan, a 6-10 power forward from the Turkish U19 basketball league. Vatan averaged 16.7 points and 6.5 rebounds for Galatasaray a season ago.
Cold shooting streaks were a nagging problem for last year's 25-10 squad, which made it all the way the second round of the NCAA Tournament. That shouldn't be a problem this time around as the Ducks picked up Elon guard Takai Simpkins, a 6-4 guard who poured in 16.4 points per game and shot 36.7 percent from 3-point range. From China they found Wei Lin of the Nanjing Monkey Kings, 21 points per game and 35 percent 3-point shooting.
This team is well-constructed for playing in Altman's signature style, open court, tough defense, sound basketball. Eighth last year in the Big Ten at 12-8, they could surprise some people, and their style of play is certain to be entertaining.
The challenge will be to gel such diverse elements, but that's where Altman's experience comes in. At Big Ten Media Days he said, "We just want good players. I don’t care if they’re from the portal, I don’t care if they’re from overseas. High-school guys are always great. I don’t have a preference. I just want guys who want to be at Oregon.”
The veteran coach has shown that when he has good players, he knows how to mold them into a unit.