Maybe No. 15 Oregon shouldn’t have spruced up its home court in the offseason.
Because so far, the more “transparent” look of the hardwood at Matthew Knight Arena has been far less intimidating for Big Ten Conference opponents than it was for Pac-12 foes.
The Ducks (15-3, 4-3 Big Ten), who are scheduled to host Washington on Tuesday night in Eugene, Ore., have suffered all three of their losses at home.
The latest was a 65-58 defeat to then-No. 17 Purdue on Saturday. The Ducks went more than eight minutes without a point early in the second half, were outrebounded 12-5 on the offensive glass, shot a season-worst 36.0 percent from the field — including 7 of 29 from 3-point range — and committed 16 turnovers.
“I didn’t recognize a lot of the shots we took and the turnovers — no idea where a lot of those came from,” Ducks coach Dana Altman said. “We just lost our composure and our discipline and that’s on me.
“Leaving our feet making plays, throwing it out of bounds when we weren’t even running or trying to execute anything. It wasn’t like we were trying to make a play for our teammate or anything like that. We went off on our own and tried to make something happen and it sure didn’t work.”
Even 7-foot Ducks center Nate Bittle, who had a team-high 18 points and blocked six shots, criticized his own play. Perhaps because nine of his 12 field-goal attempts were 3-pointers and he grabbed only two rebounds.
“I didn’t get myself in the paint enough,” Bittle said. “I shot way too many 3s. I got to get a couple of those shots inside. When they come inside people are starting to double (team), so I got to look for my open teammates, kick it out (and) make the right play.”
The Ducks have also lost 73-71 at home to UCLA and suffered a record-breaking 109-77 defeat to then-No. 22 Illinois.
“I’ve always told the guys, you’re judged by how you respond,” Altman said. “We’re going to have to bounce back.”
The Huskies (10-8, 1-6) have lost four consecutive games — all to ranked teams that are a combined 25-5 in Big Ten play — under first-year coach Danny Sprinkle.
They had the weekend off after a 69-58 loss to Purdue last Wednesday in which they committed 17 turnovers, leading to 18 Boilermakers points.
“To beat the type of teams that are in the Big Ten, we can’t do that,” said Huskies forward Great Osobor, a preseason all-conference selection who had 28 points, nine rebounds, four assists, three steals — and six turnovers.
Sprinkle was asked if it was just a case of a rebuilding program hitting a rough patch in the schedule.
“I’m just looking at it as a loss right now,” Sprinkle said. “We did some things well enough to win, but we didn’t do it for 40 minutes. Same thing at Michigan. You can’t play 32 good minutes against these teams that are (Top 25) in the country. Any Big Ten team.”
–Field Level Media
