Last year, the Ducks were among the defensive elite, ranked No. 13 nationally. One Duck, in particular, stood out: power forward Arsalan Kazemi.
“Arsalan was maybe as good a defender at the four spot as I’ve ever had,” men’s basketball head coach Dana Altman said.
Kazemi stuffed the defensive stat sheet all season, especially in Oregon’s biggest games. He averaged 15 rebounds, 1.67 steals and one block per game in Oregon’s three NCAA tournament contests. But his numbers mask the dozens of other contributions he made on defense, like his incredible footwork (a skill Altman raved about), his help defense and his destruction of the pick-and-roll.
“The Oregon forward was such a devastating pick-and-roll defender at the college level that he could single-handedly disrupt an opposing offense,” Grantland’s Brett Koremenos wrote last June.
Kazemi’s overall dominance on defense and on the glass distracted viewers from two other invaluable Oregon defenders: Tony Woods and E.J. Singler. Those two weren’t as dominant as Kazemi on defense, but they grasped the little things so well that the Ducks became a consistently tough defensive team.
“When I was able to overextend, I wasn’t scared because I knew I had Tone in there to block a shot, or E.J. in their to make a rotation,” point guard Johnathan Loyd said.
Right now, Kazemi is playing basketball in his native Iran. Woods is in Greece. Singler’s playing for the Idaho Stampede. And the Ducks are getting trampled by opposing offenses. Their defensive rating is 186th in the nation, and that’s just one of many stats that illustrates their defensive deficiencies.
The issues don’t stem from just one position, but it’s hard to look at Oregon’s interior defense and not see a massive hole where Kazemi and Woods used to operate. Loyd said several big men, especially Richard Amardi, have the potential to fill that gap and they’ve all shown flashes. But Altman says the consistency is severely lacking.
“We’ve had some good defense inside, but it hasn’t been on a consistent basis like Arsalan provided,” said Altman, who also praised Woods and Singler.
The biggest problem with this year’s defense might be invisible. Loyd’s illustrates this perfectly. Loyd and other perimeter players could spend more effort pressuring their men because Kazemi and Woods were standing near the basket craving an opportunity to reject a shot. Oregon’s perimeter defenders could go over screens more often, forcing three-point shooters to take more inefficient two-point jumpers or challenge Oregon’s fearsome big men. The ball-handlers could drive and pass to a shooter, but Kazemi, Woods and Singler were brilliant at rotating to contest shots.
These three provided comfort to their other teammates on the court. For scorers like Damyean Dotson and Dominic Artis, they might have exerted less effort on the defensive end, thus making them more effective on offense.
This year’s defense might be turning the corner. Washington State, while far from elite, shot just 25 percent from the field against Oregon.
But it’s doubtful these Ducks can even approach last year’s defensive output. As the season progresses, Oregon’s yearning for Kazemi, Woods and Singler will likely keep growing.
Follow Victor Flores on Twitter @vflores415