Oregon men’s basketball came back down to earth after losing to Cal and Stanford on the road last weekend.
The two losses were the Ducks’ second and third lowest scoring outputs on the road, respectively, in the Pac-12.
As a result, the Ducks’ scoring average dropped to 76.6 points per game, placing them fifth among Pac-12 teams.
With Joseph Young’s departure to the NBA, after last season the Ducks have compensated Young’s with increased offensive balance this season. Four players — Dillon Brooks, Elgin Cook, Tyler Dorsey and Chris Boucher — average more than 10 points per game, while Dwayne Benjamin averages eight off the bench.
Averaging a team-high 16 points per game, Brooks has emerged as Oregon’s most dangerous scoring threat. But his emergence shouldn’t come at the expense of the team’s balance. This isn’t to say that Brooks is at fault for Oregon’s stagnation on offense; it simply means the Ducks haven’t played with their typical balance in the last two games.
“I feel like right now we don’t know what we are doing on offense; we are being individuals,” Boucher said after Saturday’s 76-72 loss at Stanford. “We’re in first but we need to work together to fix this. Everything’s falling off, man.”
Glancing at a box score, it’s difficult to pinpoint where the Ducks erred on offense last weekend. With an average of 13 assists per game, the Ducks matched their average at Stanford and only fell two short against Cal. They didn’t turn the ball over at an alarming rate, either.
Oregon did, however, shoot 43 percent against Cal and Stanford and missed a combined 17 free throws in both contests. The Ducks also struggled to match the perimeter shooting of Cal and Stanford, who shot 57 and 69 percent from deep (respectively) against them.
“Yeah, there’s a lot of areas we need to work on,” head coach Dana Altman said after the Stanford loss. “And not just the defense and rebounding, which are the two biggest. But offensively we didn’t play very well either.”
While Oregon didn’t play well in either game, last weekend’s road sweep shouldn’t be considered alarming moving forward. The Bay Area trip is historically one of the Ducks’ toughest on their Pac-12 schedule. Going into the Cal-Stanford trip, Oregon had been swept in 11 of its last 15 tries.
The Ducks play their next three games in the comfortable surroundings of Matthew Knight Arena, where they’ve won 22 consecutive games and have yet to lose this season. The Ducks will then play their last two regular season games on the road against USC and UCLA, teams that Oregon has already beaten this season.
Nationally, the Ducks didn’t fall too far. The AP Poll moved Oregon from No. 11 to No. 16. ESPN college basketball analyst Joe Lunardi still has the Ducks as a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament, the highest-seeded team in the Pac-12.
But the losses did expose Oregon’s offensive shortcomings and its increasing reliance on Brooks to score. Without a balanced scoring attack, the Ducks’ offense has struggled to match opponents, particularly on the road.
Oregon now seeks revenge against Oregon State on Saturday, who held the Ducks to a season-low 57 points on Jan. 3. Oregon State only gives up 70 points per game, which is third best in the conference.
After the Ducks lost their Pac-12 opener to Oregon State, they won eight of their next nine games. Perhaps the Bay Area sweep will give Oregon a similar wake-up call.
Follow Will Denner on Twitter @Will_Denner