A theme that has followed Oregon all season came up once again in a mid-week game against Loyola Marymount: a lack of timely hitting.

Oregon (26-22) left seven runners on base, failed to convert on several crucial scoring opportunities and fell to LMU 4-0 on Wednesday night at PK Park to extend the Ducks’ losing streak to seven straight.

“They did what good teams do,” Oregon head coach George Horton said. “They did some quality things, they extended the inning and they did some stuff when it mattered.”

The Ducks, on the other hand, did not deliver when it mattered. Despite their seven hits, they left seven runners on base and failed to drive in even one run. On the season, Oregon ranks 266 nationally in runs scored, so you could say that runs have been at a premium this year.

“Right now for the hitters it seems like there are 200 guys out there with gloves,” Horton said. “Not a good feeling.”

LMU set the tempo early as it scored three of its four runs in the first inning off of Oregon starter James Acuna. The Lions loaded the bases on three straight singles to lead the inning off before a fielder’s choice scored two runs. Another fielder’s choice a batter later scored the third run of the inning, giving the Lions a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

Horton thought his players could have responded better.

“Not as competitively as I’d like, quite frankly,” Horton said. “It wasn’t that they thought the game was over or anything like that but we really didn’t puff their lip.”

Acuna’s day was over shortly after. He was one of seven pitchers Oregon used in the game, one of what Horton calls an “all-staff” performance. Acuna lasted only 1.2 innings and allowed four hits, three runs (two earned) and struck out two.

“James Acuna threw strikes,” Horton said. “But he was a little one dimensional and that’s why coach [Dietrich] got him.”

The Ducks had chances to cut into the lead, most notably in the third inning. Morgan McCullough singled and reached third two batters later. But with runners on the corners and only one out, Spencer Steer grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Another opportunity arose an inning later when Tim Susnara doubled with one out. Susnara got all the way to third but Daniel Patzlaff struck out looking to end the threat.

LMU starter Giuseppe Benedetti didn’t exactly help Oregon’s offensive struggles. He allowed five hits and struck out two in his five innings of shutout pitching.

“I thought it was a masterful job by him and the guy who was calling the pitches,” Horton said. “They did a nice job with that.”

With the loss, Oregon has now dropped seven straight. The Ducks will continue searching for answers as they head to USC for a three-game series starting on Friday.

As the slide continues, Oregon’s chances of making the postseason get slimmer and slimmer.

“We need to get one game,” Horton said. “We’re not playing well.”   

Follow Gus Morris on Twitter @JustGusMorris

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Oregon women’s golf shot a 4-under 284 in the final round of the Lubbock NCAA Regional Tournament on Wednesday to finish third and advance to the NCAA Championships for the second straight year.

The team’s third place finish is the best in program history.

Following her career-best round on Tuesday where she shot a 5-under 67, senior Marcella Pranovia finished the tournament tied for ninth overall with a 1-under 215. Fellow senior Cathleen Santoso finished one shot behind Pranovia and placed 12th.

Oregon saved its best for last as its score of 284 was the lowest of the tournament. The Ducks needed to finish sixth or better to advance to the NCAA Championships but were in good shape heading into the final round. They held a nine-stroke cushion entering Wednesday.

The Ducks shot 1-over 294 and finished in second place in the first round. They dropped a spot to third place following their second round 1-over 289 performance.

Two Pac-12 teams — Oregon and Arizona State — advanced out of the Lubbock Regional. No. 6 UCLA missed the cut by finishing eighth.

Overall, five Pac-12 teams will represent the conference in the NCAA Championships, which begin on Friday, May 19, in Sugar Grove, Illinois.

Follow Gus Morris on Twitter @JustGusMorris

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Oregon baseball is through 43 of its 55 regular season games. Yet, since the beginning of conference play back in March, head coach George Horton’s search for a consistent third starter in Oregon’s pitching rotation has come up empty.

Since March 17, four different Ducks have started the third game of a series, posting an earned run average of 24.78 over their seven starts.

“If you’re a college baseball coach, you’d like to have four quality starters,” Horton said. “But you look across the country at Sunday game scores — or third game of the series scores or even second game in a series scores — and you see that not everybody has that luxury.”

But as Oregon approaches arguably its most important stretch of the season, Horton hopes that his search for the missing piece to the puzzle that is his starting rotation is finally over.

Last Wednesday, Horton tapped Cole Stringer as the third starter in the Ducks’ pitching rotation for the foreseeable future.

Stringer, who already lost the job once, doesn’t plan on losing it again.

“After I got the job taken away from me, I really wanted it back so I stepped up my game,” Stringer said after his 5.2-inning, three-hit and one-run performance against Arizona State back on April 30 — his first after being named a starter again. “We haven’t been playing bad baseball. I think things haven’t been going our way.”

Oregon Ducks head coach George Horton speaks with his batters prior to the bottom of the ninth inning. The Oregon Ducks play the first game in a weekend series against the Stanford Cardinal at PK Park in Eugene, Ore. on Friday April 21, 2017. (Aaron Nelson/Emerald)

Stringer fell out of the rotation after Oregon dropped its final game of its series at Cal on March 19, where he allowed two runs in a four-inning loss. He hadn’t pitched poorly, but what followed was a stretch that Stringer probably wants to forget.

He threw an inning of relief against in the following series against Washington and allowed three earned runs in his one inning of work. A week later, he surrendered five earned runs in six innings of relief in Oregon’s 13-1 drubbing at the hands of Utah.

While Stringer’s numbers haven’t been all that impressive in relief, he’s been the most consistent third starter for the Ducks. It was his fight to get back in the rotation that finally forced Horton’s hand.

“He said, ‘Hey, look at me. I deserve to be back in there,’” Horton said. “He’ll be back in there this weekend and I think he’ll do everything in his power to not every lose that again.”

Pitching deep into games is still an issue for Stringer, though, and something that Horton wants him to work on moving forward.

“You have to show Cole confidence,” Horton said. “He’s got confidence but you don’t want to get him out of there too soon. You want to let him pitch as deep as he deserves to pitch in the game. So that’ll be the objective for him, is make sure we don’t pull him too soon.”

In his 13 appearances this season, Stringer threw for six innings or more only twice. Still, his 3.31 ERA is third-best on the team for pitchers who have started more than three games.

At this point, Stringer is Oregon’s best option as a third starter and barring a massive collapse, he will keep that role for the rest of the season.

He will need to be at his best if Oregon wants to escape the upcoming stretch — matchups against UCLA, USC and No. 1 Oregon State — with a chance at making the postseason.

Follow Gus Morris on Twitter @JustGusMorris

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Oregon head coach Willie Taggart has a new rule for quarterback Justin Herbert: talk to a teammate after every play.

As soon as every play is signaled dead in practice and during games, Herbert must talk to a teammate and either offer praise or a critique. Taggart wants his sophomore play-caller to further emerge from his shell and truly become the leader he is looking for in a quarterback.

While Herbert certainly proved himself on the field Saturday with his 327-yard and three touchdown performance in Oregon’s spring game, Taggart wants whomever he names the starting quarterback in the fall to be a true leader both on and off the field.

He has worked closely with Herbert this spring on improving his leadership abilities.

“He’s the quarterback of the football team. He’s gotta be vocal,” Taggart said after the Herbert-led Team Free defeated Team Brave 34-11 in Oregon’s spring game. “He doesn’t have to be a ‘ra-ra’ guy, I’m not asking him to do that. But he’s gotta lead this team.

“He’s gotta get him or Travis [Jonsen] or whoever it is to get the team to rally around him. You go back and look at the heyday here and look at the great Marcus Mariota; everybody played for him. Not only everybody in that room, hell, the entire Ducknation wanted to play for him and be there for him. To me, that’s what a great quarterback does.”

Herbert is quiet by nature. His media sessions last season would last only a few minutes because of how brief his answers were. He rarely spoke much and when he did, it would be quietly.

“He was pretty much a mute when he first came in,” offensive lineman Jake Hanson said. “Not saying that’s a bad thing or anything, he was just a quiet dude.”

Whatever approach Taggart is taking with Herbert this spring has appeared to work. Teammates notice a difference and say that Herbert is more vocal in practice.

“You’re never going to get like a ‘ra-ra’ speech from him but he’s definitely come a long way in a year,” Hanson said.

Herbert said the rule about talking after every play has definitely helped in his growth as a leader. He said that having a coach like Taggart makes that process much easier.

“Having a guy like Coach T definitely helps,” Herbert said. “He’s very personable.”

Taggart hesitated about putting any of the three quarterbacks — Herbert, Jonsen or freshman Braxton Burmeister — above the other when asked about Herbert’s chances of being named Oregon’s starting quarterback. Fall camp is still months away and as Oregon fans learned the last two seasons, anything can happen when it comes to quarterbacks.

But wide receiver Darren Carrington — whose three touchdown catches on Saturday all came from Herbert — had no hesitation when asked about Herbert and where he stands in the quarterback competition.

“Herbert, that’s the guy right now to beat,” Carrington said.

It’s amazing what a little talking can do.

Follow Gus Morris on Twitter @JustGusMorris

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Oregon’s postseason got off to a shaky start earlier this week.

The Ducks cut 15 strokes off their score in the final round of the Pac-12 Championships, which concluded play on Wednesday, to finish ninth overall. Cathleen Santoso delivered Oregon’s best performance as she finished tied for 19th overall. The final strong round helped Oregon improve from tenth to ninth in the standings.

Fortunately, Oregon received news Thursday that eased the disappointment of its performance days prior. For the tenth straight season, Oregon qualified for the NCAA Regional tournaments. It earned a 12-seed in the Lubbock Regional bracket in Lubbock, Texas which features fellow Pac-12 teams Arizona State, Oregon State and Pac-12 Champion UCLA.

The Ducks played at The Rawls Course, the same course for the regional tournament, already this season and finished third out of the field of 15. Sophomore Petra Salko finished tied for tenth overall. It was Oregon’s first tournament of the season back in early September.

Regionals begin on May 8, and run until May 10. Oregon needs to finish in the top six to advance to the NCAA Championship, located at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois.

Follow Gus Morris on Twitter @JustGusMorris

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Doug Brenner jokingly calls him a psycho. Troy Dye compares him to the Energizer Bunny.

Juwaan Williams says his team’s new defensive coordinator is always loud. That is, when he’s had his daily dose of Pepsi, usually no less than three cans a day. But he only runs on original Pepsi — never Diet, Cherry or Vanilla.

During Jim Leavitt’s days at Colorado, because his wife didn’t allow Pepsi in the house, he often stopped at 7-Eleven to snag a couple bottles of his favorite drink.

“I don’t know if I could go to a Coke school,” Leavitt said.

The 60-year-old Leavitt, Oregon’s new defensive coordinator, is a one-of-a-kind coach who, during the offseason, became the Pac-12’s highest-paid assistant. Over his 39-year career, football has thrown the kitchen sink at him. He’s coached all over the country, from Iowa to Florida, Colorado and California.

He’s built a program from scratch, been fired twice, coached a Super Bowl team, sent players to the NFL and developed some of the best defenses in the history of college football.

Now, he’s been tasked with one of the most daunting jobs in the conference — rebuilding Oregon’s shattered defense, which even UO President Michael Schill joked about during the offseason: “Go find a great defensive coordinator,” Schill said during a press conference in December.

Schill had the statistics to back up his joke. The Ducks were the nation’s third-worst defense in 2016.

But for Leavitt, this lowly scenario is nothing new.

“If we play good defense here, we’ll tell a great story,” Leavitt said. “If we don’t then I won’t be here for long … and that’s the way it should be.”

A fast start

Leavitt, a native of St. Petersburg, Florida, began his college football career at Missouri, where he played four years under coach Al Onofrio and anchored the Tigers’ secondary as a safety.

After graduating in 1977, he spent two years as a graduate assistant at Missouri before heading to the state of Iowa where he bounced between smaller programs before landing another graduate assistant job at the University of Iowa.

Oregon Ducks defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt calls for his first-team players. The Oregon Ducks hold practice during their spring season at the Moshofsky Sports Center in Eugene, Ore. on Wednesday, April 26, 2017. (Aaron Nelson/Emerald)

Leavitt spent each summer from 1980 to 1988 living out of his car at a KOA campground near campus to save his $300 stipend from Iowa and put it towards his doctorate in psychology. He was working on the research for his dissertation when Bill Snyder, the head coach of Iowa at the time, called him and asked him to come coach with him at Kansas State.

When Jim Leavitt arrived at Kansas State with soon-to-be Hall of Fame coach Snyder in 1989, the program was in freefall.

The Wildcats hadn’t won a game in 27 consecutive tries (0-26-1), had totaled three wins the prior four seasons and had one of the worst defenses in the country.

“They were bad,” said Leavitt, who eventually became the co-defensive coordinator.

Then, Leavitt and Snyder worked their magic. In seven years time, Kansas State became the second-best scoring defense in the country. The Wildcats won their first bowl game in school history, finishing No. 6 overall in the AP Poll in 1995.

After helping raise Kansas State from the ashes, Leavitt received offers to coach elsewhere left and right, including one from the NFL, but only one opportunity stood out to him: South Florida. The school offered him its first head football coaching job. Leavitt was sold.

So, on Dec. 30, 1995, a day after Kansas State’s Holiday Bowl win, Leavitt boarded a flight home and, at the same time, into uncharted territory.

‘Start football’

Leavitt spent 14 years at South Florida refining his craft for building programs. In this case, he started with nothing.

There were no facilities, no locker rooms, no uniforms, no goalposts and no helmets. The school’s inaugural football venture was lacking everything — except Leavitt.

His first meeting with school administrators took place in a deserted trailer — which would later become his office — that the New York Yankees had left from spring training months earlier.

Leavitt said he will never forget what athletic director Paul Griffin said to him that day.

“Paul looks at me and says, ‘Start football,’ ” Leavitt said.

It took him exactly 10 years and 10 days to get the Bulls from their first game to a top-25 team. In 2007, the Bulls peaked at No. 2 in the country.

From 2005 to 2009, Leavitt’s final year at USF, the Bulls had a top-30 defense for four of those years and appeared in five bowl games, winning three of them. Leavitt recruited current NFL players Jason Pierre-Paul, Nate Allen and George Selvie.

Oregon defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt passes the ball to linebacker La’Mar Winston Jr. (32). The Oregon Ducks practice at the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex in Eugene, Ore. on Tuesday April 25, 2017. (Phillip Quinn/Emerald)

Yet, for all he did at South Florida, his unexpected departure in 2010 marred his success on the field.

A player accused Leavitt of striking a player at halftime of a midseason game. USF fired Leavitt after administrators concluded that he interfered with their investigation of the incident by telling players to change their stories of the incident.

To this day, Leavitt insists he did nothing wrong — and thinks USF fired him so it wouldn’t have to pay the remainder of his $12.6 million contract. Leavitt said he also thinks part of the motivation was because he hadn’t yet brought a national championship to South Florida.

“I know the story,” Leavitt said. “I know I didn’t do anything wrong.”

After his termination, Leavitt filed a wrongful termination suit against the school and spent a year away from football fighting his case. USF settled to the tune of $2.75 million dollars.

Leavitt wanted to be clear that he wasn’t after a big payout but wanted to get the amount of money high enough to prove to people that “there might be another side to his story.”

USF President Judy Genshaft, through a secretary, declined to comment.

Life after USF

In Leavitt’s eyes, the sudden departure actually proved to be beneficial.

Leavitt became the linebackers coach with the San Francisco 49ers in 2010 and helped install the stifling defense that led them to three NFC Championship games and one Super Bowl over his tenure.

“He’s actually been one of the great position coaches I’ve ever had in my tenure in the NFL,” said linebacker NaVorro Bowman, a seven-year NFL veteran.

And when the 49ers parted ways with Jim Harbaugh in 2014, Leavitt and the rest of the staff departed as well.

Leavitt then took the defensive coordinator job at Colorado. In two seasons, Leavitt transformed the Buffs’ defense from the 112th nationally to 24th.

“The energy and passion he brought to the defense really changed the culture we had,” Rick Gamboa, a sophomore linebacker at Colorado said. “We had a lot of talent, but he was definitely the missing piece for us.”

Once again, other schools came calling. While Leavitt didn’t name specific suitors, he said schools from the SEC, Big Ten and Pac-12 offered him jobs.

But when freshly-hired Willie Taggart called, Leavitt knew it was the right fit.

“I had a previous relationship with him,” Leavitt said of Taggart. “But also, I loved Oregon. … I wanted to go somewhere you could push for championships.”

Taggart said Leavitt’s credentials fit the bill.

“I think we all saw what he was able to do at Colorado,” Taggart said. “When you watch them, it’s not like they had the most talented guys. But they played hard and they made plays by playing hard and they believed in each other. And that’s what you want as a defense coordinator.”

A New Task in Eugene

Oregon defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt directs players during a drill. The Oregon Ducks host an open practice during their spring season at the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex practice fields in Eugene, Ore. on Saturday, April 8, 2017. (Adam Eberhardt/Emerald)

Since his arrival on campus, Leavitt has already made a loud first impression.

“Coach Leavitt is a psycho,” Oregon offensive lineman Doug Brenner said with a smile. “And we love it. He’s drinking Pepsi and screaming at 6 a.m. and doing laps on the field. It’s great.”

At practice, he’s sometimes more active than his players. He never stops moving or talking. He challenges his players to counter his energy.

“You got to match it,” Oregon linebacker Troy Dye said. “It’s hard to do because he’s always on go-mode.”

His players say his passion for Pepsi is the only thing that rivals his passion for football, even dating back to the NFL.

“Anytime he got a Pepsi, you’re definitely going to get the full Jim Leavitt,” Bowman said.

Leavitt, who will earn $1.15 million a year, understood the project he inherited in Eugene. Coaching turnover — three defensive coordinators in the last three years — has left things out of sorts.

He knows the rebuilding will take time. “Nothing is easy,” he said.

And it may take a few hundred cans of Pepsi as well.

Follow Gus Morris on Twitter @JustGusMorris

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story had the incorrect year for Leavitt’s arrival at Kansas State. It was 1989, not 1995. 

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Starting this week, the Ducks will get exactly what they need: a fresh start. Postseason play kicks off with regional tournaments two weeks from Monday but Oregon needs to take care of business in conference first.

This week, Oregon competes in Tucson, Arizona, for the Pac-12 Championships, which kick off today and run until Wednesday. It’s the first leg of the journey back to the NCAA Championship.

The Ducks, as a team, have struggled over the last several months. They haven’t finished better than sixth place in a tournament since February. But what they love about this time of year is, no matter what happened before, every team has a clean slate.  

“Everything starts over in the postseason and that’s really the message that we’ve sent over the past few years,” head coach Ria Scott said. “You can throw your ranking out the window. The women’s basketball team sure showed that.”

The Ducks attributed their struggles to a number of issues. They said they weren’t in a great place mentally in February and March and that they came out flat in several tournaments. Scott noticed similar things. She’s been working with her players and staff to fix these problems.

“The tournament rounds for the last couple months — we’ve had them rate all of these areas that are controllable for them like nutrition, hydration, attitude, self-talk, composure and poise, all of these things that are controllable,” Scott said. “We’re really just emphasizing how they can be aware of that and make those adjustments on the golf course because those things are in their hands.”

The spring season got off a nice start for the Ducks when they finished second at their first tournament of the spring, the Peg Barnard Invitational. However, they struggled over their next three tournaments. Oregon finished last in the Gifford Great 8, 11th in the Allstate Sugar Bowl and 13th in the Bryan National.

“Both of those tournaments [Bryan National and Allstate Sugar Bowl], I know they’re very good tournament fields,” Scott said. “So, really at either of those events an eighth place finish or better would’ve been very solid.”

Scott and her players have repeatedly talked about how results in spring don’t necessarily matter as long as you’re ranked in the top-50 by the time regional tournaments roll around. What matters to the Ducks is that they are hitting stride and playing their best golf by the time May rolls around. They don’t feel like their results over the spring reflect how talented they are as a team.

“On paper, we should be the best team, excluding last year, in program history,” senior Cathleen Santoso said. “We’ve got great players, so it’s just annoying to see the results not following. But we all know the important time is now and the next month or two. So, we just need to forget the past tournaments when we played terribly and just learn from those.”

Santoso said that they should be locked for regionals based on how strong the competition is in the conference. The Pac-12 has five teams ranked in the top-25, so even a poor showing shouldn’t hurt the team’s ranking too much.

But the Ducks aren’t worried about rankings. They’re just ready to hit the course and prove that their best golf is still ahead of them.

“For this tournament, we are ready,” senior Marcella Pranovia said. “I am confident.”

After the Pac-12 Championships conclude on Wednesday, Oregon will find out its regional location on Thursday.

Follow Gus Morris on Twitter @JustGusMorris

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It was fun while it lasted, Oregon.

On Tuesday, Jordan Bell announced that he would be forgoing his senior season as a Duck and would instead hire an agent and declare for the NBA Draft. He will join Tyler Dorsey and Dillon Brooks as Oregon stars leaving early.

Questions swirled for weeks around who, if any, of Oregon’s big three — Brooks, Bell and Dorsey — would return to school. The possibility that all three would leave was always on the table, and now it is time to face reality.

The departure of fan-favorites Dylan Ennis, Chris Boucher and Casey Benson also makes this pill tough to swallow. Including the big three, the Ducks lost six members of their seven-deep rotation. Almost three weeks removed from competing in the Final Four, it looks as though Oregon is headed toward a rebuild in 2017-18.

The six players Oregon lost combined to score 69.2 of its 79 points per game, and not one of them played under 20 minutes per game. The Ducks’ core returners next year will be Payton Pritchard, Roman Sorkin and Kavell Bigby-Williams, who combined to average around 13 points per game. Sorkin only played in 23 of Oregon’s 39 games.

Fortunately, Duck fans, next year won’t be all doom and gloom.

The exit of Brooks, Bell, Dorsey and Benson comes with some silver lining: Oregon now has four available scholarships for the 2017-18 season. Dana Altman intends to put them to good use.

Five-star center Brandon McCoy has reportedly narrowed his list of possible destinations down to two schools, and, if predictions are correct, the Ducks made the cut. They are also competing with the legendary Tom Izzo of Michigan State. If Oregon does land McCoy, it would arguably be Altman’s biggest recruit in his tenure in Eugene, especially considering how thin the Ducks will be up front next season.

Oregon is also pursuing former Arizona State commit and four-star forward Kenny Wooten, who recently told The Oregonian that the possibility of joining Oregon was a “huge factor” in his decommitment.

In addition to Wooten, the Ducks are also on the hunt for New Mexico graduate transfer Elijah Brown, who averaged 20 points per game over the past two season with the Lobos.

Brown, Wooten and McCoy are a select few of the handful of candidates that Altman and Co. will be scouting out over the coming weeks.

Oregon is certainly not going to shy away from the buzz it generated with its Final Four run, and if it’s smart, it will use the development of players like Dorsey, Brooks and Bell as a selling point: Come to Oregon and compete for a nationally known brand. Improve your game under Altman. Grow your own personal brand. If it worked for Brooks, Bell and Dorsey, it can definitely work for you.

The catch about recruiting is that nothing is for sure until a player signs their letter of intent. Until then, it’s somewhat of a crapshoot.

Oregon is guaranteed to look mighty different next season and that’s OK. Brooks, Bell and Dorsey helped put Oregon basketball on the map. They ushered in a new era that could continue to lead Oregon to historic places. They will continue to pursue their dreams. They’ve earned that much.

This may be the end of the greatest Ducks team ever assembled, but it’s just the beginning of something that could be much more special.

Follow Gus Morris on Twitter @JustGusMorris

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As Oregon passed the halfway point in its spring practice schedule this week, players have continued to put their best foot forward in an effort to stand out and learn new schemes as quickly as possible.

On Wednesday, co-offensive coordinator Mario Cristobal said the team has progressed in his area of expertise: the offensive line.

“Progressing well,” Cristobal said. “I think the emphasis on being physical, being tough, making sure that the communication is perfect on every single play. They understand that if we are going to be successful it’s going to have to start in the trenches and it’s got to finish in the trenches. Overall, we’re progressing but we still have miles to go but we will get there.”

It’s no mystery that the Ducks struggled mightily on defense last season. But Oregon’s offensive line also took its knocks, allowing 24 sacks in conference play. A lot of blame for that fell upon the shoulders of the extremely young front line. When then-junior Tyrell Crosby went down with a season-ending injury after only playing two games, Oregon was left with a lack of upperclassmen upfront.

But with a year of experience under their belts and a new, talented offensive line coach by way of Alabama, Oregon’s offensive linemen appear to be coming into their own. Cristobal is excited about what he has to work with.

“They all are [standing out],” Cristobal said about his young group. “Now, who is going to be the first five? We’ll figure that out day-by-day.”

Running backs Royce Freeman and Kani Benoit, both seniors, also addressed the media and talked about how their unit — dubbed “The Three-Headed Monster” by Benoit — has matured over the years.

“We get to feed off each other and I get to play with one of the best backs in the country,” Benoit said in reference to Freeman. “We all try and make each other better. So, I think overall, it’s improved everyone’s talent level at the competitions.”

Freeman agreed.

“[We just bring] the best out each other, I guess,” Freeman said. “The reason we were recruited here is to compete and I feel like we thrive off of one another or we are successful because we compete with each other every day in practice and we make each other better.”

The duo also talked about how this coaching staff has differed from their previous Oregon coaches. Benoit noted that this staff has taught the backs about how to recognize different defensive schemes and how to beat them. He said that it’s been a beneficial change and that it has helped the entire core with seeing windows and openings in the defense.

“I’d say that before we weren’t really taught fronts and blocking schemes and that’s been a big emphasis that Coach Pimpleton has been making, is making sure the running backs know the defense,” Benoit said. “That helps us run a lot better knowing where our lanes are, where the holes are going to be.”

Freeman also added that he feels healthy and “blessed” to be back and playing again. Benoit has noticed his change in attitude already.

“I see that groove coming back and that talent level coming back,” Benoit said. “He’s right where he needs to be.”

Follow Gus Morris on Twitter @JustGusMorris

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Jordan Bell is off to the NBA Draft and will sign an agent, he announced through a letter posted to riselongbeach.com on Tuesday morning.

The news comes two days after Yahoo Sports’ The Vertical reported — and Bell refuted — that he had decided on forgoing his remaining time at Oregon. Bell becomes the third Duck to leave early to pursue the NBA.

“After talking it over with my family and friends,” Bell wrote, “I have decided that now is the best time for me to pursue my dream of playing in the NBA. With that being said, I’m going to enter my name in the NBA Draft and plan to sign with an agent.”

Bell exploded onto the collegiate scene as a freshman during the 2014-15 season when he recorded a then school-record 94 blocks. His season average of 2.7 blocks per game that year ranks second all-time in program history behind only teammate Chris Boucher’s 2.9 blocks per game recorded a season later. The 88 blocks Bell logged as a junior also ranks third all-time in program history.

The 6-foot-9 forward improved in every season at Oregon. He increased his scoring average from 5.1 points per game as a freshman, to 7.9 points per game as a sophomore and 10.1 per game his junior year.

As a junior, Bell earned the Pac-12 defensive player of the year award and was named to the first team all-defensive team.

He also greatly improved his draft stock this season, especially with his performance in the NCAA Tournament. Bell averaged 12.6 points, 13.2 rebounds and 3.2 blocks per game and helped lead Oregon to its first Final Four in almost 80 years.

We are proud to announce Jordan Bell has decided to enter the NBA Draft! Read more about his decision here: https://t.co/Uny1a4L9K5 pic.twitter.com/biJkwSieZY

— Rise Long Beach (@RiseLBC) April 18, 2017

Follow Gus Morris on Twitter @JustGusMorris

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