As the head basketball coach at Moberly Junior College in the early 1980s, Oregon head coach Dana Altman was able to build an immediate connection with future NBA hall of famer Mitch Richmond and prompt Richmond to come play for him at Moberly. 

While at Moberly, Altman helped improve Richmond’s shot, a change that ultimately led to his improved game play.

When Richmond’s time at the junior college came to an end, Altman and Richmond went together to Kansas State, and Altman hasn’t stopped building connections with junior college athletes since.

Now, as the head coach of the Oregon men’s basketball team, Altman has surrounded himself with a special group of players, including a few junior college transfers — most notably, senior forward Chris Boucher.

“I’ve had very few junior college players that have played like Chris — and that quickly,” Altman said. “Maybe only Mitch Richmond would be the other one that did that going to the Division I level. It is very unique.”

Boucher has started the majority of the games so far in his Oregon career, but was briefly injured and has since moved into the role as the first Duck off the bench. Despite not starting every game, Boucher averages 13.7 points while shooting 36 percent from beyond the 3-point line.

Last year, junior college transfer Dwayne Benjamin played a similar role as the Duck’s sixth man. Benjamin’s acceptance of his role off the bench really helped with the team chemistry, according to Altman.

For Boucher, he is accepting of his newfound role as long as he’s helping the team.

“Like everything, you get adjusted and I’m fine with that,” Boucher said. “I feel like I can help my team in so many ways. … It’s my last year, so I’m trying to help the most that I can.”

Like most junior college transfers, this is Boucher’s second and final year at Oregon. The two years post-junior college can go by quickly, so when Altman recruits a JUCO athlete, he expects them to be more mature than the normal incoming freshman.

“Usually those guys, we hope are ready to give us a few more minutes right away,” Altman said. “We want them to be able to compete at a high level, we want them to want to be here. We’re really excited when guys like Chris Boucher and Elgin Cook — those guys come here and really develop as players. … You hope that physically they are a little bit more mature and ready to go.”

Junior Kavell Bigby-Williams is another junior college transfer to join Altman’s team. In his first year as a Duck, he has slowly adapted to the offense. With Boucher coming from a similar situation as Bigby-Williams, Boucher has made an effort to help him and offer his advice whenever he can.

“I tell him all the time, just take your time,” Boucher said. “When I came here, I was trying to do things fast too, and I had to slow down and realize how to play. We all come from different situations, so I feel like I can help him, and he can take what he wants to take.”

Despite Altman’s increased success with signing top high school recruits, he says that he will continue to try to find players who “want to be here” and “want to compete,” no matter whether they are out of high school, a junior college or a transfer.

However, Altman, who is a junior college product himself, admits there is something special about junior college athletes.

“I love working with junior college transfers,” Altman said. “They’re guys who have been in programs, who have been in vans and haven’t had many nice hotels and big meals. Then all of a sudden they come and are very appreciative of everything that Oregon provides them. They’ve probably been as fun to work with and as in tune to work with as any players we’ve had. Just simply the fact that they appreciate everything that the division one level offers them, and so I’ve really enjoyed working with those guys.”

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Oregon forward Dillon Brooks made the game-winning shot against an undefeated team to stun the Matthew Knight Arena crowd on Wednesday. On Friday, he led the Ducks in a dominating fashion, despite the lack of an ESPN Top 10 play.

Brooks paced Oregon (13-2, 2-0 Pac-12) in scoring with 28 points, going 4-of-4 from 3-point range. He only one missed shot in Oregon’s 84-61 win over USC (14-1, 1-1) on Friday night.

Friday’s win, Oregon’s second defeat of an unbeaten team in a timespan of three days, extends Oregon’s home winning streak to 35 games and marks head coach Dana Altman’s 700th career win.

“We knew it was going to be a tough stretch playing two undefeated teams,” senior forward Chris Boucher said. “We stayed focused, we passed the ball — you know, we had 26 assists, so I feel like when we play together, we can be a good team.”

The Ducks were able to use the momentum gained from that last-second defeat of No. 2-ranked UCLA on Wednesday to come out strong against the No. 22-ranked Trojans.

And once the they started, they never let up. For the most part, at least.

Oregon began the game leading the Trojans by nine points after four minutes of play. Other than a brief dry spell following that, the Ducks had no trouble taming the Trojans.

“The numbers that really stick out: 24 assists, six turnovers,” Altman said. “I really like seeing that. The only time that we didn’t move the ball was in that five-minute stretch there when they went on a 15-2 run and we just took really bad shots. … Other than that four- or five-minute stretch there, I thought that we played really good.”

Ultimately, it was the turnovers that made the difference. USC committed 17 turnovers, resulting in 23 points for the Ducks.

In a change of character, turnovers were not a problem for Oregon. The Ducks entered Friday averaging 13.2 turnovers a game, but had just six on Friday night.

If anything, it was Oregon’s appetite for highlight plays that hurt the Ducks most. A few sloppy alley-oops resulted in missed points and the occasional flashy play to please the crowd overshadowed

Altman said he is happy with the strides that his team made with the win, as well as the win over UCLA. The craziest part, Altman said, is how much potential this team still has.

“It’s not negative, but just that we have so much room to grow,” Altman said. “Block outs can get so much better. Our transition defense could get so much better, so the exciting thing is that if our guys can focus and really trust each other, we’d get so much better in so many areas.”

The now 13-2 Ducks have opportunities to take another step forward when they travel to play Washington on Wednesday.

The Huskies are a team that the Ducks beat last year at home, but have had trouble beating on the road in Seattle.

“Now we’ve got to go on the road,” Altman said. ” … Now that I’m thinking about it, I don’t think we’ve got a guy on our team that’s won in Washington because none of them have been with us four years [since we last beat them]. So, we’re going to have our work cut out for us.”

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Despite not making a postseason bowl game, the Oregon football team continues to lead the headlines with the hire of a new head coach.

— Oregon athletic Director Rob Mullens announced on Wednesday that University of South Florida’s Willie Taggart was hired as the Duck’s head football coach. Taggart held a press conference on Thursday morning and began recruiting immediately after, beginning with a trip to Hawaii. The University of Oregon Board of Trustees approved a five-year, $16 million contract for Taggart.

— The Oregon women’s basketball team annihilated the Portland Pilots on Saturday 81-41, led by freshman Ruthy Hebard with 19 points and 11 rebounds. 

— The Oregon men’s basketball team prepares for Alabama on Sunday, after a eight-day hiatus from play during finals week. Last year, the Ducks defeated ‘Bama 72-68. A win on Sunday would bring the Duck’s record to 8-2. 

— Louisville’s Lamar Jackson was named the Heisman award winner on Saturday night. The award is given to the most outstanding college football player in the nation. He won with 2,144 points. Clemson’s Deshawn Watson came in second with 1,524 points.

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Michael Marcott was only able to play one season on the Oregon club lacrosse team, but even without athletic eligibility, his time as a Duck is not over quite yet.

Marcott, the team’s 2016 assist leader has assumed a new role as the offensive coordinator. Although he has no remaining eligibility as a player, he will continue to get his undergraduate degree at the University of Oregon while he coaches.

“I’ve always wanted to coach,” Marcott said. “It was always in the back of my mind, and coming back to school it just made it easier. When I was approached to be a coach, it was kind of an easy answer. Not only does it keep me busy, but I really enjoy being around the team and the guys.”

Because Marcott is so fresh off of his time as an athlete on the club lacrosse team, many of the players he now coaches were his teammates just last year. Now that he has been brought on as offensive coordinator position, it is a tricky dynamic transitioning into a position of authority.

“That was something that I was worried about, just being that I’m only a year older than most of them, especially the seniors,” Marcott said. “So I was worried, not that I wouldn’t be treated as their coach, but just that there would be this weird dynamic when I was telling them to do something. But the guys have treated me with all the respect in the world. Last year I think it helped being a captain and I addressed the team a lot last year from a captain’s role, and I think I garnered a lot of respect there.”

Marcott transferred from the University of Denver last year, and quickly earned himself a spot as team captain after being on campus for only six weeks. He was such a significant leader on the team then that the players were happy to accept him as a coach this year.

“Honestly, last year he played as a player-coach,” senior Justin Knowles said. “From the field, he was still making plays, but he had the vision of a coach on the field. As a transfer last year, he earned his spot in a captain position just being that leader on the field. It was a hell-of-a-fun season to play with him last year, and to have him as a coach this year, doesn’t necessarily change things too much because he’s preaching the same principles; he’s just not wearing a helmet.”

Last year’s defensive coordinator, Markus McCaine, was named the new head coach earlier this year. According to Marcott, they have a good relationship and not a lot has changed between the two of them despite the newfound leadership roles.

“Last year, we had a similar relationship,” Marcott said. “Even though I was a player, we still talked about what we wanted to do; what I was seeing on the field, how I would approach certain situations. Yeah, I’m in a different role, but I don’t think that our relationship has changed that much. We both still respect each other’s opinions. I took his advice last year, he took some of mine.”

The players this year have noticed that cohesion between Marcott and McCaine, as well.

“Both Markus and Mike are on the same page,” Knowles said. “They definitely believe in the same principles between for the game and for the strategy. So it’s been interesting to see their relaxed approach to a hard work mentality.”

Although Marcott played lacrosse since he was in fifth grade, he has found a new love in coaching.

“I’ve always loved playing the game, but I like studying the game a lot more,” Marcott said. “So this allows me to study the game and look at it from a different way than I’ve ever looked at it before. I always say that the best players are the best students of the game, and I’ve always thought that I was that.

“I truly — at this time in my life — enjoy coaching more than I do playing.”

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Without bowl game eligibility as a possibility for Oregon after its 52-27 loss to the Stanford Cardinal on Saturday, the Ducks are forced to find a new form of motivation going forward.

Offensive linemen Cameron Hunt says, now that there is no potential bowl game to look forward to, the team is “playing for pride.”

“I think guys are really motivated today,” Hunt said. “They’re flying around still. It’s just playing for pride and trying to go out there and perform to the best of your ability.

“We’ve talked about [playing for pride]; we’ve talked about setting this up for this offseason coming up and really using that as a motivation factor to push through certain things.”

The team had a “mental” day of practice on Nov. 15 that involved “more walk-through stuff, less hitting, less running” and more of “a walk and talk type of thing.” The 16th, however, was a “very intense” day of practice, according to head coach Mark Helfrich.

“Today was very physical,” Helfrich said. “We’ve challenged everybody in a few different ways. Yesterday was a little bit more of a mental day. We obviously had a couple of things to clean up from the game over the weekend.”

The Ducks got off to a poor start against the Cardinal this past weekend, something the team hopes to improve on against Utah this Saturday. To best prepare for Utah and come out and get points on the board quickly, Helfrich says the team has “changed it up” in practice.

“Today, we did basically 40 seconds in the game, urgent type of scenario right off the bat. … Just trying to change it up and find that button to create that urgency,” Helfrich said.

It is going to be a difficult feat for the Ducks to defeat the 8-2 Utah Utes this Saturday, but Helfrich says that confidence is the biggest factor for the Ducks on its trip to Salt Lake City.

“I think the biggest thing is just the confidence and going out and absolutely cutting it loose and not worrying about any sort of negative outcome,” Helfrich said. “There are so many guys that are just hesitant. Talking about going into last week, if you’re hesitant on a power play, McCaffrey is going to go 50 and it happened. … It’s the offensive guys just playing together with urgency and not hoping that something happens, or hoping that somebody else will make a play.”

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Oregon’s season-opener was closer than expected, as the Ducks took down Army 91-77 in front of a record full-house crowd of 12,364 at Matthew Knight Arena on Friday night.

Phil Knight made the trip to Eugene to witness this extensively-hyped Ducks team defeat the Army Black Knights for their 19th-straight home-opening victory. The win was led by sophomore guard Tyler Dorsey, who had a team-high 21 points, followed by freshman standout Payton Pritchard with 15.

Redshirt senior guard Dylan Ennis, who was granted a sixth year of eligibility after breaking his foot early last season, had an underwhelming performance in his first full game as a Duck.

Ennis was 0-for-8 on field goals and had two personal fouls. The only positive part of his play was his seven rebounds.

“He’s not playing to his strengths,” head coach Dana Altman said. “He’s got a lot of work to do. He’s really casual with the ball and he’s just got to get back to guarding and rebounding. … He sat out all year and he’s trying to make up for the 30 games he missed in one night.”

Junior forward Jordan Bell went through a similar situation last year, having to prove himself after being forced to sit out with an injury. When Bell was asked about the struggles associated with coming back, he said he was trying “to do too much too soon.”

“You’ve been out so long,” Bell said. “You feel like you have to go out there and get 20 every night or 10 every night. … I think once [Ennis] settles down a little bit and sees what he needs to do, he’ll slow down and let the game come to him.”

Oregon’s first-ever AP preseason All-American, Dillon Brooks, did not play against Army, as he continues to recover from a foot injury. Brooks is arguably Oregon’s top athlete and will most likely fill Ennis’ role when he returns to play. Because of that, Ennis must prove himself early; that could have been a factor contributing to his lackluster performance.

Despite Ennis’ sub-par game against Army, Altman believes that his strong suits are rebounding, playing defense, driving the ball and making plays for his teammates.

“We’ll talk to him,” Altman said. “He’ll come around; it’s just going to take some time.”

Up next, the Ducks head to Baylor to take on the Bears on Tuesday. The Ducks defeated the No. 20 Bears 74-67 at Matthew Knight Arena last year. This year the Ducks are the the ranked team, and the Bears are not.

“Honestly, I don’t think we are as excited as we were last year,” Bell said. “Last year, we were kind of licking our chops, because we were the underdogs. This year, media has been so good. So honestly, I think that we need to take that mentality like we did last year — like we’re the underdogs.”

No matter who may be favored, Altman says that it’s a “big ball game for us” and has a different view from Bell on whether the Ducks are, in fact, the favorite.

“It was a big ball game for us [last year]; it’s a big ball game for us going down there. And we’ll be the underdogs going down there. You know, you’re on the road and not playing very well. Whether they think they’re the favorites or not, going down there, playing — it’s going to be a tough ball game.”

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Oregon football looks to bounce back from its 45-20 loss to USC and prepare for running back Christian McCaffrey and the rest of the Stanford Cardinal this Saturday.

Defensive Coordinator Brady Hoke said that practice has been “good” this week, similar to his sentiments most every week. This week, however, the Ducks must prepare to for last year’s Heisman finalist and the NCAA single-season record holder in all-purpose yards, Christian McCaffrey.

“He’s not bad,” Hoke said jokingly. “He’s very good, as you know and what we’ve got to do is play team defense.”

Stanford is a team that is known to rotate anywhere from six to eight offensive linemen. Hoke and his defense are doing their best to “try to” prepare for it.

“It’s something, when you play Stanford, you have to be ready for,” Hoke said. “So I think we’ve done a good job this week. We’ll look at the tape from today and maybe there’ll be an adjustment here or here. But as far as that goes, I think we have a good plan.”

Head coach Mark Helfrich said that the scout team has been a “huge deal” this week to prepare both sides of the ball for what Stanford will bring.

When asked about the Cardinal’s offensive linemen, Helfrich said that Oregon could “tape a couple guys together and try to make them look like one of those guys.”

Another factor for the Ducks in the upcoming game against Stanford is Cardinal quarterback Keller Chryst. As the Stanford offense began to struggle, Cardinal head coach David Shaw decided to start Chryst over former starter Ryan Burns against Arizona on Oct. 29.

This quarterback change has added a bit of a spark to the Cardinal offense — Stanford has defeated Arizona 34-10, as well as Oregon State 26-15 since inserting Chryst into the starting lineup.

“He’s done a great job of managing their run game, checking things at the line of scrimmage and being more involved in a true pre-determined quarterback run,” Helfrich said. “Offensively they’ve just been more diverse in involving those guys and in wildcat packages and all their various multiple offensive linemen sets.”

Despite the underwhelming season thus far, Helfrich is confident in his teams’ ability to keep moving forward.

“Like life, and the ups and downs, we’re having some downs right now,” Helfrich said. “But the people here will get it back to up.”

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Every fan notices when a star player scores a touchdown or makes an interception, but for every game-changing play, there are 11 players on the field that work together to make it happen.

When Charles Nelson returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown in Oregon’s game against Washington State, all eyes were on him. One key component that many fans overlook, however, are Nelson’s 10 teammates on special teams that blocked for him including redshirt junior defensive back, Juwaan Williams.

“Williams blocked a guy for 50 yards last week on the kickoff return that Charles had and he was the third string guy. Nobody brought that up,” Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich said following the Washington State game.

“Juwaan is a guy that’s helped a lot in some of those kinds of unseen areas that most people don’t acknowledge and he’s been a big factor in a lot of those big returns.”

Williams started at safety in a few games last year until he was sidelined with a lower leg injury. This year, he has recovered from that injury but has not frequently seen a starting role.

Despite not starting, Williams has still been able to contribute.

“He’s out there being a teammate,” redshirt sophomore Khalil Oliver said. “He’s going out there and making plays on special teams, and you may not see him out on defense as much, but when Schooler and I come off the sideline, he’s the first person we talk to.”

Freshman standout Brenden Schooler has emerged as a playmaker on defense and earned a starting role at safety. Williams rooms with Schooler on road trips and has been able to mentor Schooler throughout the season.

“Any help I can give to him is help that he appreciates,” Williams said. “And he takes it in stride and just flourishes out there.”

Williams became a prominent leader last year after his injury. His teammates refer to him as “Coach Waan” and value his advice in practice and during games.

“We call Juwaan ‘coach’ because Juwaan knows basically the entire defense,” Oliver said. “Juwaan knows where to be and how to be, and positions to make plays. Since he’s been out, he’s kicked that up a notch, knowing the defense and knowing exactly where to be, so he can coach guys out on the field.

“He’s giving us feedback when we’re on the sideline. But when he does go in, you know he does his job and he does what he’s supposed to.”

Williams says that one of his main roles on the team is to be a leader on and off the field, and he just wants to contribute to his team in whatever way he can.

“If I’m not playing on defense, then I have to make a play somewhere else,” Williams said. “The coaches are wanting us to be more versatile and play different positions. If I’m on kickoff blocking for Charles, it’s great. We all get the score, we all get a ‘W’ and at the end of the day, that’s what we want.

“Just being a guy that can contribute in any way possible. If it’s defense or special teams, I’m your guy. I can do it.”

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Every fan notices when a star player scores a touchdown or makes an interception, but for every game-changing play, there are 11 players on the field that work together to make it happen.

When Charles Nelson returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown in Oregon’s game against Washington State, all eyes were on him. One key component that many fans overlook, however, are Nelson’s 10 teammates on special teams that blocked for him. Specifically redshirt junior defensive back, Juwaan Williams.

“Williams blocked a guy for 50 yards last week on the kickoff return that Charles had and he was the third string guy. Nobody brought that up,” Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich said following the Washington State game.

“Juwaan is a guy that’s helped a lot in some of those kind of unseen areas that most people don’t acknowledge and he’s been a big factor in a lot of those big returns.”

Williams started at safety in a few games last year until he was sidelined with a “lower leg injury.” This year, he has recovered from that injury but not frequently seen a starting role.

Despite not starting, though, Williams has still been able to contribute.

“He’s out there being a teammate,” redshirt sophomore Khalil Oliver said. “He’s going out there and making plays on special teams and you may not see him out on defense as much, but when Schooler and I come off the sideline, he’s the first person we talk to.”

Freshman standout Brenden Schooler has emerged as a playmaker on defense and earned a starting role at safety. Williams rooms with Schooler on road trips and has been able to mentor Schooler throughout the season.

“Any help I can give to him is help that he appreciates,” Williams said. “And he takes it in stride and just flourishes out there.”

Williams became a prominent leader last year after his injury. His teammates refer to him as “coach Wann” and value his advice in practice and during games.

“We call Juwaan ‘coach’ because Juwaan knows basically the entire defense,” Oliver said. “Juwaan knows where to be and how to be, and positions to make plays. Since he’s been out, he’s kicked that up a notch, knowing the defense and knowing exactly where to be, so he can coach guys out on the field.

He’s giving us feedback when we’re on the sideline. But when he does go in, you know he does his job and he does what he’s supposed to.”

Williams says that one of his main roles on the team is to be a leader, “on the field, off the field,” and he just wants to contribute to his team in whatever way he can.

“If I’m not playing on defense, then I have to make a play somewhere else,” Williams said. “The coaches are wanting us to be more versatile and play different positions. If I’m on kickoff blocking for Charles, it’s great. We all get the score, we all get W and at the end of the day, that’s what we want.

“Just being a guy that can contribute in any way possible. If it’s defense or special teams, I’m your guy, I can do it.”

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The Oregon men’s club lacrosse team returns a lot of veteran players this year, but there is one significant change: A familiar face is moving up in the ranks to lead the Ducks as head coach for the 2016-2017 season.

Markus McCaine, an Oregon grad student in the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center, was the defensive coordinator last season. He was recently promoted to head coach after the team “mutually parted ways” with former head coach Jon Bongiorno near the beginning of this school year.

Prior to becoming the defensive coordinator last season, McCaine played collegiately at the University of Buffalo. From there, he was an assistant coach at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he led his team to a national championship, and then moved on to serve as the head coach at the University of Alabama.

Now as the head coach at Oregon, McCaine has begun to implement his coaching style into practices. One thing that he has particularly focused on is speed.

“We try to do things a little bit faster than last year,” McCaine said. “We try to buy into that whole Oregon brand that the athletic department is doing. Just trying to play as fast as possible. We’ve got a lot of legs this year and a lot of great players, so if we can turn up the tempo, we’re trying to do that in practice so that when we get out in games it will kind of translate.”

Many athletes may not be overly excited with a running and conditioning-emphasized coaching mentality, but this team has embraced it. They want to be “the fastest team in the league.”

“We don’t walk on the field, we don’t walk in between the lines when we’re in the drills,” senior Justin Knowles said. “They’re designed to push us mentally and physically. So when we do just running, that is to get us tired; that is just the start of it. Once we’re tired, we want to play fast and we want to learn how to play fast while we’re tired. That’s kind of the mentality we’re having and we just want to push it, and go faster and faster and faster. That’s the goal, to be fast.”

Overall, McCaine’s transition from defensive coordinator to head coach has been easy for this team to adapt to.

“Him coming into head coach was also very smooth. … We’re running more and we’re just being more efficient with our time, so it’s a pretty good thing so far,” senior Chris Damewood said.

Now that McCaine has embraced the job of head coach, he has high aspirations for the year ahead and is excited to progress in his newfound role.

“It’s every coach’s dream to kind of be in charge at some point,” McCaine said “It’s great being a coordinator, but I think that everybody has that dream down the road of being in charge. It’s kind of surreal for me that it’s happening, but it’s exciting. A little nervous, but I think that once we get into the game, that’ll all kind of fade away.”

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