| Seeing The Forrest |
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| Written by Larry Thompson | |||||
| Sunday, 27 January 2008 | |||||
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* Malik Hairston's muscle cramping which took him out of the game with over 12 minutes left against the Bruins. Malik had already scored 18 points and was sorely (pardon the pun) missed. * Sophomore mistakes: Tajuan Porter continues to make unnecessary passes especially when the Ducks have the lead or are in a positive momentum swing. Joevan Catron returned to the lineup and played well overall, but chose to continue a bad habit he displayed earlier in the year--bringing the ball up himself after a rebound instead of getting it to the point guard. UCLA applied pressure and Catron's turnover was a negative momentum swing. I believe Joevan has learned his lesson and had an excellent game against a very athletic, shot blocking USC team. * The scoreboard malfunctions are not an excuse for losing, but one can realistically say they had an effect on the huge momentum swing the Ducks had built in their spectacular comeback against USC. * The officiating was inconsistent as the refs missed some obvious calls. Kevin Love should have been in foul trouble as Maarty Leunen was hit on the arm while making a couple of shots in the first half. There was no "and 1" and no fouls on Love. The worst example was Bryce Taylor getting hit across the face as he made the game tying layup as time expired against USC. Bryce was denied the free throw that could have won the game for the Ducks in regulation. There isn't much room for errror when playing any team in the talented Pac-10 Conference. So, if the Ducks aren't bringing and playing their "A" game they are in trouble. Oregon's "A" game consists of spreading the opposition defense out and using quickness to overcome what they lack in inside strength. It also means shooting the ball well (35% or better) behind the arc and limiting turnovers. They accomplished both of these against UCLA, but Porter was impatient in throwing up a three with over 50 seconds left and then were helpless at the end trying to defend Darren Collison. The same problem on defense was apparent against USC as the Trojan guards found it easy to exploit a mismatch and shoot over Tajuan Porter. I think it's time for the Ducks to devise a new strategy to make sure Porter isn't guarding the opponents "go to guy" at the end of game. Can the Ducks bounce back and salvage the season? It's going to be tough as the second half of the season will have five road games and only four at home. Personally, I was hoping Churchill Odia would make more of an impact offensively, but Odia hasn't hit a shot since he opened up the Husky game with two three pointers. Catron will be getting much more playing time, but I would hope Coach Kent hasn't given up on Franz Dorsainvil. Dorsainvil had a good game against Cal, but ever since he seems to be afraid to make a mistake in the few minutes he has gotten on the floor. He needs to be an aggressive rebounder and defender and an inside scoring threat to give Leunen or Catron a break now and then. Also, Kamyron Brown needs more playing time as he is a much better defender than Porter and gets the rest of the team more involved when he runs the offense and doesn't force things. Brown is the future point guard and the future is now if the Ducks are going to have success the rest of the Pac-10 schedule and in the Pac-10 tournament which is looking like a minimum of 3 wins at the Staples Arena in March to have any hope of playing in the post season.
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 28 January 2008 ) | |||||
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