Watched the Men's game vs Seton Hall. Was that the same team we saw vs Missou'?
While viewing it, the word I'd been searching for to best describe Oregon's opening performance came to me. it was "clumsy".
Last night they looked smooth and awake. They worked for rebounds, played D and O like they were awake and knew who and where the other players wearing jerseys that matched theirs were.
Omoruyi performed nearly as well as he did in the opener, looking like teams are going to have him at the top of their concern list. Firgueroa was solid if not stellar and Duarte is looking like a weapon and a leader. Still with a lot more growth needed, Dante had his moments. He needs a little more practice in finding his hands consistently. He'll be gone to the NBA after this season unless flops worse than I expect him to under Altman's tutelage. Omoruyi may be with him so we should enjoy his play while we have him. As far as Figueroa goes, we haven't seen much of him but I'm guessing he won't be a high draft pick so he may be back for another year of free education, room, and board.
Seton Hall had a lot of dagger threes while Oregon was busy holding the top dog down. Many of the tres came after great passes rather than from shooters who should have been more closely guarded at the time. Those are going to happen with any team that shoots so well from outside.
Meanwhile on the inside Oregon got plenty of rebounds and points while Figueroa spoiled a lot of plans with his blocks from behind, highlighting his defensive skills which were his strongest contribution.
Still, there were some ball handling issues, especially early, that should be expected at this point in the season. While effort was much closer to what I hoped for the thing that impressed me most was that Oregon didn't commit many fouls in the first half. They got a little sloppy in the second but many of the guys are likely to be a little short of peak game shape and reached more than they should have as they started to show effects.
With Altman's history of producing more effective teams later in the season I'm looking for a stronger finish the the predicted third place in the conference and imagine no one is going to want to face them before the final game of the conference tournament, assuming there is going to be one.
I watched the replay of the women's game of against Colorado and the performances of the two games gets mixed up in my early morning head. Both performed as well as I could have hoped for right now. The women's team is rated way too low at tenth in the nation. I didn't see the PAC12 rating but if it is below number one there are a lot of deluded voters.
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