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Perimeter defense once again problematic for No. 17 Oregon

altman

No. 17 Oregon entered Pac-12 play undefeated and had the look of a team capable of big things both within the conference and nationally. With their surplus of quick guards and productive front court players Dana Altman’s squad was threatening triple digits on a consistent basis, and when that happens the defensive end tends to be overlooked. But with the Ducks losing three of their first four league games, including an 82-80 home loss to Stanford on Sunday, it’s clear that Oregon has some serious issues to address on that end of the floor.

Most notably, their difficulty to defend bigger guards in their last three outings. After getting torched by Cal freshman Jordan Mathews on Wednesday night (and Colorado’s Askia Booker, who isn’t a big guard by any means, and Spencer Dinwiddie last Sunday), slowing the tandem of Anthony Brown and Chasson Randle proved to be problematic for the Ducks.

Brown, who scored just seven points on 1-for-10 shooting in the Cardinal’s loss at Oregon State, scored 24 points on 10-for-12 shooting to lead the way. Randle added 23 points on 8-for-14 shooting, and for as hard as the Ducks may have tried to keep those two from getting to their preferred areas on the floor their guards had little success in doing so.

Oregon’s four-guard attack of Dominic Artis, Jason Calliste, Johnathan Loyd and Joseph Young is more than capable of putting points on the board, but who’s their defensive stopper when it comes to dealing with the bigger guards of the Pac-12? Loyd’s the best defender but he stands at just 5-foot-8, and none of the other three are taller than 6-foot-2. Is this where a Damyean Dotson comes into play? That’s certainly an option, but he wasn’t too effective defensively on Sunday afternoon either. With this being the case Oregon even tried some zone looks against Stanford, who shot 52% from the field.

After allowing less than a point per possession in their Pac-12 opener at Utah (0.89 points/possession), Oregon’s opponents have scored at least 1.19 points per possession in each of the last three games. Stanford scored 1.23 points per possession on Sunday, not as bad as what Colorado averaged (1.3) but slightly worse than the figure Cal posted (1.19) on Wednesday. For all of the scorers that the Ducks have on the roster, defending in that manner is not going to get the job done when it comes to contending for a Pac-12 title.

And with a game against Oregon State and high-scoring guard Roberto Nelson next on the schedule, Oregon needs to find a quick answer to its perimeter defensive issues.

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