Dana Altman expresses disappointment after Oregon's loss to Arizona
After the first few minutes, Oregon trailed by several possessions for the rest of their loss to No. 9 Arizona on Saturday. It was, all in all, a discouraging result for the Ducks, including for Dana Altman.
Altman opened his postgame press conference with his dissatisfaction following the 87-78 defeat to the Wildcats in Eugene. From start to finish, it wasn’t what he was looking from his team or himself.
“Really disappointing,” said Altman. “Guys are disappointed. I’m really disappointed that we didn’t have him prepared better than that.”
“They jump on us early there, we made a nice comeback. And then – oof,” Altman said. “Had a three-minute, waiting on the four-minute timeout and I made a mistake there waiting for that.”
Most of Altman’s disappointment came with their play on the defensive end. The Ducks allowed their third-largest point total of the season of 87 points. It was the third time in four games, all of which were losses, that their defense has given up 80 points or more. That’s an obvious trend as they’ve allowed 80+ in all six of their losses this season.
Arizona scored those points efficiently too as they shot 49.1% from the field, including a 10-19 (52.6%) from distance.
Most of that came by way of a career-best scoring effort out of G Caleb Love. Love went 12-18 (66.7%), as well as 5-8 (62.5%) from three, en route to a career-high of 36 points.
That kind of defense just isn’t going to cut it according to Altman, especially when offense looks as easy as it did for their opponent.
“Defensively? We’re not going to be successful giving up that many easy baskets,” said Altman.
“Love had a tremendous game. He’s a tremendous player but some of the looks that we gave him were just way too easy,” Altman said.
Arizona led for the duration of the matchup and by as much as 16 inside Matthew Knight. It was also a result that further extended Oregon’s recent skid over the past four.
Still, as discontent as Altman was, he realizes that he and his team didn’t deserve the upset win in conference play because of they performed themselves.
“Just too many mistakes – by the players, by me – to beat a good team,” said Altman.
“Really disappointed and we’re just going to have to get better,” Altman admitted.
Keeshawn Barthelemy helped off court after injury vs. Arizona
Oregon G Keeshawn Barthelemy had to be helped off the court on Saturday after suffering an injury against Arizona.
He appeared to injure his leg just minutes into the second half.
Barthelemy has been a key player for Oregon this year. He was averaging 8.0 points and 2.4 assists per game entering this weekend’s matchup against the Wildcats.
Barthelemy played well in a solid showing in their last game against Arizona State. He totaled 12 points and grabbed three rebounds as the Ducks defeated the Sun Devils by a score of 80-61.