Dana Altman: What Oregon is doing defensively isn't good enough

Oregon gave up 80+ points for the fourth time in the last six games in a stretch that includes their current skid at 1-3. That kind of defense has become an issue considering it’s clearly not good enough according to Dana Altman.

Altman spoke about the Ducks’ defense during his postgame press conference following their latest 87-78 loss to Arizona on Saturday. He said it was at the center of their halftime discussion since over half of that total for the Wildcats came over the first 20 minutes. Still, since they didn’t find any answers over the second half either, Altman said it’s now on them to sort it out moving forward.

“We’ve got to get some stops. 45 points is way too many,” Altman said in regards to his message in the locker room. “I think they scored the first three possessions of the second half.”

“Defensively? I don’t know what we could have changed. But we’ve got to find something because what we’re doing now is not good enough,” said Altman.

Over their 20 games this season, Oregon is allowed 72.9 points per game. However, in their six losses, that average shoots up to 87.2 per defeat as all of those opponents scored 80 or more.

After playing fairly well on that end at points in the campaign, the Ducks’ recent stretch has seen its fair share of issues with their defense. They allowed 84 in a five-point win at Washington State around the start of January. Then, over the past three, they’ve given up 86 at Colorado, 80 at Utah, and then 87 against Arizona. That’s an average of 84.3 points in those trio of losses as the Buffaloes, Utes, and Wildcats shot a combined 50% from the field and 46.2% overall from three.

Oregon has been doing enough offensively by averaging 76.3 points per game of their own over the past four games. Even so, they’re in the midst of their worst stretch of the season because of their issues on the defensive end as of late.

That’s why Altman is now searching for answers across the board, especially defensively, after he and Ducks fell again this weekend.

“Again, we made too many mistakes – defensively, offensively, coaching – to beat a good team,” said Altman.

Altman explains how Oregon must respond after Arizona loss

Dana Altman believed Oregon had a chance to defeat No. 9 Arizona on Saturday but it wasn’t in the cards for the Ducks.

Altman was disappointed after his team suffered an 87-78 defeat to the Wildcats in Eugene. Afterwards, he spoke on how Oregon can regroup and get back on track following the loss as the Ducks have some tough conference opponents coming up in the next couple of days.

“We just take tomorrow and try to regroup. We’ll go, got the LA schools this week. So it’s obviously a big road trip. We’re going to have to play well. Guys just have to regroup and get ready to go,” Altman explained. “Basketball season is a long season. A lot of ups and downs. This is a big down. So we’ll have to fight back. But we’re all judged by how we overcome adversity.”

“When times are good? Everybody’s good. When times are bad? You’ve got to find a way to bounce back. So hopefully our guys will regroup, we’ll get some good leadership, and we’ll be ready to go on Thursday.”