Oregon Basketball: 2019-20 season preview for the Ducks
Key storylines to follow
1. Will there be enough depth?
The short answer to this is simply “yes.”
This was easily the most important question facing Oregon heading into the offseason. The program had to wave goodbye to Bol Bol, Louis King, Kenny Wooten, Ehab Amin, and Victor Bailey Jr. after the 2018-19 campaign and they were not going to be easily replaced. In response to these depth concerns, Dana Altman went out and experienced the best summer of any coach in America.
In addition to already having secured commitments from three well-regarded freshmen, as well as transfers Chris Duarte and Shakur Juiston, the Ducks also landed a pair of top-tier reinforcements late in the summer. Landing reclassified five-stars N’Faly Dante and Addison Patterson was a major coup for Coach Altman as the Ducks now look to be one of the deeper and most talented teams in the nation.
To revisit my short answer from earlier, the resounding conclusion is that this concern should be squashed thanks to the superb offseason efforts of the coaching staff.
2. Will Pritchard continue to be an aggressive scorer?
As mentioned previously, Payton Pritchard is at his best when playing with tons of aggression. That much was obvious down the stretch of last season as he decided to take command of Oregon’s offense. He still displayed strong playmaking but really took on more responsibility as a scorer and the Ducks excelled as a result. Additionally, he started taking a few more risks defensively and he forced a ton of turnovers as a result. He averaged 15.8 points (.465/.333/.735), 4.0 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 2.3 steals per game over Oregon’s final 11 games (10-1 record).
Considering Pritchard’s status as Oregon’s on-court leader, the entire team kicks it up a notch when he plays with the fire that he showed last season. Even though the Ducks have a more talented roster around him this season, it is vital that Pritchard continues to play aggressively. Can he take the next leap into collegiate superstardom this year? He is already a top-notch floor general but taking that step could move Oregon into the national title conversation. The concern with this is wondering whether Pritchard will be able to maintain that elite motor and aggression over an entire season.
3. How quickly will newcomers adjust to Coach Altman’s system?
As already discussed, Oregon’s offseason was special. The coaching staff secured some superb reinforcements by way of the transfer market and recruiting trail and now their depth concerns should be nonexistent. With that said, though, only three rotation players are returning from last year’s roster. This means that the Ducks are welcoming eight newcomers to the team and all of them will need to quickly learn Coach Altman’s system on both ends of the floor.
While Oregon has been remarkably successful in the postseason under Coach Altman’s leadership in recent years, it has also been clear that newcomers have struggled to learn his system in the early going of campaigns. That was evident again during this past season as the team struggled out of the gates before finally garnering some momentum down the stretch.
The hope is that this roster will capture the concepts of Coach Altman’s scheme a bit earlier to succeed right away. That might even be mandatory to secure an elite NCAA Tournament seed considering the Ducks are poised to face a challenging non-conference schedule.