Looking back at Oregon

Maybe you changed the channel pretty quickly yesterday. Or maybe you’re the type that couldn’t tear yourself away from the wreckage. Either way, you’ll probably want to read this post with your eyes closed.

We’ll start off by passing along our story from the game .

I also think it’s worth mentioning that whether it’s football or basketball, I’m always astounded at how much better the game day experience is at Oregon than any other Pac-12 school. Whether it’s the pregame videos, the energy of support staff, the music or just the general atmosphere, it is markedly more fun to attend a game at UO than any other Pac-12 school and the other traveling sports reporters for the most part agree.

It’s easy to make the Nike connection and the Dcuks obviously spend a lot of money on marketing. But considering how well it has worked for them, maybe the other schools should follow their lead?

This isn’t meant as a knock on WSU; the Cougars are better than most in both sports and WSU’s pregame videos have been particularly good this year.

Even though the Ducks don’t usually come close to selling out Matthew Knight Arena this season the school finds a way to keep the energy high by routinely engaging the students. Granted, it helps it have a top-level football team to keep the student body interested in sports.

But considering how much the schools all copy each other with their Flex-cams and Oblivi-cams, you’d think the Pac-12 marketing directors would sit in their suites at a football game and decide to simply do whatever the Ducks do.

— In many respects, the game was similar to Washington State’s loss at Colorado earlier this year. During the second game of a road trip the Cougars couldn’t buy a bucket and their opponent couldn’t miss.

But unlike that game, in which WSU seemed to be taking good shots and missing while the Buffalos made tough jumpers, at UO the Cougars settled for bad shots early in the shot clock while the Ducks attacked the rim. The Ducks also shot well from outside, in rhythm.

The one exception seemed to be Dexter Kernich-Drew, a spot-up shooter who used fakes to get UO defenders in the air before driving. He also hit some outside shots in the flow of the game and led the team with 18 points. Josh Hawkinson also took good shots, hitting some midrange jumpers and scoring in his usual manner. But early in the game the Cougars tried too to hit big shots once it was apparent that the Ducks were having success offensively and it cost them.

— The Cougars tried a lot defensively yesterday and none of it was particularly effective. Kent has discussed the affect that taking on such a big rebounding role has had on Josh Hawkinson’s shooting (he still hasn’t made a 3-pointer in a conference game after being a pretty deadly outside shooter early in the year) but the grind may be starting to take a toll on the post defensively, as well.

For the most part Hawkinson is a good defender with solid instincts, good timing and the sense to know when to stay on the ground and when to contest a shot. He’s not especially laterally quick but plays the angles well enough to make up for it.

But in Oregon State’s Jarmal Reid and UO’s Dwayne Benjamin he faced athletic forwards in consecutive games who are both comfortable facing the basket from 15-feet out or further. Both forwards were able to drive against Hawkinson and Benjamin is also a deadly shooter, meaning Hawkinson had to close out harder and get further away from the basket.

After the game Hawkinson said, “I think that one thing specifically for me that I need to work on is lateral quickness and being able to guard guys who can drive me.”

Not many teams have forwards as athletic as those two – although Arizona certainly will this week – but if Hawkinson doesn’t get his legs back it may be something that other teams continue to exploit.

Here are some notes from last night:

— DaVonte Lacy has 1,412 career points after scoring 13 last night. He moved past Brian Quinnett and Jim McKean and is now No. 9 all-time at WSU.

— Hawkinson had 14 points, 11 rebounds and now has 15 double-doubles this year, which ties him for third most in a single season at WSU.

— Hawkinson has hit 24 consecutive free throws, a streak that ties him with Derrick Low and Klay Thompson for third-most consecutive free throws by a Cougar since the 1989-90 season.

And a couple quotes from last night:

Kernich-Drew on wanting to win in Kent’s return to Oregon: ” There was a little bit more emotion to the game, because it’s his first time back coaching here. He didn’t really want us to focus on that, he just wanted us to go out there and play hard, which didn’t happen. It was a little bit of a disappointment not to get this ‘W’ for him, but we’ll look forward to next week and getting two wins.

Kernich-Drew on the game: ” It was pretty demoralizing after we got down by 20 and it was almost 30, I think. It was just tough to come back, that crowd was really into it.”

Hawkinson on fatigue: “We’re almost to the end of the season, so everyone’s going to be a little fatigued but I don’t think that’s an excuse and coach has done a good job of getting us in recovery in the cold tub and things like that, so I don’t think that should be an excuse.”

Kent on what went wrong: “Everybody shot it, it seemed like. We tried man, we tried zone, we tried double-teaming Young and he got into that groove, too. And obviously we didn’t play it very well. We didn’t shoot it very well. When we don’t shoot it we’re not a very good basketball team, especially playing against a team of this caliber in their building the way they played.”

Kent on keeping the team’s confidence up: “I never worry about that because I’ve said this all before, you never get too up, you never get too down, you just get ready for the next one. The games come too fast, there is still a lot of basketball for this team to play and it really is about where their growth is going to be finishing up the season and everything so they have more growth in them. I don’t worry about being too hard on anybody. It’s about moving forward, getting better, bringing them back to the drawing board again and getting back out there and ready to play again.”