Gonzaga-Oregon Q&A: ‘Offense has been a struggle’ for injury-riddled Ducks

No. 7 Gonzaga and Oregon clash Sunday afternoon with entertaining individual matchups all over the court and an intriguing one on the sideline.

Gonzaga’s Graham Ike/Braden Huff vs. Oregon’s Nate Bittle/Kwame Evans Jr. and GU freshman point guard Mario Saint-Supery vs. Jackson Shelstad should be worth the price of admission at the Moda Center in Portland.

Bittle and Shelstad were on the Zags’ recruiting radar before choosing Oregon.

The coaching matchup pits Gonzaga’s Mark Few, No. 21 in career wins (753 in his 27th season) among Division I coaches, and Dana Altman, tied for 15th with Lefty Driesell at 786.

Among active coaches, Altman, who is in his 37th year, is fifth, trailing Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Rick Barnes and Bill Self. Few is sixth, six wins in front of Tom Izzo and 19 ahead of Kelvin Sampson. Pretty good company to keep.

We checked in with James Crepea, Oregon beat writer at the Oregonian, for more on Sunday’s matchup in our latest Q&A.

Q: Oregon (6-5) was barely outside the top 25 in the AP preseason poll, but the Ducks are 0-5 against Quad 1 and 2 opponents. Aside from several key players battling injuries, what have been the biggest issues thus far?

Crepea: Oregon simply has not played well.

The last two games against inferior competition notwithstanding, offense has been a struggle. The Ducks were one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the country to open the season. Things have improved over the last week, but the competition is a factor. Ball movement was an issue and still is to a degree.

Defensively they showed some signs of improvement recently, particularly in their press, but better teams had their way with Oregon thus far.

Q: Biggest bright spots or positive surprises for the Ducks?

Crepea: The biggest bright spot has to be Kwame Evans Jr. becoming a consistent producer on both ends. He’s becoming the player he was expected to be.

Oregon needs Evans to be an active rebounder, finish strong at the rim, contest shots and add at least a realistic threat to shoot from outside at the 4 position. He’s delivered on many of those over the last 7-8 games.

Q: Oregon’s 104 and 94 points in recent wins over UC Davis and Portland are its top scoring games of the season. Coach Dana Altman’s teams always seem to play their best basketball in the second halves of seasons. How close (or far) are the Ducks to putting it all together?

Crepea: Oregon still appears far from being truly cohesive. There are still too many errors on both ends. Evans, Nate Bittle and Jackson Shelstad can only carry this team so far on their own and contributions elsewhere have been much less consistent.

The last two games were positives, no doubt, because they were at least scoring. But turnovers were still an issue and better teams won’t allow for such offensive production either.

Q: What’s at the top of Oregon’s scouting report to upset the Zags?

Crepea: Before even remotely concerning itself with anything Gonzaga brings to the court, Oregon has to cut down on turnovers, win the rebounding battle and create better looks via ball movement.

It sounds basic and Altman preaches “simple plays” as much as any coach. But the Ducks haven’t been doing it enough, especially against better competition, to feel confident against a marquee opponent right now.