1. Dana Altman in only his third season has brought the Oregon program to heights it hasn’t seen in a long time. Altman had previously coached at Creighton and his hire wasn’t as notable as others made in the 2010 offseason, but it’s providing huge dividends now. Altman certainly hasn’t had the most talent during his tenure at Oregon, but he’s made it work by implementing a tough mindset on his team and making sure everyone knows their role. Seniors Tony Woods and E.J. Singler are providing leadership while true freshman Damyean Dotson and Dominic Artis are giving the necessary scoring and no player is bigger than the team itself. This strategy has paid off as the Ducks are currently undefeated in the Pac-12 and have beaten both Arizona and UCLA and won’t have to play either of them again this year.
2. In UCLA’s home loss to Oregon over the weekend, Ben Howland was outcoached by Dana Altman. UCLA didn’t know what to do when Oregon threw multiple defensive looks at the Bruins — whether it was zone or a full court press, the Bruins just didn’t look comfortable facing the changing defenses. UCLA also couldn’t hang with the Ducks on the glass as Oregon had nine more defensive rebounds and six more offensive rebounds in the game. Ultimately, Ben Howland and his team will have to rebound quickly as the Bruins will take on #7 Arizona on the road next in what should be a much-anticipated Pac-12 matchup.
3. Washington appeared to have turned it around in Pac-12 play — they beat Colorado last Wednesday and they were 4-0 in the Pac-12 before losing to Utah on Saturday with a very disappointing defensive effort. The Huskies gave up 74 points in the loss and never managed to trim their deficit to fewer than six points. The defense has proven it can play well, especially in the Huskies’ trip to the Bay Area last weekend, so the issue against Utah seems fixable. What might not be reparable is the Huskies’ offense, though. The team hasn’t scored 70 or more points in its past seven games and will need to find other offensive options when defenses key on C.J. Wilcox and limit his scoring like the Utes did on Saturday.
4. Mark Lyons got the better of Jahii Carson in the first rivalry game for each between Arizona and Arizona State on Saturday. Lyons was instrumental in Arizona’s win by scoring 24 points and contributing three assists along with three steals. Lyons was aggressive throughout the entire game and never let up against the Sun Devils. Although the transfer senior said the rivalry didn’t mean as much as it did to him as it did to everyone else, he certainly played like it did. If Lyons puts more of those efforts forward in Pac-12 play, he will certainly be in the conversation for Pac-12 player of the year this year.
5. Cal head coach Mike Montgomery continues to be frustrated with his team. After losing to Stanford in the basketball version of the Big Game on Saturday, Montgomery pointed fingers at his bench, mentioning that he doesn’t have much flexibility in his bench and no consistency. Cal’s bench only scored three points against the Cardinal and players like Bak Bak and Jeff Powers just aren’t doing enough for the Bears. Overall, the losses of Harper Kamp and Jorge Guttierrez continue to be an issue for Cal as they seem to have no reliable scoring besides the backcourt combination of Justin Cobbs and Allen Crabbe.

PBaruh (54 Posts)

This entry was posted on Monday, January 21st, 2013 at 9:01 am by PBaruh and is filed under microsites, morning 5, pac 12. Tagged: arizona, cal, dana altman, mark lyons, oregon, pac-12, washington. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.