Three takeaways from Oregon’s ugly road loss to Colorado

The Oregon Ducks hit their first roadblock of Pac-12 play on Thursday.

Colorado trounced the Ducks, 86-70, at the CU Events Center in Boulder to snap a six-game winning streak that spanned more than a month. With the loss, Oregon dropped to 13-4 on the season, 5-1 in conference play, and missed out on a significant opportunity to bolster its postseason resume.

Jadrian Tracey led the Ducks with 14 points, and Jermaine Couisnard added 11. Junior center Nate Bittle was cleared to return to the court this week after suffering a broken wrist on Nov. 18, but he did not feature against the Buffs.

As Oregon sets its sights on Sunday’s road showdown with Utah, here are three takeaways from Thursday’s ugly loss.

The N’Faly Dante dilemma

I think Dana Altman’s usage of N’Faly Dante on Thursday was really irresponsible.

Dante, the Ducks’ all-conference center who has missed all but three games this season due to injury, looked a shell of himself against the Buffs. He got in early foul trouble and struggled on defense for much of the second half.

On the offensive end, Dante is still working to find his rhythm and is lacking the power and athleticism that made him so effective last year.

With just under five minutes to go in regulation, and Oregon fighting to stay in contention, Dante looked like he could hardly get up and down the floor. After a made layup, he tugged on his jersey to indicate that he needed a substitute. Just seconds later, Cody Williams blew past him for an uncontested layup.

I’m not going to speculate on the health status of a player. It goes without saying that Oregon’s medical staff and trainers know far more about Dante’s situation than I do. But it was clear that he was struggling physically during Thursday’s game and wasn’t capable of consistently making a positive impact.

None of this is intended a knock on Dante. I think he’s a fantastic player, and I think Oregon is a better team with him than it is without him. There was always going to be an adjustment period after he re-joined the team.

The Ducks already lost Dante for two months this season after he played 27 minutes in the season-opener despite the fact that, a week earlier, Altman had acknowledged that Dante was dealing with an injury. Three weeks later, he underwent knee surgery.

There was no need for him to be on the floor down the stretch on Thursday.

Rotations are still a work in progress

Oregon’s depth — especially in the backcourt — has been a major key all year.

The Ducks have a versatile, dynamic group of guards that allows Altman and his staff to mix and match lineups to exploit matchups.

Against Colorado, though, Oregon’s rotations were sort of puzzling. Jackson Shelstad and Brennan Rigsby both really struggled on the defensive end and were consistently beaten by the Buffs’ more physical guards. Neither provided enough on the offensive end to balance out the points they surrendered, and Colorado did as good a job shutting down Shelstad as any team has done all season.

Cody Williams, KJ Simpson, and Tristan da Silva scored at will all evening and consistently exploited physical advantages against the Ducks’ smaller guards. I’m surprised we didn’t see more of Jadrian Tracey, Kario Oquendo, and Kwame Evans Jr. throughout the game in order to counter the Buffs’ star trio.

With Dante and Mookie Cook both working their way back from injury, it’s going to take some time for the Ducks to click on both ends of the floor. Even with that in mind, though, they were a mess offensively against Colorado.

Salvage the road trip

Coming into this week, I felt like it would be a successful road trip for the Ducks if they found a way to pick up at least one win.

Despite Thursday’s ugly showing, I still believe they are capable of doing that.

The Buffs are a very good basketball team. They feature as much top-end offensive talent as any school in the conference, and they are going to give plenty of teams trouble — especially in Boulder. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they make some noise in March.

Thursday’s loss was an ugly one for Oregon, but not necissarily a disastrous one from a resume standpoint.

But the Ducks need to bounce back quickly. A victory in Salt Lake City on Saturday would arguably serve as their best win of the year and would undoubtedly lift their postseason hopes.

Oregon has shown plenty of resiliency following losses this season. Sunday will be a big test in that regard.

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