Will Richardson will be First Team All Pac-12: Oregon Men's Basketball Preview
Dana Altman has another brand new team on his hands, but Will Richardson and Chris Duarte look to lead these transfers and freshmen deep into March once again.
Due to Covid, UO didn’t get to make the deep run into last March that we could feel coming, but the 2021 season is all set for Will Richardson and the Ducks to reaffirm that they run the Pac, and live to win tournaments.
The 20th-ranked Ducks DO NOT open up at home tonight against Eastern Washington, but I still wanted to release this season preview today.
The whole non-conference schedule is weird and up in the air, so a game like EWU would’ve been an underrated opportunity to find out what kind of team you are before Pac-12 play starts fast and furious on Dec. 12th at Washington.
Who knows when the real Game One will be. It could literally be any day. Best to get the preview out now so we can be ready when it comes.
CBS Sports’ David Cobb predicts that Oregon will once again edge out Mick Cronin and UCLA for the Pac-12 title, but he seems to be the only pundit brave enough to make that call. Most other power rankings that I’ve seen are much higher on the Bruins, and the Ducks shift anywhere between the 2-4 spot.
I don’t blame anyone for not being so sure about the Ducks given the massive departures from the starting lineup, but at this point you absolutely can blame anyone who doubts Dana Altman’s ability to make magic out of mystery.
Let’s start with the departures:
Payton Pritchard, G; Shakur Juiston, F; Addison Patterson, G/F; CJ Walker, F; Francis Okoro, F; Anthony Mathis, G
Payton will obviously be the biggest disappearance. He belongs to the record books, and to the all-time pantheon of Oregon basketball. I don’t care who you are, you’re always going miss 20.5 ppg and legendary leadership like that.
Juiston might be the second-most important departing guy in terms of actual production. His rebounding and defense came up huge in conference play, and he was a constant outlet for Pritch and Richardson in the drive and dish.
I also thought Patterson had the most upside of anyone on the team. You could tell Altman had a belief in him based on the role he played early in the season, and even if he’d turn the ball over, or take an ill-advised shot, you could see that the raw talent was there. His skill plus his lengthier frame could make him a weird 2/3/4 hybrid—like a slenderman Dillon Brooks.
Buuuut then he transferred to Nevada.
CJ Walker and the ever-injured Francis Okoro were some of my personal favorite players, but they must’ve seen the writing on the walls with the players coming up and opted to transfer too. I wish them both the best at UCF and St. Louis, respectively.
Mathis started a lot in the non-conference slate, and his chemistry with his brother Payton Pritchard was unlike anything I’ve ever seen at Oregon. But Mathis’ minutes dwindled as the Pac-12 schedule went on as Richardson kept lighting things up—demanding a bigger role with his performance.
Now for the fun part, who’s back?
Will Richardson, G; Chris Duarte, G; Chandler Lawson, F; N’Faly Dante, C; Lök Wur, F
And who’s new?
LJ Figueroa, F (St. Johns); Amauri Hardy, G (UNLV); Eugene Omoruyi, F (Rutgers); Jalen Terry, G (Freshman); Eric Williams Jr., F (Duquesne)
Duarte is ~technically~ the only returning starter, but I think anyone that watched Will Richardson finish things off last season would consider him to be starter-tier, too.
I have been hinting at it, but I think Will Richardson is going to be the leader—and the best player—of this 2020-21 team.
Rich got significantly tougher between his freshman and sophomore seasons, and he has that winning motor in his brain. He has the downhill driving mentality of a late-career Pritchard, and he supplements his physical growth by shooting 48% from the field, and a whopping 47% from beyond the arc.
Will’s going to be running the point, but knowing Dana’s offense the entire show doesn’t always have to run through him. Payton ran a record amount of iso plays last year, sure, but he also had a ton of opportunities to play off-ball too. The first or second pass was typically to the high post/free throw line—a spot where Chandler Lawson improved a lot in last year—and Richardson’s ability to drive and shoot efficiently will allow him to pick up right where Pritch left off.
He also has that unteachable clutch gene in him:
Don’t get me wrong, Chris Duarte is an incredible asset right next to Will. Duarte is a defensive animal and has a knack for getting hot from deep. Ehab Amin meets Dillon Brooks.
Yes, that’s my second time in just this article that I used Dillon Brooks as a comparsion. I also even managed to do it in my Pritchard piece last week. Apparently my entire understanding of basketball clearly derives from being able to know where any individual player stands in relation to Dillon Brooks. It’s the true expert analysis you’ve come here for.
All that aside, Chris will be invaluable, but I just have a lot of confidence in Will’s next big jump.
Chandler Lawson is going to be another prime example of the “athletic guy that Dana helps mold as a truly skilled basketball player”—like Jordan Bell and Kenny Wooten. Lawson might be a little more gangly than either of those were when they started out, but Dana’s aforementioned set of running the offense from the high post was a point of success for Chandler last year in conference.
He dished five assists in two different games, and also shot 52% from the field. He’ll have a lot more opportunity to grow his game as a passer, but at that position he’s also a threat to pull up for a jumper. Watch out for C-Law to unleash a host of LaMarcus Aldridge-like 16-18 footers.
N’Faly Dante has obviously been a big story since he stepped on campus. He never played more than 22 minutes in a game, and missed a big chunk of the Pac-12 season due to injury, but the 6-11 center still has plenty of expectations coming into the year.
Dante was extremely efficient offensively when he did play last year, shooting 100% from the field in two different games, and averaging nearly 3 rebounds in an average of 13 mins per game.
Here’s hoping he can stay healthy and live up to all the flashes of brilliance he has shown us. The Ducks have been hurting for a true center for a while now, and Dante could unlock a lot of Dana’s wildest dreams.
Lök Wur reminds me of what Lawson was coming into last year. 6-8, 200, and still a bit green from redshirting last year, but ultimately Wur is in a position for Dana to develop him into a huge, versatile asset.
Some new additions, Williams Jr. and Omoruyi, will play the biggest roles of the new faces. Williams sat out last year on a transfer break, so he’ll be well-developed after a year of pure practice under Altman’s system.
Omoruyi is 6-6, 235, and reminds me a lot of Olu Ashaolu. He has that boxer-like tenacity, and could serve as the enforcer on a team whose bigs (Lawson, Dante, etc.) aren’t exactly built like linebackers. The aptly-named Eugene was also ranked on Jon Rothstein’s 20 Impact Transfer List.
Figueroa transferred from St. Johns, where we has their leading scorer. As of the writing of this article, there is still no word on whether LJ will get a waiver from the NCAA in order to be eligible for the 2020-21 season. Another scorer is always welcome to the party.
Freshman guard Jalen Terry is probably the biggest question mark on the roster just given that he only has high school film to look at. But that high school film doesn’t look half bad:
Terry won’t be called upon to have a crazy big role this year, but it could be fun to see if he can gradually fight for more time at the 2 by the end of the year, just like Will did.
I focused mostly on the expected “true contributors” here, but out of respect for a historic Oregon family I’ll add that the end of the Eastern Washington game would’ve been a prime a chance to catch a glimpse of our real secret weapon—Eddy Ionescu.
The lack of fans in MKA will be felt most in garbage time this year when we can’t pressure Altman with an, “EDDY, EDDY, EDDY,” chant.
Sigh. Covid ruins everything.
It’s time to play some men’s basketball, folks.
Go Ducks.