Oregon Ducks in for a Long Season

The Oregon Ducks are having the same problems that plagued them last year, and it was a head scratcher when Ernie Kent, instead of being let go, was signed to a contract extension. He had a solid veteran team last year, and to say they were a disappointment is an understatement.

The Ducks were coming off their NCAA tournament run the previous year, and there were high expectations for the team. Ernie Kent has a similar approach to Don Nelson, so his players have a green light to shoot. Last year the Ducks had a solid core of shooters in Maarty Leunen, Malik Hairston, Tajuan Porter, and Bryce Taylor.

The start of this year has been the same story for the Ducks. They are currently 3-3 on the season, with losses to Texas, North Carolina, and Oakland. They have wins over Northern Carolina, UC Irvine, and Alabama.

This year the Ducks' leader is Tajuan Porter, who is currently the second-leading scorer for the Ducks. He is the leader of the team pretty much by default because he's a junior and their most experienced player. 

The leading scorer for the Ducks is heralded freshman Michael Dunigan at 15 points per game, and he's also their best rebounder at 8.2 rebounds per game. Dunigan is a load at 6'10", 250 pounds. The problem, though, is Kent not being able to incorporate Dunigan into the offense.

The problem with the Ducks and why this season will be a long one for Duck fans is this: The Ducks take too many three-pointers, just like they did last year. As mentioned before, every Duck player on the court has a green light to shoot.

What Duck fans may have noticed is that Porter on any type of occasion will shoot the three. In fact, he averages over seven attempts per game while making a little over two per game.

His shot has been off all year, as he's shooting only 30.6 percent from the field, as well as 30.6 percent from the three-point line. His best feature this year has been his free throw shooting, which is at 90 percent from the line.

Here's why Kent wasn't the best option for the Ducks as coach. Yes, he's brought the Ducks to respectability, but he's worn out his welcome in Eugene.

The reason is since every player has the green light, the Ducks' shot selection has been poor. They take threes in transition that are just bad shots, their leader Porter lives or dies from beyond the arc, and they have not shown the ability to dump the ball to their best player in the post to let him create shots for his teammates.

If Kent wants to keep his job, he's going to need Porter to be more disciplined in shot selection. The problem for Porter is that he can't drive fully to the basketball very well because of how short he is, but if he would develop a midrange game and take higher percentage shots, he would show that Kent is actually trying to do something to make his team better.

Porter did have a pump fake and then stepped inside the line for a swish, but he has to do that more than just once to become more effective and start shooting for a higher percentage, which will help the Ducks win games.

If Kent somehow doesn't teach Porter to have better shot selection, the season is going to be a long one. The best Oregon can hope to finish in the Pac-10 is number eight.