Sunday, February 3, 2013
Ducks' handle shaky sans Artis
By Matt Giles
Oregon has played three games without their star freshman point guard Dominic Artis. During that time span, the Ducks have lost two games, and it is still unclear when Artis will return to the court. John Gasaway recently examined one potential reasons the Ducks were struggling, and while it is often foolhardy to corollate a player's absence to a statistic, it is telling in the case of Oregon's injured guard.
During the past two losses, against California and Stanford, Oregon's offensive turnover rate was 30 percent. The Ducks had a combined 42 turnovers in those losses, and Cal's Mike Montgomery stressed he instructed his squad to either slow, or limit, Oregon's transition opportunities.
Gasaway notes that Ducks are only scoring .75 PPP in those last two games, and if Oregon continues to turn the ball over and struggles to score easy transition buckets, Dana Altman's club could soon begin to slip in Pac-12 play.
