In a college basketball world that’s seen seismic changes in recent years, the Oregon Ducks are one of few Pac-12 programs to survive the earthquake. While the waves of COVID, NIL, and the transfer portal rocked Arizona State and several others around the league, Oregon has remained on a steady track of success, unshaken by all the aforementioned factors.
Since Dana Altman took over in 2010, the Ducks haven’t suffered a losing season and not once dipped below 20 wins in a campaign, a 12-year-long streak that only Gonzaga, Kansas, and Belmont share in among Division 1 programs. With Oregon in line to continue that run this year with a 13-5 start, this Altman assembly reminds Bobby Hurley of the Oregon teams of the late 2010s when the Ducks were an NCAA tournament mainstay with a Final Four run in 2017 rather than the middling squads that have missed the Big Dance the last two years.
“They’re a good team,” Hurley emphasized. They resemble more of the teams that I’m accustomed to playing at Oregon in terms of the good teams Dana Altman has had there since I’ve been in the Pac-12. They play with a good level of aggression, they have great athletes, they have a good inside presence, one of the best inside players in our league. They have great perimeter shooting. So, they check a lot of boxes. Very good basketball team.”
The inside presence Hurley speaks of is the Malian monster that is N’Faly Dante. The former five-star recruit has been with the program since 2019 but began to emerge for the Ducks last season as a force in the paint. As a near seven-footer, Dante’s length is overwhelming, but his ability as an athlete makes him an exceptional rebounder and shot blocker, averaging eight boards and 1.4 blocks a game in 31 games last season. The prowess of Dante certainly invokes some concern in an ASU team that’s had trouble defending the interior, and Hurley noted that his own seven-footer in Shawn Phillips, as well as Bryant Selebangue, will have to be up to the challenge on Thursday.
“This is a game we need, Shawn,” Hurley stressed. “Playing a guy like Dante, as big as he is, he’s our most physical presence we have on the roster. Really need him to step up in this game.”
“He’s long and athletic,” Selebangue added. “One thing I’ve always prided on is my speed and agility, be able to take out his legs. I’m able to maneuver on him, I think that’s one thing I have over him. I knew coming into the Pac-12 that one thing I had to work on over the offseason was my strength. Being able to box out guys, being able to seal guys, I feel like that’s one thing that’s really underrated with me.”
When Dante’s healthy, Oregon sports one of the most complete squads in the entire conference. But even without him, as Altman’s been in all but four games this season, the Ducks have still found ways to win and remain firmly on the NCAA Tournament radar, courtesy of a pair of dynamic scoring guards.
Jermaine Couisnard isn’t necessarily a familiar name to Sun Devil fans, but much of the league knows the shifty guard as a highly dangerous scoring threat. Another veteran of college basketball, the six-foot-four senior spent his first three campaigns with the South Carolina Gamecocks of the SEC before transferring into Eugene last season and quickly putting the league on notice by averaging 12.8 points per game. While Couisnard didn’t reach double-digit points in either contest against ASU last year, his 27-point outburst on a top-10 ranked Arizona team was the propeller in that upset’s sail, not to mention a 19-point game against a second-weekend team in UCLA, as well as a 24-spot this season against Alabama.
Despite his average guard height, Couisnard likes to play above his size at the rim, using his quickness to get closer and more quality looks from the floor. This season in particular, Couisnard has added another aspect to his offensive game, shooting a notable 39 percent from three-point land, a major jump from the 33 percent he averaged a season ago. His athleticism around the perimeter is the engine of an Oregon defense that ranks in the top 70 nationally in steal percentage, with Couisnard himself grabbing almost two per game as one of the conference’s top on-ball defenders.
On nights where Couisnard hasn’t been able to takeover offensively, freshman sensation Jackson Shelstad has. The Oregon native has burst onto the scene in his first collegiate season, shooting a hyper-efficient 49 percent from the floor. Standing just six feet tall, Shelstad plays well above his size, using his fancy dribbling to get past his defender and set up opportunities for himself in close, but also for a pass out to the perimeter, as he trails only Couisnard on the team in total assists.
“There aren’t many freshmen having a great impact immediately as a freshman in the Pac-12 or a power conference,” Hurley said. “That’s a testament to how good of a player this kid is.”
With the excellence of Shelstad, look for Hurley to deploy Frankie Collins on the freshman as much as possible, as the Sun Devil point guard’s intelligence and intuition as a defender could force him into “freshman mistakes.”
“When we’re going through our scouts, I’ll always make sure I got the best players on the floor,” Collins said. “I want to shut that person down.”
“Frankie Collins, his grit, his speed, he’s a winner,” Selebangue said of Collins. “You watch him play; he’s a winner. He’s one of the best guards I ever played with. He’s smart, he’s very smart. His body control is crazy…His IQ is through the roof, and he’s a great guy to play with.”
While Shelstad and Couisnard have driven the Ducks to success thus far, plenty of attribution should be given to the depth Altman has at his disposal. Oregon runs an 11-man rotation of players who average double-digit minutes, and most of them bring their own set of skills to the table that makes the Ducks so well-rounded. Brennan Rigsby leads the team with an impressive 46 percent shooting clip from three, with other capable shooters in Keeshawn Barthelemy and Kario Oquendo flanking him. Nate Bittle looks to return from injury this week and utilize his seven-foot frame to hold down the paint off the bench, while Kwame Evans ranks in the top 110 players nationally in both block and steal percentage as a premier power forward.
Like many Oregon teams of the past, these Ducks are capable at nearly every aspect of the game. Despite having the length advantage over ASU by a wide margin, Hurley believes his preferred four-guard lineups can match up well with Oregon, as the abundance of quickness in Frankie Collins, Jamiya Neal, and Adam Miller, as well as others, can make up for the disadvantage down low.
“The lineups we put on the floor, we need to make up for not having size that some of the other programs have in our conference with our speed and our quickness,” Hurley said. “What we give up in some areas, we try to gain in others.”
Another area ASU has gained in Hurley’s eyes has been in team chemistry, as the Sun Devils have come out victorious in five of their last seven contests. While they’ll need to make their shots from outside the paint and force Oregon to beat them inside, Arizona State’s improved camaraderie is as dangerous as any on-court aspect for a team looking for a resumé-building win while also trying to maintain the top spot in the Pac-12.
“The continued growth amongst the core players, just continuing to learn playing together,” Hurley said. “Building that chemistry, that cohesiveness that you’re starting to see at times when guys are really gelling on the floor, offensively in particular, trusting each other and sharing the ball. That, over the last month, from the Northwestern game before Christmas to now, in that one area, the growth has been significant, and I think it still could get better.”
“I think we had this in us,” Collins added. “It just took a mental break. We had a mental break for us to go home with our families and enjoy our time. Now that we’re back, we came back with a new mindset. Everyone’s playing hard, and we’re playing together. That’s what we were missing.”
“I think where everyone is in the standings, you can never be comfortable,” Hurley continued. “If you say to yourself, ‘we’re in good shape right now,’ then lookout. Always have my guard up as we go through the season… We’ve played some challenging games and been able to stay right now at the top of the standings, so we just gotta keep fighting and keep battling to stay there.”
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