Another one bites the dust, it looks like.

The Pit Crew’s chant of “OOOOh, Malcolm Armstead!” every time the junior point guard is inbounded the ball may, in fact, never be chanted again.

Malcolm Armstead becomes the latest casualty of the Ducks' tumultuous recent struggles.

Eugene television station KVAL reported this morning that the 6-foot transfer from Chipola Junior College may indeed transfer again.

KVAL says “a source with knowledge of the situation” told them Armstead had requested and been granted his release from the University of Oregon.

Since Ernie Kent’s firing in March, four players have transferred from the program: Matt Humphrey, Josh Crittle, Drew Wiley, and Jamil Wilson. Armstead would be the fifth.

Five is the number of days in the workweek. It’s the number of gears in a manual transmission. It’s the number of Supreme Court justices necessary to render a majority decision.

With four days in the workweek, the weekend would be too long. Four gears in a transmission and the car won’t run. Four Supreme Court justices and, well, you don’t have a decision.

So I guess it makes sense a fifth player needed to transfer, right?

Wrong.

Armstead fit in extremely well with the Ducks offense.  He was a serious threat to opponents last season. Once Pac-10 play started, he found his groove and finished the season averaging 10.3 points a game. He played in every game, and started all but five. Any scoring threat the Ducks had will surely be hindered if he indeed departs.

Five is an exorbitant amount of transfers. Sure, with the disappointing season, the firing of Ernie Kent, and the over hyped, way too drawn out coaching search, we must’ve expected to lose a few.

But we hired a coach on April 24^th. By my count, that’s exactly three months ago. A respectable coach, too. We’ve got a brand new, $200 million state of the art arena opening in 6 months. Who wouldn’t want to play in there.

Hell, we’ve even got an Athletic Director now. And he came from Kentucky!

Armstead’s desired transfer is probably fueled by where he thinks he can win the most throughout the rest of his college career. He stood out last season at Oregon, and would’ve next season too, but something in him is saying “Look, Malcolm, there’s still problems at this program. Get out now, and get out quick, before things get worse.” If he indeed does transfer, it’s because he thinks that, a year from now, the Ducks will be exactly where they are right now:

Disappointing attendance, a measly record, and sitting in the bowels of the Pac-10 standings.

It’ll be up to the remaining Ducks to prove him wrong.  

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Wroten is a standout from Garfield High School in Seattle.

Among the countless Twitter rumblings I came across today, these two tweets from Matt Prehm of DuckTerritory.com (@Prehmmr) stuck out like a sore thumb:

• 2011 Top 5 BB recruit Toney Wroten JR has informed me UO dropped in his list because of job stability w/Ernie Kent and concerns of firing.
• Wroten had Oregon as his favorite, but dropped them down. This was before the UCLA and USC games. Wroten is very impressed with Kent.

First of all, I’m not exactly sure which characteristic of Kent’s has impressed him, but putting that aside, is this news something Athletic Director Mike Bellotti should consider when deciding Kent’s fate this off-season?

Wroten, who’s listed at 6-4 and 180 pounds,  is ranked the No. 2 point guard and No. 9 player overall in the country, per Rivals.com, describing the prep star as “an electric athlete with great size for his position, Wroten has the ability to take a game over at any moment.

“Slashing to the basket is his forte, but he can also heat up from the outside. A physical point guard, he has excellent court vision and provides a formidable presence on both ends of the court.”

Impressive.

Trust me, I want Wroten just as much as the next guy, but is having him for one year – he is almost surely a one and done type player – worth delaying the end of the Kent era at Oregon by at least two seasons?

I don’t think so, and especially not when we’re adding him to a team that isn’t exactly “one player away”.

Sure, there’s the possibility his commitment would bring more top players with him, but until Kent proves he can consistently get his team to the tournament (and not just the Pac-10 one), I don’t think John Calipari will have to lose sleep worrying about losing any of his recruits.

With this weekend’s sweep of the Los Angeles schools and the Wroten news, Kent’s status is curiously looking up.

Is a top-5 recruit worth an extension to the Ernie Kent era?

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Why this guy was so intent about staying in the Oregon student section is beyond me. At least we got to laugh at his expense. Thanks, Puddles.

A couple of things.

The Ducks looked great today. Thursday too. It was an all-around great weekend for Oregon basketball. Almost too good.

The past few weeks put a lot of fans on the “fire Ernie Kent” bandwagon, including myself, even though I’d never really been a fan of his before. We all know Ernie can recruit, but he’s had problems developing that talent over the years.

Well this weekend, Kent has flipped a 180, getting the most out of his players and more importantly, out-coaching the opposition in crunch time.

When USC tied the game up at 47 apiece, I thought it was over. Oregon looked lazy, lobbing cross-court passes and committing silly turnovers, which the Trojans brought back for easy lay-ups.

But Kent called a well-timed time out and gave his players a chance to regroup. Coming out of the break, the Ducks looked like a different, much more poised team.

Oregon then went on a 13-3 run to finish the game without much tension, with Jeremy Jacob and Tajuan Porter hitting clutch free throws to seal it.

As much as I’m happy that we won, I’m frightened.

Mike Bellotti has already stated that he’s a little gun-shy about firing Kent.

Earlier this week, Belotti gave his opinion of the situation to the Oregonion, saying, “I am one who will probably take the longer road because it’s my first time doing this. What you usually hear people in my position say is ‘we’ll evaluate it at the end of the season,’ and I think that’s wise advice and I should adhere to that.”

That gives Kent nine more games to prove his worth to the first-year AD.

As much as I appreciate what Kent has done for Oregon basketball the past 13 years, and trust me, I really do, the last nine games will not make a bit of difference to me. But I think they will to Belotti.

Ernie has been the coach for 13 years. We know what he’s capable of, we know his style and we know his strengths and weaknesses.

It’s kind of like Rich Brooks in football. We appreciate what you’ve done by making us relevant, but now that we’re here, you can’t bring us to the next level and we want more.

Ernie is a victim of his own – and Phil Knight’s – success in a way.

What he can do when he’s in “must-win” mode isn’t the real Ernie Kent. Like I mentioned Friday, it’s the contract year syndrome. When your job is on the line, of course you’re going to try harder.

So this is what I hope happens the rest of the season. I hope the team keeps playing hard, shows vast improvements from young players like Matt Humphrey, Malcolm Armstead and Michael Dunigan, but falls short of any real success.

I’m just too scared that it will save Ernie’s job.

This guy is 24? More like 34.

Look, Ernie, I know we couldn’t be in this spot without you, but unless you can prove that developing talent is your number one priority – and that you’re actually capable of doing it – it’s time to move on.

But hey, if you wanted to stick around in an Ed Orgeron super-recruiter position, I’d be more than happy.

Other Notes:

• No matter how aesthetically unpleasing those pink uniforms are, Oregon is still unbeaten in them. I hope they stay with them until they lose, which might not be for a while, as this suddenly re-energized team travels to Corvallis next Saturday for its lone game of the week.
• Here’s a well-deserved shout out for our women’s team, mostly just because of my new-found love for Taylor Lilley.  But (wo)man is this team fun to watch. The lady Ducks made up for a loss to UCLA on Thursday by beating USC 85-77, powered by nine (count ‘em, NINE) threes from Lilley. Amazing. And an Oregon record.
• Down two, late in the second half, USC graduate manager Stan Holt, was called for a technical foul, apparently for screaming obscenities at the referee. The students starting chanting “You got fired!” and apparently Kevin O’Neil listened. Holt was not on the bench after the next time out and the official word came out after the game that he was gone for good. O’Neil said: “That’s incomprehensible to me in a 2 point game that our manager would get (a T).” He also said: “If somebody is getting (a T) it’s going to be me.” You tell him, coach. But after the game, O’Neil, who looks like a cross between a mad scientist and a tomato, said the heat of the moment got to him, and rescinded his earlier remarks about Holt.
• Finally, I just have to make fun of USC point guard Mike Gerrity. The guy looks like he has Greg Oden disease – old age syndrome, not the other thing. He looks like a 40-year-old version of Jimmy Neutron (that’s him in the picture to the right).

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Funny headline from Yahoo: Oregon gets uglier than usual for a good cause.

This Oregon team threw themselves after loose balls, crashed the offensive and defensive boards with reckless abandon and at the same time, somehow managed to run a much smoother, controlled offense that featured several pick and rolls (even making contact with the defenders!) – something I figured as a lost art for the Ducks.

As much as I’ve criticized Kent the past few weeks, I have to give him some credit tonight. He had his team ready to go, laid out a solid game plan, kept them interested through halftime and didn’t blow it down the stretch. For Ernie, that’s a win.

But Mr. Hot Seat did something tonight that we haven’t seen for a while: he made adjustments.

UCLA’s Nikola Dragovic nailed three nearly consecutive treys early in the first half (with each one earning more and more of the Pit Crew’s ire). So what did Ernie do?

He switched to a zone defense and made sure two players closed in on Dragovic whenever he got the ball within shooting range, knowing that everyone else on the Bruins shoot about as well as a Storm Trooper from Star Wars. Well, at least until Michael Roll brought out his inner Reggie Miller and started knocking back clutch threes like Jon Daly knocks back Jack Daniels. (Think I got enough analogies in that paragraph? Sheesh.)

The switch worked, Dragovic went cold and the Ducks took control of the game.

Yet somehow, despite E.J. Singler and Matt Humphrey’s heroics, Oregon still couldn’t win in regulation. There was a chance, as Oregon had the ball in a tie ball game with 10 seconds left, but Tajuan Porter forgot that he wasn’t Michael Jordan, deciding to drive coast to coast and throw up a shot that had a lower chance of going in than Ernie Kent winning coach of the year honors.

Fortunately, Singler and Humphrey continued their Supermen acts into overtime, nailing multiple clutch free throws and three-pointers, respectively.

Unfortunately, after looking so putrid thus far this season (and last year), I’m torn about what happened last night. Do I root for losses every Thursday and Saturday so Ernie Kent will get shown the door? Do I hope for improvement expecting Kent to be fired anyway?

For fans who want to see Kent gone, this is a tricky situation.

In the post-game thread on Addicted To Quack, a few people summed up the situation perfectly. (By the way, am I the only one who giggles to himself every time I hear the phrase “the situation”? I can’t help it.)

MurphyLPendleton wrote: “Just when you are about to write Ernie Kent’s career obituary, he pulls out the defib paddles and shocks this team back to life.”

To which Dave eloquently responded: “Given Kent’s history, we’ll win the Pac-10 tourney to get the auto bid and he’ll save his job again. Then we’ll suck for another season, make the elite eight when Dunigan and Armstead are seniors, then suck again for three more years.”

The truth hurts. I just can’t live that way as a fan of Oregon basketball. It’s too tantalizing, painful, and encourages more hair pulling than fans should subject themselves to.

This one game alone did not do anything to change my opinion that Ernie still needs to go. Even if he pulls together a solid rest of the season, I say it’s too little, too late, kind of like the Adrian Beltre and Erick Dampier contract-year syndrome. Except General Managers are dumb enough to shell out millions because they decided to give a shit for one season, or the play-offs. Yes, I’m looking at you Jerome James.

My question for you, hardcore Duck fans, is this: does last night do anything to change your mind about Ernie Kent’s future in Oregon basketball?

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With all the craziness that has gone down at USC the past couple weeks, I thought it’d be great to get some inside info from a man who actually gets paid to cover the Los Angeles sports scene. Formerly of Sports Illustrated and the LA Times, Arash Markazi, now of the newly formed ESPN Los Angeles, joins me to talk about how the Trojans’ turnover will affect Oregon and the Pac-10.

UO Sports Dude: Hey Arash, it’s great to get a chance to talk to you. You must be pretty busy these days with how chaotic the Los Angeles sports scene has been. First of all, you just made the move from Sports Illustrated to the brand new ESPN Los Angeles. How has the transformation been and what kind of what work will you be doing? The new studio must be nice.

Arash Markazi: It’s been a fairly smooth transition. I was already covering the Los Angeles sports scene for Sports Illustrated so I’m basically doing what I’ve always done but now I’m doing it for ESPN Los Angeles. I’ll still be covering the Lakers, Clippers, Dodgers and other Los Angeles teams as well as some other interesting events that always seem to pop up in Los Angeles such as George Lopez hosting Kobe Bryant’s shoe premiere in Hollywood or Hulk Hogan talking about his return to pro wrestling. There’s always something going on around here.

UO Sports Dude: I don’t know about you, but your colleague, Bill Simmons, has had a huge impact on my development as a sports fan and as a writer. Some have even called him the most influential sports writer of the decade because he started a whole new genre of sports writing, bringing the fans point of a view and a more humorous and pop culture reference-laden style to his column. Has he had much of an effect on you, and living in LA, have you had a chance to meet the Sports Guy yet?

Arash: I’ve met him a couple of times although I doubt he’d remember it. Guys like Rick Reilly and Bill Simmons are in another class. I mean, I guess they’re technically colleagues but that’s like calling Sasha Vujacic and Kobe Bryant colleagues. For example, if I were ever lucky enough to come out with a book and for some reason thought I was important enough to have a book signing I’d be lucky if my friends and family showed up. Simmons has people lined up around the block across the country. It’s amazing. He’s got more Twitter followers than anyone he writes about. He’s easily the most influential writer we’ve had since the advent of the internet.

UO Sports Dude: Going to school up here in Oregon, the Ducks and Pac-10 football is the number one headline year round. Obviously, this was a wonderful year for us, taking over USC’s spot atop the conference. As great as it is knocking off the champs, a strong Trojans team is helpful to the overall health of the conference. What do you expect out of USC this year and beyond that? Do you think the Sporting News was wrong leaving the Trojans outside of their top 25 for 2010?

Arash: Yeah, I think anyone leaving USC out of their Top 25 is ignoring all the talent they have returning. I don’t think they’re a Top 10 team but I’d certainly put them in the teens when you consider that first-year starters like Matt Barkley and Chris Galippo who hit a wall at the end of October will be returning with a full year of experience under their belt. I certainly don’t think USC will ever be as dominant as they once were and quite frankly that’s good for the conference. As much as those dominant USC teams put the national spotlight on the Pac-10, most of it was in a negative light because it looked as if USC was simply beating up on bad teams in a bad conference.

UO Sports Dude: After Carroll’s departure, the Trojans needed to hire a new coach quickly in order to save their recruiting class. Do you think Mike Garrett panicked and took a familiar face or do you think Lane Kiffin will be a successful coach? He definitely has the assistants to tear up the recruiting trail.

I don’t think he panicked in picking Lane Kiffin, I just think he was enamored with the coaching staff Kiffin was going to put together. Sure they would have rather had Mike Riley, Jeff Fisher or Jack Del Rio but those are three guys who are very happy and content with the jobs that they have and weren’t looking to go anywhere else. So, once again, as they did with Pete Carroll, USC settled for the fourth choice. I think the package of Monte Kiffin running the defense and Ed Orgeron running the defensive line and recruiting was a huge reason Kiffin was hired. I’m also sure Garrett was optimistic they could bring back Norm Chow to run the offense but unfortunately for USC that didn’t happen.

UO Sports Dude: Pete Carroll obviously had the perfect personality to coach in Los Angeles. Now that he’s gone, is there another coach in the Pac-10 who can assume his role as the funny guy? I would like to nominate Chip Kelly. He might not be able to attract the same amount (or level) of coeds, but he dressed up as the mascot for College Gameday and the fans really love him. Any chance Chip could fit the bill? Phil Knight could be the next Snoop Dogg.

Arash: With all due respect to Chip Kelly, no one is going to replace Pete Carroll in the personality/celebrity department and that’s OK. What Carroll did at USC had never been done before and will likely never happen again. Outside of the seven straight Pac-10 titles, BCS bowl games, 11-win seasons and AP Top 4 finishes, Carroll was able to attract celebrities like Will Ferrell, Snoop Dogg and Alyssa Milano to USC games and practices. At its height the sidelines at USC home game were more star-studded than courtside at a Lakers game. It’s going to be hard to duplicate that kind of national and pop culture buzz in any other city.

UO Sports Dude: There has been a lot of talk up here about Oregon’s improvement in getting recruits from across the country in Florida, Texas and Southern California. Do you think Oregon is ready for a USC-like run of dominance in the Pac-10 or will parity ensue until the Trojans retake their “rightful” place atop the standings?

Arash: No team, not even USC, will have a USC-like run of dominance in the Pac-10. Like I said before, what USC did for seven seasons is extremely rare. It had never been done before and will likely never happen again. To be honest, as great as it is to have a dominant team, it doesn’t look good for a conference when one team wins seven straight conference titles and 27 straight conference games. It looks like the conference is a bunch of pushovers, which was the national perception of the Pac-10 while USC won 34-straight games. Oregon is clearly the top team in the conference now but they’ve only held that title since Halloween. That could easily change next season as competitive and unpredictable conference was last season.

UO Sports Dude: Finally, I have a basketball question to wrap it up. The Pac-10 has been an absolute mess this year. Not a single team is ranked in the top 25 and only two are in Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology. Do you think a dominant team will emerge and be able to make a run in March or should we start thinking about next year?

Arash: There won’t be a dominant team this year and I can’t imagine a team winning more than one game in the tournament. The Pac-10 has never been this bad before. Not only do they not have a Top 25 team, they only have one team in the Top 50. It’s sad. I actually thought USC had a chance to do something before their post-season ban because of their half-court defense and the way Mike Gerrity was running the point. Yeah, if I’m a Pac-10 men’s basketball fan I would definitely start thinking about next year.

UO Sports Dude: Sorry, I lied, I have one more. Here’s the only question Oregon basketball fans have right now: Should Ernie Kent be fired, and if so, could we steal Mark Few from Gonzaga? Fans up here are screaming pretty fiercely for this to happen, especially with the brand new $200 million Matt Court coming next season.

I would never come out and advocate a coach getting fired but Kent hasn’t done a whole lot since reaching the Elite Eight in 2007 and if Oregon is able to get a coach like Few that might be the best move for the program. I think Kent is a great coach but if the fan base is behind him getting fired, the school might have no choice but giving them what they want in the hope of making them happy and filling up the new arena.

Well thank you for everything, Arash. I appreciate you taking so much time to talk to the UO Sports Dude.

Be sure to read more from Arash Markazi on ESPN Los Angeles and  follow him on the Twitter machine as well.

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Another day, another Duck beat on D.

I just sat through an absolute wretched first half of Oregon basketball.

Poor shooting, poor defense, poor screens, poor rolls, poor just about everything. And you know what the worst part is? I’m not even the least bit surprised.

This is what I’ve come to expect of an Ernie Kent coached team the last few years. Without a superstar creator to open up the half-court offense or dominate the fast break, the team looks lost.

It’s simple: no Lukes or no Aaron Brooks = no winning team.

I don’t know how much longer we have to wait before Mike Belotti and the athletic department does anything about it.

Look, I know Kent is Oregon born and bred, and there is this pipe dream that it would be some sort of basketball romance if he could lead us to the promise land. But he keeps disappointing us.  It’s gotten to the point where fans are starting to accept futility.

I asked fellow students today if they were going to the game tonight and the number one response I got was, “There’s no point, we’re just gonna get blown out anyway.”

This is beyond the point of acceptable. When fans lose interest, even interest in being outraged, things are bad.

And tonight is my breaking point.

There was this giant façade of improvement with a 10-4 record in the pre-season, but if you look a little deeper, you’ll see that we played a schedule that even Joe Paterno and Urban Meyer would cringe looking at.

Not a single ranked team played, not a single win over a team with an ounce of respectability. Their strength of schedule ranks a pitiful 167th.

When you have to decide if your best win is against Oakland or Colorado State, that’s just pathetic.

And the only reason I can think of why Kent would play a schedule so pathetic is that he wanted to pile up a bunch of easy wins to save face, and his job.

Watching this first half, all the flaws of Duck basketball are in the limelight. 35% shooting from the field, 50% from the foul line and nine threes for Arizona State? How can that be acceptable?

On offense, players are setting screens without making contact with the defenders, and then forgetting to roll to the basket. They’re starting plays 15 feet behind the three-point line, so by the time they run the play, what should be a lay-up is a contested fade away 20-footer.

On defense, they aren’t making adjustments. At the end of the first half, ASU made three consecutive three pointers. How can that happen?

Kent should take a note from wordsmith George W. Bush: “fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”

Oregon State lost to Seattle University by 51 points, but you know what Craig Robinson did? He and his team were ready for Oregon the next game. They were hungry for a win.

Looking at Oregon tonight coming off a loss to Oregon State in the last Civil War in the history of Mac Court, they seem ambivalent. There’s no fire, no motivation, no sense of urgency.

Right now it’s 71-43, ASU. I’m disgusted.

In the first half, Kent called time outs in the first half with 8:03 and 4:00 minutes left. Doesn’t he know that in less than 20 seconds, there will be a free tv timeout? If he can’t figure out these little things, it’s no wonder he can’t get his team to run an offense.

I’m sorry Ernie Kent, but you’re time is through in Eugene. You can take your perpetual disappointed, incredulous, sourpuss face somewhere else.

We can’t afford to have our program at this level of apathy with a $200 million Matthew Court Arena on the way for next year.

I’m tired of you. And I’m not the only one.

I got a tweet tonight from @NorcalDuck who wrote: “Ernie Kent needs to go. It’s hard to respect the program when you can’t respect the coach.”

There’s more.

I almost went to the game tonight, but I couldn’t get a ticket for my visiting girlfriend. I just got a text from a person who offered to sell me tickets: “F@%k. I’m glad I sold those for what I did. $15 for a $28 ticket. That’s how much the Ducks are worth.”

I think that sums it up.

Goodbyes aren’t always easy, and it might be tough for Kent, but for those of us who have suffered through mediocrity and constantly underperforming teams, it will be about as easy to say goodbye as an Arizona State three pointer.

So long, Ernie Kent. We have finally outgrown you.

You can follow Keith on twitter or on his Facebook page.

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There aren't any other good basketball pictures, but you'll probably enjoy this more anyway. ESPN ranked them the most distracting cheerleaders in college basketball. Smart choice.

If you go to Kansas, Kentucky or Syracuse, football season couldn’t have ended fast enough.

Why bother suffering through the endless Mark Mangino fat jokes when you could support a different sport in which the national media has doled out 62 first place votes?

Kentucky already has accounted for more wins on the hardwood in one month than they did on the football field since last October. I think fans in the Bluegrass State are much happier watching the most exciting player the country, freshman John Wall, instead of freshman quarterback Morgan Newton struggle his way to a 55.4 completion percentage.

And Syracuse, well, they were so desperate for basketball season that they stole Duke’s point guard to be their quarterback.

So if you’re a Duck fan, I hope you relished every second of the football regular season because after the Rose Bowl, it’s a long way back until football season. It hurts to say, but the most exciting sport during the winter in Eugene is football recruiting. But hey, at least we’re doing well at that!

Alright, maybe I’m being a bit too harsh. Or maybe not.

I had a chance to take in today’s game against the St. Mary’s Gaels and the team is clearly much improved from last year. It won’t take until February to win the first game of conference play. But the same crutches still remain: Turnovers, forced shots, missed free throws and the complete lack of a half court offense.

And what do you know, those exact reasons led to a fourth quarter collapse against a beatable St. Mary’s squad (I think they were the first team in the history of D1 basketball to start five white players, especially one with a 6-1 record).

The Ducks led most of the game, controlling the tempo and letting their superior athleticism bail them out in transition and on the glass. But late in the second half, Oregon started slowing the pace, trying to control the clock. And here’s a shocker – the Gaels started creeping their way back into the game.

In short, Oregon looked more lost running the half court set than when Bambi realized the hunter had made dinner out of his mother.

First of all, earth to Michael Dunigan: A screen doesn’t work just by running to a certain spot on the floor and standing there.  You actually have to make contact with the defender. And secondly, didn’t you learn in elementary school that after you set your “screen” you roll to the basket?  You don’t just lollygag at the top of the key with your hands in your pockets waiting for the play to end so it’s a shorter run back on defense.

I don’t get why Ernie Kent would force his team into an uncomfortable style of play that he KNOWS they aren’t good at, when the only reason they were winning in the first place was because they managed to completely avoid running a half court set the entire game.

Ernie Kent, dance with you brung you.

If you haven’t figured out yet, Oregon basketball is my whipping boy for Duck athletics. I can shamelessly say that I never get tired of Joevan Catron fat jokes or “fire Ernie Kent” talk.

And missing nine free throws in a five point loss isn’t going to slow me down anytime soon.

But let’s take a second to look at the positives.

With Tajuan Porter and Catron (thank God) sitting out, it gave some of the youngsters a chance to get some extra run. E.J. Singler, Malcom Armstead and Jamil Wilson all look like future quality starters.

Singler brought back Kareem Abdul-Jabar’s famous sky hook, unleashing it against taller defenders  successfully at least three times. He also has an eye for the correct passing lanes, dishing out four assists without recording a turnover.

Armstead will make a solid back-up point guard once Porter returns from his ankle woes. The juco transfer is a physical player who likes to take the ball to the rack and gives his all on D, averaging over 2.5 steals per game.

Wilson, when he isn’t tripping over his own feet, shows flashes of absolute brilliance. The freshman out of Wisconsin has a smooth stroke and a constant motor, always following his own shot and finding a man to box out. Then again, there’s the three for thirteen performance against Missouri last weekend.

But the player to watch this season is Teondre Williams. The sophomore looks like a completely different player than last year – and considering he had a 36.1 FG%, that’s a good thing.

He can shoot, drive, dish, defend, and deliver some rim-shaking dunks. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him make the Pac-10 second team.

Don’t get too excited yet, Duck fans, this team still has a long way to go before reaching even half of its potential. Until they understand the basics, Oregon will be in for a season filled with highs and (even more) lows.

Hopefully, Ernie Kent will soon check his ego at the door and give Mike Dunlap a chance to teach something Kent can’t: The fundamentals.

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Porter is gonna have to do a lot more than hold a towell over his head if Oregon still wants to be playing come March.

It’s basketball season already? Seriously? I’m not ready to move on to a losing sport; it’s still football season, gosh darn it!

At least for now, Oregon Ducks basketball is the University of Oregon’s proverbial red-headed stepchild.

Why anyone would spend time following a team coming off of an 8-23 season, including losses to San Diego, Oakland, and Washington State by 29 points, instead of a Rose Bowl contending football team, is beyond me.

But I guess anytime you have the chance to watch Oregon play a non-conference basketball game against Colorado State in a half-empty 83-year-old stadium in early November, you can’t pass it up.

Ok, you get. We were bad last year. Worse than that actually. Terrible. Putrid. Atrocious. Words don’t do it justice.

It was so bad that we actually rushed the court after our first Pac-10 win in our 15th try, over a less-than-mediocre Stanford team. And as someone who was a part of it, I felt absolutely ashamed and humiliated the second I left my seat and headed toward the sweat-soaked jersey of Joevan Catron.

Well this year, things should be better.

Are we going to be as bad as last year? No. Are we going to be good? Not even close. But will we be good enough where we don’t have to lose our dignity storming the court on our first win of conference play with less than one month left in the season? I can almost guarantee it.

Oh, how I love low expectations.

In all actuality, the Ducks should be much improved this season.

What was an extremely young team last year now has one more full year of experience under their belt, without losing any keys players (although in Catron’s case, it might not have been such a bad thing).

Lekendric Longmire, the energetic 6’5″ junior guard, who finished as the Ducks’ second-leading scorer (9.9 points per game) looks to have taken up a leadership role on the team, a position that was severely lacking last year.

“I think about last season’s record every morning when I wake up,” Longmire said. “Truly, it’s the first thing on my mind. I’m going to do everything I can to not let that happen again.”

Longmire, along with the emergent Teondre Williams, the steady play of seniors Tajuan Porter and (dare I say it) Catron, and gifted youngsters Michael Dunigan, Michael Humphrey and Jamil Wilson, actually form a talented rotation.

The only question is: Will Ernie Kent screw it up?

Entering his 13th season at Oregon, Kent made possibly the smartest move of his career by hiring Arizona assistant Mike Dunlap to take over as de facto head coach.

Kent, who is much better at recruiting, scowling at referees, and looking extremely awkward while crossing his legs on the bench than actually coaching a basketball team, finally realized that in order to save his job, he would have to demote himself to mere figure head of the basketball program.

Hopefully, Dunlap, a former Arizona Wildcat head coach and Denver Nuggets assistant, can get this team to cut down on turnovers, run an actual offense, and play something that moderately resembles defense.

If he can do that, a middle-of-the-pack conference finish and an out-of-nowhere NCAA tournament bid could be in the mix come February.

Kent believes that, just like he said last year, the pieces are in place for the Ducks to play their preferred up-tempo style of play.

Kent hopes to use a 10-man rotation that will create havoc for opposing teams. He expects that added depth will let the Ducks employ a more effective full-court press than it showed last season.

“Even though we had numbers last year, those guys just weren’t physically and mentally strong enough to put that kind of pressure on you,” Kent said. “We are this year.”

Tim Wilson, the newly hired basketball strength and condition coach, put the team through an extensive training program this offseason, and it looks to be paying off already.

Dunigan lost 25 pounds, Williams and Porter packed on muscle, and Catron, well, isn’t as fat.

Kent made a second smart decision this season by loading up the non-conference slate with a list of patsies only Urban Meyer would appreciate. Oregon won’t play a single ranked team this preseason, and it might just be the confidence boost the team needs to get rolling come Pac-10 play.

The only downside? With Montana, Montana St., Mississippi Valley St., Idaho St., and Arkansas Pine Bluff headlining the schedule, the Ducks will have a hard time convincing the selection committee for an at-large bid come March.

Nonetheless, the program certainly looks headed in the right direction, and even though you shouldn’t expect the Ducks to return to the Elite Eight this season, the plan is in place for this team to be competitive.

And that’s something you couldn’t say about them last year.

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