That is a Lot of Ducks
Usually a basketball team will play 30 to 34 games in a single season. Connecticut, thanks to a trip to Maui in November, five Big East Conference Tournament games and six NCAA Tournament games played 41 games during the 2010-2011 campaign. VCU played 40 games. But for some reason it seems like Oregon was always playing. They ended up with 39 games on their 2010-2011 slate, but those Ducks just stick out.
The reason the Oregon games seemed so abundant is probably due to the hoopla surrounding the opening of Matthew Knight Arena in January…not to mention the ugly uniforms. It was hard to flip around on a Saturday night and not notice the Ducks. When Uconn was beating up DePaul, it was forgetful. When Oregon was playing one would think…’wow those are ugly uniforms’ and ‘are those trees on the court?’ Thankfully we only had to endure half a season of the trees on the court. I miss McArthur Court already.
But the real reason Oregon played so many games was because of the setup of the CBI. The Ducks made a little run in the Pac-10 Conference Tournament and snuck into the CBI. Once there they hosted Weber State, Duquesne and Boise State before reaching the finals against Creighton. The CBI plays a best two out of three final. Thus, after a trip to Creighton, where the Ducks lost, they played two more games at Matthew Knight Arena to take home the CBI title. After senior night the Ducks played 11 more games. That is just odd for a team that did not even make the NCAA Tournament.
In the process, Coach Dana Altman made some history by becoming just the second coach to win at least 21 games at Oregon during his first season with the program. The side note on that little record is that he barely pulled off a winning record and had just 14 wins heading into the postseason. At least John Warren went 30-15 in his first season as head coach of the Ducks during the 1944-1945 season.
Read the in-depth men’s basketball preview of this team
