Oregon Ducks Preview: Men's Basketball Roster

Expectations for this coming basketball season are higher than they have ever been. A large part of that is due to the roster transformations that Altman has done in just 2 short years. When he took over after the 2009-10 season, there were 2 seniors, 0 juniors, 2 freshman and 8 sophomores. From that team there are only 3 players still on the team (Singler, Jacob and Sim). There are now 4 freshmen, 2 sophomores, 4 juniors, and 5 seniors. That type of transformation is amazing and with the upperclassmen leadership on this team, the experience of playing games late in the year last year, the Italy trip and the team building experiences of the off season, Oregon should be poised to make a serious run at the upper half of the Pac 12.

Some of you may be heading down to Matt Court tonight for Matt Knight Madness. Here's a primer of the upcoming roster and some of the possible rotations for the Ducks to keep an eye on.

Projected Starting Line Up:

F – Olu Ashaolu 6-7 220 Sr

F – Tyrone Nared 6-8 220 Sr

G – E.J. Singler 6-6 215 Jr

G – Jabari Brown 6-5 205 Fr

G – Johnathan Loyd 5-8 165 So

With all the new talent on the court, it will be interesting to see how Altman adjusts the starting line up early in the season. Last year, the Ducks really never got their starting line up set until the Pac 12 conference games got under way. That being said, this line up is probably the best mix of experience in Altman's system, size, and talent that we have. Ashaolu transfers in from Louisiana Tech and is a big athletic body that can run the floor. This was an area of weakness for Oregon last season as Nared and Catron had to man the middle of the floor. With the depth we have this year, it is possible that Altman tries to take advantage of the bigger bodies and starts out with Nared and Olu on the floor to start the game.

Singler will be his usual fundamental self. Hopefully he isn't called upon to rebound as much as he had to last year and can get out and run the floor more. Speaking of running floor, how excited are you to see Loyd and Brown on the break. Loyd is definitely a pass first point guard and with the scorers we have in Brown, Singler, Nared and Olu, he'll have plenty of targets to distribute the ball to in the primary and secondary break.

Reserve Positions

Forwards and Centers:

Carlos Emory 6-7 225 Jr

Jeremy Jacob 6-8 230 Sr

Austin Kuemper 6-8 230 Fr

Chris Larson 6-11 220 Jr

Tony Woods 6-11 250 Jr

Let this line up sink in for a minute. There is an experience forward, a bruising junior power forward, a young 3* center and a 6-11 center... as back ups. Now think back to the front court bench last year (Seiferth and Jacob who was mostly injured). Now there's depth. Oregon was doomed last year when one of the front court players got into foul trouble. In Altman's high low offense, we saw 4 guard formations plenty of times. This is not ideal. Adding Emory, Kuemper, Woods and Ashaolu this off season will benefit this team greatly. Teams will not be able to pound Oregon down low and take advantage players in foul trouble. Guards will not be required to stay in and rebound as much and can get out on the break and get easy points. Finally, on offense, Oregon will be able to run Altman's system with an athletic big at the high post (Nared, Jacob, Emory) and a bigger body occupying space and keeping opposing bigs from cheating on helping out against the guards.

Guards:

Bruce Barron 6-3 200 Fr

Devoe Joseph 6-1 180 Sr

Brett Kingma 6-1 175 Fr

Nicholas Lucenti 6-3 212 So

Garrett Sim 6-2 185 Sr

Again, a diverse and talented bench. Sim and Joseph should be the main rotation players. Joseph is a transfer from Minnesota, who should provide some experience and spark off the bench similar to the way Strowbridge did last year (and how'd that work out). Sim can play either the 1 or 2 and will be a nice balance to either Barron or Kingma. A Kingma-Sim back court will be a massive 3 point shooting threat and a scrappy defensive guard unit, and a Sim-Barron back court will have good size for defensive match ups and an attacking offense.

All in all, this Ducks team is nothing like we have seen in a while. There is balance in the classes, there is depth and talent in the starters as well as the bench. There really are not a lot of weaknesses when you look at this roster and the balance is astounding (5 front court, 5 back court bench players). It will be interesting to see how quickly guys pick up Altman's system and how he uses the experience, depth and talent to adjust rotations against certain teams. There is definitely a higher expectation coming into this season, and on paper it looks like Altman has set up the roster to fulfill those expectations.

Go Ducks!!!