The University of Oregon basketball team is in rarified air these days.  They are in the Top 20 (currently ranked 17th in the AP Poll) with three wins against Top-10 teams this year.  They finished the regular season with a 23-7 record (11-7 in the Pac-10) and seem a good bet to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three years.

All in all, Ernie Kent's bunch has a lot to be proud of.  However, I doubt they would be satisfied with a nice regular season record and an invitation to the Big Dance alone.  There's still work to be done, and no one knows that better than Kent.

In fact, Kent need only to look back to the 2002 season to see how far the current Oregon team still needs to go to match the standard set by Oregon basketball teams of recent vintage.  That 2002 team with the "Two Luke's", Ridnour and Jackson, and star guard Fred Jones not only won the Pac-10 title but also advanced to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament before falling to Kansas in the regional finals.

Those are mighty big shoes to fill, and "big" isn't a word that can be used to describe any facet of Oregon's game this year.  Except heart.  The Ducks have shown remarkable heart this season.  Led by senior point guard Aaron Brooks, Oregon's undersized lineup has relied on speed, athleticism, and long-range jumpers to keep themselves afloat.  And it hasn't been easy.  Giving away a height advantage at nearly position on the floor, the Ducks have simply needed to have more energy and intensity than their opponents to make up for that difference.

And it has been Brooks more than anyone else on the team who has helped to spark that intensity.  In Oregon's two biggest wins of the season, an upset of then-top ranked UCLA and a tough road win at Arizona, it was Brooks who hit last-second, game-winning shots in each.  His team-high 18.0 points per game are important but not as important as his leadership.  With junior forward-guard Malik Hairston, arguably the most talented player on the roster, slowed by a nagging heel injury, Brooks has not only had to score more points, but he's also had to convince his teammates that they can still win when Hairston is out of the lineup.  

One of those players most convinced of that fact besides Brooks has been tiny, lightning quick Tajuan Porter.  Though he'd only been projected as a role player, someone who could give Brooks a little rest for a few minutes a game, Porter has instead blossomed as a legitimate long-range scoring threat.  The 5'6" freshman from Detroit is shooting over 41% from 3-point range and is deadly from the free throw line, connecting on 92% of his tries.  

Besides Porter, forward-guard Bryce Taylor has also been a pleasant surprise.  The versatile Taylor is averaging 14.4 points a game while shooting just over 50% from the floor.  At 6'9", forward Maarty Leunen is the tallest player getting regular minutes for the Ducks.  Playing with more heart than height, Leunen's gutsy play in the paint has resulted in 8.6 boards a game to go along with 11.0 points per contest.  

Whatever help in the frontcourt Leunen was supposed to get from Adam Zahn, Ray Schaefer, and Mitch Platt simply hasn't happened.  Platt's case is the most curious.  At 6'10", 275 pounds, he certainly has the size to give the team some sort of interior presence.  However, Platt has seen a pittance of playing time this year, and one has to wonder if that is a result of being in the coach's doghouse or Kent's commitment to playing a fast, small lineup as much as possible.  The smart money would be on the latter.  

Compounding the team's frontcourt troubles, highly-touted JC transfer Frantz Dorsainvil never arrived.  Visa difficulties prevented the 6'8" Dorsainvil from ever joining the team.

Another item for the disappointment column has been the play of swingman Chamberlain "Champ" Oguchi.  Always a streaky shooter at best, Oguchi never found his shooting touch this season.  At all.  By "at all", the numbers speak for themselves: 6.0 points per game, 32% overall from the floor, and just 26% from 3-point range.  When he's on, as he was for much of the Pac-10 Tournament last year, Oguchi can be a dangerous outside threat.  That said, if he finds any bit of his old shooting touch in the remaining games this year, he can still be a factor.

Clearly, the Ducks have enjoyed a very good year.  However, there is unfinished business.  With the Pac-10 Tournament looming and the NCAA Tournament after that, the little team with the big heart had better hope they enough of it to handle all of the taller teams that are inevitably coming their way.

Stats:

http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/teamStats?categoryId=71629 http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/teamRoster?categoryId=71629