2024-25 ITH Season Preview: Oregon Ducks

  • Sep 16, 2024 9:27 am in

With the start of college basketball season in early November, we’ll examine the conference as a whole and Indiana’s roster over the coming weeks.

Today, our team previews continue with Oregon.

Previously: Penn State, Washington, Minnesota, USC, Northwestern, Nebraska, Iowa

After missing the NCAA tournament in 2023, Oregon bounced back last season with a round-of-32 appearance in Dana Altman’s 14th season at the school.

With a strong returning cast and several key transfer portal additions, the Ducks hope to build on last season and go deeper in March Madness. Oregon will also have to navigate the transition to the Big Ten, which is now 18 teams strong and more competitive than ever.

The Ducks lost two key pieces: Jermaine Couisnard and N’Faly Dante, starters on last season’s NCAA tournament team who exhausted their eligibility.

Fortunately for Altman, Oregon returns plenty of productive pieces. Sophomores Jackson Shelstad and Kwame Evans Jr., fifth-year senior guard Jadrian Tracey and seniors Nate Bittle and Keeshawn Barthelemy are back. Sophomore wing Mookie Cook also returns.

The Ducks added TJ Bamba (Villanova), Brandon Angel (Stanford), Ra’Heim Moss (Toledo), and Supreme Cook (Georgetown) from the portal.

The top returnee is the 6-foot Shelstad, who started 30 times as a freshman and was one of the best newcomers in the Pac-12 last season. He averaged 12.8 points, 2.8 assists and 2.8 rebounds while shooting 45 percent from the field and 34.5 percent on 3s. Shelstad scored in double figures 23 times last season, including eight times in the team’s final 10 games. Shelstad is a product of West Linn High School, which was also the home of Payton Pritchard.

Tracey, a 6-foot-5 guard, played in all 36 games for the Ducks last season and started the final 18. He could start at the three after averaging 7.6 points, 3.6 rebounds, 1.8 assists and shooting 35.9 percent on 3s in 26.9 minutes per game.

Bamba, a 6-foot-5 guard, began his career at Washington State, transferred to Villanova and will now finish his career in Eugene. He shot close to 37 percent on 3s last season for the Wildcats and averaged 10.1 points in 28 minutes per game. Bamba should have the inside track to start at the two alongside Shelstad.

Evans Jr., a former five-star prospect from Montverde Academy, played in all 36 games last season and started 29. He’s a clear breakout candidate after averaging 7.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.2 steals, 1.1 assists and a blocked shot in 22.5 minutes per game.

Evans Jr. could start at the four or come off the bench as the sixth man if Angel is the choice at the four. Angel was highly productive last season for the Cardinal. He averaged 13 points ad 4.7 rebounds in 31.2 minutes per game while shooting 44.7 percent on 3s (76 attempts).

Bittle, a 7-footer, played in only five games last season due to a wrist injury. In the season opener last fall against Georgia, Bittle had 13 points and nine rebounds. A five-star prospect in the 2021 class, the Ducks need Bittle to stay healthy to have a steady presence in the post. A former McDonald’s All-American, Bittle owns career averages of 5.3 points and 3.7 rebounds in 56 games.

Cook, a 6-foot-9 forward who played at Fairfield before Georgetown, will give the Ducks depth behind Bittle. Cook averaged 10.5 points and eight rebounds in 27.2 minutes per game last season for the Hoyas.

Barthelemy, Moss and Cook will bolster the guard and wing depth for the Ducks.

Barthelemy shot close to 39 percent on 3s last season and played in 18 games last season before suffering a season-ending ankle injury against Arizona. The 6-foot-1 guard averaged 7.9 points, 2.3 assists and 2.2 rebounds in 23.1 minutes.

Moss arrives from Toledo where he averaged 15.5 points, 5.4 rebounds, three assists and 1.7 steals in 31.9 minutes. The 6-foot-4 guard will provide a scoring punch off the bench if he can’t beat out Bamba to start in the backcourt.

And Cook, a 6-foot-6 sophomore wing, played in just five games last season due to injuries. A top-30 recruit in the final class of 2023 247Composite rankings, Cook is talented and should be able to carve out a rotation role off the bench.

The Ducks also have Jamari Phillips, a top 50 guard in the 2024 class, along with Dezdrick Phillips, a highly regarded JUCO transfer and Jayson Williams-Johnson, a Division III transfer from Muhlenberg. All three will be in an uphill battle for rotation minutes.

Oregon is No. 44 in Bart Torvik’s 2024-25 season projections. The Ducks were picked to finish seventh in the Big Ten by the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook and Lindy’s Sports College Basketball preview magazine.

Bottom line: Big Ten fans won’t be familiar with Oregon when the season begins, but Altman has the pieces to contend immediately in the conference. The Ducks have depth, talent and experience. Shelstad will be one of the Big Ten’s top guard and playmakers and Evans Jr. has clear breakout potential as a sophomore. Oregon will have to navigate the challenges of numerous road trips east in league play, which will be taxing, but this is one of the league’s most talented and deep rosters.

Quotable: “We’re looking at a different season this year with the travel, and so I think depth is going to be important. All the schools in the east have to make one trip west. And we’re going to make four or five east. So it’s definitely going to be different for us. We’ll definitely have some challenges.” – Altman to the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook.

(Photo credit: Oregon Athletics)

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