2025-26 Big Ten basketball season preview: Oregon Ducks

With the start of college basketball season in early November, Inside the Hall is taking a team-by-team look at the Big Ten and a player-by-player look at IU basketball’s roster over the next two months.

Today, our team previews continue with Oregon.

Previously: Penn State, Rutgers, Minnesota, Northwestern, Washington, Nebraska, Maryland, Iowa, Wisconsin

Oregon’s first season in the Big Ten was a success. The Ducks won 12 league games, earned a No. 5 seed and advanced to the second round of the 2025 NCAA tournament. Oregon lost a close game, 87-83, to former Pac-12 foe, Arizona, in Seattle.

Dana Altman returns several key pieces from last season’s team, but also lost several key contributors. The Ducks graduated Brandon Angel, TJ Bamba and Keeshawn Barthelemy and lost Jadrian Tracey (VCU) to the transfer portal.

Much like last season, this Oregon team will be built around the duo of point guard Jackson Shelstad and redshirt senior big man Nate Bittle.

The 6-foot Shelstad is one of the top returning lead guards in the country. Known for making tough and clutch shots, Shelstad averaged 13.7 points, 2.9 rebounds, 2.7 assists and a steal in 32.9 minutes per game for the Ducks. He shot 37.9 percent on 3s and 83.5 percent from the free-throw line.

The 7-foot Bittle has battled injuries for most of his career, but stayed healthy last season and was one of the Big Ten’s most productive frontcourt players. An elite shot blocker, Bittle finished second in the league in block percentage last season. Like Shelstad, he’s an elite free-throw shooter – 81.1 percent – and led the Ducks in scoring at 14.2 points per game. Bittle was also the team’s leading rebounder at 7.6 per game and shot 33.6 percent on 3s (107 attempts).

Look for 6-foot-9 junior Kwame Evans Jr., a former McDonald’s All-American, to enter the starting lineup in his third season in Eugene. Evans is an excellent athlete and started most of his freshman season before coming off the bench in all but three games last season. He shot 46.5 percent last season and averaged 6.1 points and 4.6 rebounds in 16.3 minutes per game.

Three transfer portal additions should play prominent roles in the Oregon rotation.

Elon transfer TK Simpkins, a 6-foot-4 senior, was second team All-Colonial Athletic Association last season. He averaged 16.4 points and shot 36.7 percent on 3s and should be able to pick up some of the scoring production lost from the graduations of Bamba and Barthelemy.

Texas transfer Devon Pryor entered the portal after the program dismissed Rodney Terry and will be expected to play a more substantial role in Eugene. The 6-foot-7 wing played just 12.1 minutes per game last season for the Longhorns and averaged 3.2 points and two rebounds per game.

And Ohio State transfer Sean Stewart, a former McDonald’s All-American who began his career at Duke, arrives after starting 30 games last season for the Buckeyes. The 6-foot-9 Stewart averaged 5.7 points and 5.8 rebounds in 18.4 minutes per game last season in the Big Ten while shooting 54.2 percent from the field.

The Ducks hope 6-foot-6 junior Dez Lindsay can stay healthy after he missed the entire 2024-25 season with an injury. Lindsay was considered one of the top junior college wings after a pair of seasons at Florida Southwestern. In his second JUCO season, Lindsay averaged 16 points, 7.3 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.7 steals per game. He’ll provide wing and backcourt depth.

Other potential rotation pieces are 6-foot-7 senior Oleksandr Kobzystyi, 6-foot-7 redshirt senior Miles Stewart, 6-foot-3 sophomore Jamari Phillips and 6-foot-5 freshman JJ Frakes.

Kobzystyi played in just two games last season but played for Ukraine’s U20 national team before he arrived at Oregon and averaged 16.4 points.

Miles Stewart arrives from Howard, where he averaged 3.5 points in 10.5 minutes per game but shot close to 60 percent.

Phillips was the No. 48 player in the final 247Sports Composite rankings for the 2024 class, but played sparingly as a freshman. There’s an opening for rotation guard minutes off the bench and the Oregon staff is hopeful Phillips will take a step forward in his second season.

Frakes is likely a long-term development piece, but he had a solid senior season at Berrien Springs High School.

While Oregon turned over a significant portion of its roster in the offseason, the return of Bittle and Shelstad should put the Ducks in position to be back in the NCAA tournament next spring.

Bottom line: The Ducks have one of the Big Ten’s most formidable duos in Bittle and Shelstad and an excellent coach in Altman, who has Final Fours, Elite Eights and Sweet Sixteens all over his resume. He should pick up his 800th career victory this season. Oregon needs the portal trio of Simpkins, Pryor and Sean Stewart to perform and a breakout season from Evans to reach its full potential this winter.

Quotable: “He’s not afraid of the big moments. I’d like to see him get his assist-to-turnover ratio a little better. He’s working on that. He’s gotten stronger in the last couple years, so that’s going to help him with durability and playing as many minutes as he can. He’s made steady progress. I like where his game’s at. There’s a lot of work ahead of us for him to be the player he wants to be.” – Altman on Shelstad to Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook.

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