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Depleted Ducks open Pac-12 play vs. Washington State on Thursday

Although the record might not indicate it, the Oregon basketball team has been more than impressive to start the season.

No, sitting at 3-4 is not what coach Dana Altman had in mind when finally feeling like his team had a good summer camp in preparation for the season. He felt improvement in practice and a beneficial trip to Canada translated well compared to the leadup to last season.

That quickly changed when UC Irvine punched then-No. 21 Oregon in the mouth with a 13-point upset victory in Eugene. The Anteaters exposed the Ducks' evident shooting flaws, and the injury bug also began to worsen.

How much worse? Seven players were listed as inactive in the Ducks’ most recent game Sunday. A game that saw walk-on Gabe Reichle get an unexpected start, while Will Richardson was just 1 minute of playing time away from his third 40-minute night of the week. The result? A 74-67 win over Villanova to snap a three-game losing streak (all against ranked opponents).

Altman gets praised for his ability to make something out of nothing. Whenever his teams look rough, he finds ways to make things work. This season’s challenge, however, is a completely different beast.

While it's expected to lose a couple rotational players as the season goes on, due to injuries being a part of the game, losing nearly half of your roster through seven games is unthinkable.

“We haven’t got the things in that I want to get in because we don't know who we have,” Altman said. “We kind of like to go to [N'Faly] Dante as much as we can and he didn't play in the last game and a half.”

Dante, the 6-foot-11 senior center, is joined by guard Jermaine Couisnard, 7-foot center Nate Bittle, guard Keeshawn Barthelemy, guard Brennan Rigsby and forward Quincy Guerrier, among others on the list of Ducks dealing with injuries.

Without someone like Will Richardson leading what's left of the roster, Oregon easily could have left home from the three-game Phil Knight Invitational winless.

The eventual champion UConn Huskies started off the event by handing Altman one of the worst losses ever in his Oregon career -- an 83-59 beatdown. The energy in the locker room changed after that game, and Richardson took it upon himself as the fifth-year senior to try and salvage the season from quickly getting out of hand.

“He knew that guys were out. He knew that he had to step up and I thought he did a great job,” Altman said. “We wouldn’t have been that close to Michigan State, and then we did win against Villanova, and there’s no way we would have done it if Will wouldn’t have grabbed the team and said, ‘Hey, we got to compete here.’ He’s been to two Sweet 16s. He’s won two conference championships. He’s won a lot of games and he’s got to act like it — and he sure did those last two games.”

So far in his final season at Oregon, Richardson is averaging 13.7 points, 4.9 assists, and 3.9 rebounds a game. He rarely spends time on the bench and has been as crucial as he’s ever been for overall team success.

“It was difficult for all of us, just to come together as a team and battle through injuries. Some people haven't played big minutes before. Some people haven't played minutes at all,” Richardson said. “The coaches just gave everybody confidence. Coach always preaches one day you’re gonna get a shot no matter what, so that’s just been the story of the last three years.”

He and his teammates will have to continue to go shorthanded for their Pac-12 opener against Washington State, back at Matthew Knight Arena on Thursday. The Cougars come to town with a 3-2 record and a plethora of veteran guards.

“I mean they got three guys shooting over 50 percent from 3. They hit 19 threes the other day against Detroit. They’re really shooting it good, so we’re going to have to play some man at some time," Altman said.

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