Men's Team Endures
By Rob Moseley
Editor, GoDucks.com
During open-gym sessions in which the UO men’s basketball team participated this summer, senior guard Joseph Young started to get a feel for his new teammates.
The Ducks added four freshmen and two transfers to the group of four veterans who returned from last season’s NCAA Tournament third-round participant. Young saw a lot of talent as Oregon scrimmaged over the offseason, be it freshman guard Ahmaad Rorie or junior post Michael Chandler.
Still, that didn’t tell Young how the group would react when faced with the sort of adversity a college basketball season inevitably presents. For that, Young would need to see how the Ducks responded to “The Program,” a two-day, military-style team-building exercise in which Oregon participated last week.
A few days removed from the experience, Young has a new appreciation for his new teammates. “I learned we can fight,” Young said. “We’ve got each other’s back. I can trust these guys now.”
The Oregon men’s basketball team became the latest UO squad to participate in “The Program,” which has worked with the football, volleyball and lacrosse teams over the years, among others. Last Friday, once they were finished with men’s basketball, two instructors from “The Program” dropped in on football practice and were greeted with enthusiastic familiarity by players before giving a quick post-practice pep talk.
Team chemistry will be key for the UO men’s team as it deals with the loss of 10 lettermen from last season’s team. Young and forward Elgin Cook are the only returnees with extensive experience from 2013-14, supported by fellow returners Jalil Abdul-Bassit and Theo Friedman.
To that core, UO coach Dana Altman added freshman guards Rorie and Casey Benson, freshman forwards Jordan Bell and Dillon Brooks, and junior forwards Chandler and Dwayne Benjamin. The group has scrimmaged together quite a bit already, but “The Program” tested the bonds they started to build over the summer.
“They put us through a lot of events that put us through adversity,” said Benson, the 2014 Gatorade player of the year in Arizona. “Simulating that right now was really good, to build that team bond early on.”
For the Ducks, “The Program” began last Thursday in Autzen Stadium. It continued with a 5 a.m. wake-up call Friday for day two at the Matthew Knight Arena practice courts, and an event known as “House of Pain.”
Typical of “The Program,” the “House of Pain” required the Ducks to dig deep for mental and physical strength, and rely on each other to keep pushing. Players were stationed around the gym doing individual calisthenics ? one Duck doing push-ups, another sit-ups, another throwing punches and kicks at a padded instructor ? while a leader rode a stationary bike for 11 minutes. The leader could switch players between stations when they struggled too much with an event, but there were rules in place that forced the Ducks to endure past what they thought were their limitations.
“You see a teammate struggling, what are you going to do about it?” Young said. “You’ve got to work harder.”
“In a season, you’re not going to have smooth sailing the whole way,” Benson added. “You have to be able to get over those obstacles and fight through adversity.”
Young said his leadership was tested by instructors who drilled him harder than the newcomers, forcing him to keep his composure and remain attentive and responsive. That message was apparently received by Bell, who was awarded a shirt at the end of the two-day session for being the top participant.
“He just really, really worked hard,” Benson said of Bell. “He did his best and gave 100 percent. Their motto is, ?100 percent, 100 percent of the time,’ and I think that’s what they saw from him.”
As a team, the Ducks all liked what they saw from each other during “The Program.” Now they’re eager to get going with the 2014-15 season, with the first practice of the season on Oct. 3, and the first exhibition game scheduled for Nov. 4.
“They’re farther ahead than what I expected,” Young said. “They’re learning the offense faster. On defense, they’re more competitive. Everybody’s finding a role. I like these guys.”
