Takeaways from Oregon men’s basketball exhibition game against Utah

No one needed to see Nate Bittle dominate a meaningless exhibition game to know how important the senior center is to the Ducks’ success in the upcoming Oregon men’s basketball season.

Nonetheless, Bittle dominated anyway.

Back for his fifth season as a Duck after temporarily testing the NBA draft waters last spring, Bittle had 20 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks in 23 minutes to lead Oregon to a 73-53 victory against Utah on Friday, Oct. 24 at Matthew Knight Arena.

A crowd of 6,893 got its first glimpse of the rebuilt Ducks, whose lineup Friday included six players getting their first minutes for Oregon.

But it was the Ducks’ most veteran player who stole the show, as Bittle scored 13 of Oregon’s first 23 points. He finished 9 of 18 from the field.

“Nate had a good year, he’s had a good offseason and we need to start playing through him,” coach Dana Altman said. “I really thought they’d start to double him at some point. We were kind of ready for that, we worked on it this week. But guys did a good job of finding him.”

Ducks appear to have capable backup at point guard

Even with Bittle exerting his dominance, the most buzz-worthy player on the court Friday was Wei Lin, the first-year sophomore from China who started in place of injured all-Big Ten Conference point guard Jackson Shelstad.

Lin, who played the last three years for the Nanjing Monkey Kings in the Chinese Basketball Association, dazzled at times as he guided the Ducks’ fast-paced offense. He finished with 10 points, four assists and two steals in 25 minutes as he answered one of the biggest questions going into the night – and the start of the regular season – which is how would the Ducks play with Shelstad temporarily out with a wrist injury?

“Wei has a really high IQ … some of the passes that he made today were great,” Bittle said. “He’s a really good point guard. I think with him and Jackson on the floor it could be a deadly combo.”

Lin made 4 of 11 from the field and 1 for 3 from 3-point range.

“When he started the game and moved the ball, he looked really good,” Altman said. “Then he got a little impatient, took a couple quick ones there that weren’t bad shots, but you could tell he was looking for them.”

Oregon shows off its potential in the post

Kwame Evans Jr. and Texas transfer Devon Pryor started at the two forward spots for Oregon, but it was the post players off the bench that had more impressive nights statistically.

Ege Demir, a 6-11, 275-pound center with three-years experience playing professionally in Turkey, had 14 points and five rebounds in 14 minutes off the bench. Forward Sean Stewart, a 6-9, 225-pound transfer from Ohio State, had six points and nine rebounds in 20 minutes.

“Until Jackson gets back, our experience is inside,” Altman said. “Right now we’ve got a bunch of perimeter players that haven’t played, but Nate, KJ (Kwame Evans), you see how big Ezekial (Ege Demir) is, he’s a handful in there, and Sean’s got experience. So, our experience right now is inside.”

What’s next for Oregon men’s basketball

The Ducks have one more exhibition game before they open the regular season Nov. 4 against Hawaii at Matthew Knight Arena. Oregon will play longtime Pac-12 foe Stanford at 5 p.m. Oct. 30 at Maples Pavilion in Stanford, Calif. That game will be streamed live on the ACC Network Extra.

Chris Hansen covers University of Oregon football, men’s basketball, track and field, cross country and softball for The Register-Guard. You can reach him at chansen@registerguard.com.