EUGENE — N’Faly Dante is beginning to maximize his physical tools on the basketball court and it’s helping to produce Oregon’s midseason resurgence.
It took 17 games spanning two seasons and nearly a full calendar year for the 6-foot-11 Dante to notch his first career double-double, than another 14 to do it again.
Over 33 career games, he’s scored in double-figures 10 times and grabbed 10-plus rebounds three times, with his last four games accounting for three and two of those instances, respectively.
Dante is averaging 11.0 points, 8.8 rebounds, with a block and a steal per game while shooting 76% from the field over the last four games, all wins for Oregon (11-6, 4-2 Pac-12), which hosts rival Washington (9-7, 4-2) tonight (7 p.m., FS1).
That’s up dramatically from the 7.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and 65.9% shooting he averaged over his first 29 games, spanning three seasons that began with his mid-year enrollment in 2019-20 and included his shortened 2020-21 season due to a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
“It’s taken a while and coming back from an ACL on a big fella like that is a little bit more demanding, a little tougher than it would be on a smaller guy,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “When you’re 245-250 pounds, 6-11 it takes a while to get comfortable and confident in that knee. His conditioning is improved. If we can get 25-30 minutes out of him on a given night, him running up and down the floor because you see what a difference it makes when he runs ... it makes a big difference, conditioning does on offensive rebounds because you can’t be a good offensive rebounder only going after ones in your area. You got to move and get out of your area to be a good offensive rebounder and conditioning is a big, big part of that.
“Hopefully he’ll continue to get in shape and give us minutes. We got to get him the ball more. To do that he’s got to consistently post up so our guys know to look for his all the time, but our guards need to throw it in there more. We need to get him the ball some more because his percentages are really, really good.”
Besides Dante’s recent uptick in production, a particularly good omen for Oregon entering tonight’s game is his first career double-double came against Washington last season, when he had 12 points and 10 rebounds to help secure a 74-71 win in Seattle.
He had 12 points and 11 rebounds in the win over Oregon State on Jan. 10 and is 15 for his last 18 from the field with 11 offensive rebounds and 14 defensive boards over the last three games.
“Dante’s playing huge,” guard De’Vion Harmon said. “He’s playing strong. As coach Altman says, he’s bending his knees. When he bends his knees, he’s 6-11, huge body. He’s playing so strong around the rim. He’s being active on the defensive end blocking shots, moving, helping, that’s big for us. Anytime you got a 7-footer doing that it makes the job for us guards easier.”
Oregon has won five straight and 11 of the last 12 in the series, though Washington enters on a three-game win streak.
It’s the first of three games this week for the Ducks, who have almost no room for error in what is the first of back-to-back Quadrant 3 home games and a Q4 game against OSU on Saturday.
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