Oregon Ducks center N'Faly Dante elevating his game

For the first time in his Oregon men’s basketball career, N’Faly Dante has two healthy knees.

Anyone who has watched the big man race down the court in transition for a fast-break dunk knows that.

But the consistency and confidence from playing every game are becoming more evident as well.

When Dante starts Saturday in Oregon’s 7 p.m. game against Oregon State in Matthew Knight Arena, it will be the junior center’s 18th game of the season, matching his combined total from his first two injury-plagued seasons in Eugene.

“I knew it was not going to be easy,” said Dante, a former 5-star recruit from Bamako, Mali. “My plan was to come here, play great and see what’s gonna happen. But not all your plans are going to go the way that you want, but you just gotta work.”

Dante, who is 6-11 and 230 pounds, is averaging career-highs in points (8.4), rebounds (5.4) and minutes (19.8) per game and has started 13 straight after being eased into the season as he recovered from reconstructive knee surgery for a torn ACL from December of 2020.

He didn’t play in Oregon’s first two games this season, then came off the bench for four before rejoining the starting lineup against Montana on Nov. 29.

“His conditioning is improved,” coach Dana Altman said. “If we can get 25 to 30 minutes out of him on a given night, get him running up and down the floor — you see what a difference it makes when he runs.”

Dante came to Oregon from Sunrise Christian Academy in Wichita, Kan., in December of 2019 after reclassifying from the recruiting class of 2020. He arrived with high expectations but also tendonitis in his knee and lacking the overall conditioning needed to join a college team that was rolling towards a Pac-12 title.

Still, his talent was obvious. Dante played in 12 games as a freshman and averaged 5.8 points and 2.8 rebounds in 13.5 minutes with 11 steals and seven blocks.

He started the first six games of the 2020-21 season before tearing his ACL against San Francisco on Dec. 17.

Before his injury, he was coming off back-to-back games in which he scored a career-high 22 against Florida A&M followed by his first career double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds against Washington.

“I was sad, I was down, but I have great people around me,” Dante said. “I was like, ‘Know what? Everything happens for a reason.’ So I said let’s knock this down and see how it goes. The crazy thing is, the only time my knee hurt was the day after my surgery. After that, everything great. I started walking the second day. I couldn’t even believe it, it was just crazy.”

Eleven months after injuring his knee, he was back on the court for his first game. Two weeks later he was starting again.

During the Ducks’ six-game winning streak that ended with a loss to Colorado Tuesday, Dante averaged 9.0 points, 6.5 rebounds and shot 72.7% from the field (24-for-33).

The last time out against the Beavers, Dante had 12 points and 11 rebounds in a win in Corvallis on Jan. 10. The next weekend he had 12 points and seven rebounds against both UCLA and USC.

“Dante’s playing huge, man,” guard De’Vion Harmon said after the win against the Trojans on Jan. 15. “He’s just playing so strong around the rim, he’s being active on the defensive end blocking shots, moving, helping, and that’s big for us. Any time you have a 7-footer doing that, it makes the job for us guards pretty easy.”

His numbers have dipped the last two games, as he scored six against Washington and four against the Buffaloes, but he also only took seven shots combined in those two games.

“We gotta get him the ball more,” Altman said. “He went 6-for-7 against USC, he went 5-for-6 against UCLA. I’ve never claimed to be the smartest guy but those numbers are pretty good. We gotta get him the ball more and to do that, he’s gotta consistently post up so our guys know to look for him all the time. But our guards need to throw it in there more.”

Or just keep feeding him in transition for a crowd-pleasing basket.

“That’s what I love to do,” Dante said. “A lot of people my size, they don’t like running. I mean, sometimes I don’t like running, but I’ll do anything to help my team win.”

Follow Chris Hansen on Twitter @chansen_RG or email at chansen@registerguard.com. For more sports coverage, visit registerguard.com. Want more stories like this? Subscribe to get unlimited access and support local journalism.

Oregon vs. Oregon State

Projected Oregon (12-7, 5-3 Pac-12) starters

De'Vion Harmon, 6-2, Jr. (10.4 ppg, 2.4 rpg)

Will Richardson, 6-5, Sr. (14.8 ppg, 3.4 apg)

Jacob Young, 6-3, Sr. (11.1 ppg, 2.7 rpg)

Quincy Guerrier, 6-8, Jr. (8.3 ppg, 5.4 rpg)

N'Faly Dante, 6-11, Jr. (8.3 ppg, 5.1 rpg)

Projected Oregon State (3-14, 1-6) starters

Jarod Lucas, 6-4, Jr. (13.9 ppg, 2.4 rpg)

Warith Alatishe 6-8, Sr. (11.4 ppg, 6.6 rpg)

Dashawn Davis, 6-2, Jr. (10.0 ppg, 6.6 apg)

Roman Silva, 7-1, Sr. (4.0 ppg, 2.3 rpg)

Dexter Akanno, 6-5, Jr. (3.8 ppg, 1.6 rpg)

Time: 7 p.m. Saturday at Matthew Knight Arena

TV/Radio:ESPN2/KUJZ-FM (95.3)