PORTLAND -- As the Oregon women's basketball team hurtles toward Pac-10 play, perhaps the Ducks could stand to relax and take a breath.
There's no time for a break, not with a young team trying to get up to speed for conference games that begin three weeks from today. But a more deliberate, methodical march toward that date might be in order for a team whose biggest Achilles' heel has been turnovers.
Win or lose, the Ducks (4-3) have had trouble hanging on to the ball so far this season. Only once have they had fewer than 19 in a game. Twice they've had 20 and still managed to win.
Such generosity for the opposition will be more costly in the Pac-10. So Oregon would like to clean things up in the preseason, including this afternoon's Papé Jam against UC Santa Barbara in the Rose Garden at 12:30 p.m.
"You try to find the source of it, rather than just what's happening," UO coach Bev Smith said. "We're young, so we start to play at a tempo that's too fast for us, particularly when teams pressure us. We're just working on slowing down and playing at our tempo."
The Ducks still want to run when they have the chance, Smith said. But in the halfcourt, catch a pass before squaring up; square up before trying to shoot or attack off the dribble.
"When we do slow down and play on our terms, we do some pretty good things," Smith said. "It's done with good intent. But we're playing just a little bit too fast."
Smith said coaches are keeping things relatively simple for the Ducks, who start two freshmen and bring four others off the bench. The staff is becoming more comfortable with the newcomers' individual skills. But now all the players on the floor need to fit together.
"We have moments where we have great moments, and then we have moments where we wind up too fast," Smith said. "We roll up the floor, our spacing becomes too tight and now there's no room to execute."
Oregon's frantic reactions to pressure have resulted in some slow starts and big deficits the Ducks can't overcome. And lacking their best post player, the Gauchos (3-4) are going with a smaller lineup and playing at the kind of faster tempo that has been a problem for Oregon.
UC Santa Barbara's second-leading scorer, 6-foot-4 post Jenna Green, will miss today's game with back problems. Even without her, the Gauchos had 25 offensive rebounds against the Vikings on Thursday, though they committed 24 turnovers and shot 35.3 percent.
Jessica Wilson leads a trio of athletic guards for UCSB, who Oregon faced twice in 2006-07, beating them in a nonleague game and again in the WNIT
"Offensively, we can run with this team," Smith said. "The challenge is to get back and make them execute in the halfcourt. And our best defense will be our offense. If we can not turn the ball over, after good shots and after scores we're a much better defensive transition team, as any team is."