| By Seth Davis He must have smashed a greaseboard. Or broken a locker. Maybe he tossed a chair, cussed a storm. At the very least, Oregon coach Dana Altman must have gotten on his knees and begged. How else to explain the way his Ducks came out of the halftime locker room and finally defended as if their very lives depended on it? It certainly was a different Oregon team than the one we’ve been watching the last two months. The Ducks started the season aflame, winning their first nine games, rising to No. 9 in the AP poll. But Oregon is currently unranked and was 8-8 in the Big Ten heading into Saturday’s game at red-hot Wisconsin. The 11th-ranked Badgers are having their best offensive season in three decades and they showed as much by storming out to a 38-26 halftime lead. So what exactly did Altman do at halftime to spur the dramatic change? When I spoke with him by phone last night, he chuckled when I suggested my menu of possibilities. “I wish I could take credit for giving some inspirational speech,” he said. “It was more just, hey, this is where we’re at, fellas. If we don’t get these things corrected, we’re not going to get back in this game.” It sucks when the facts get in the way of a good story, but perhaps the Oregon players just got tired of hearing Altman admonish them for their lack of effort—or at least finally came to the conclusion that he was right.... | 