Wesley Gordon, Waverly Austin

Colorado forward Wesley Gordon (front) struggles to hold on to the ball as Oregon center Waverly Austin covers him.

(The Associated Press)

EUGENE – Though Oregon men’s basketball’s options at forward and center have been limited since the first day of practice, the Ducks’ lineup could be without its tallest player for a second consecutive game Thursday evening in Seattle.

Waverly Austin, the 6-foot-11 senior who averages 1.9 rebounds and 2.2 points in 11.0 minutes per game, did not play Sunday against Oregon State due to missing practices with illness, Oregon coach Dana Altman said in postgame comments. Asked about Austin’s status for Thursday’s 8 p.m. tipoff at Washington, Altman offered an open-ended answer Tuesday during the Pac-12 coaches teleconference.

“His status hasn’t changed,” he said, adding that Austin will go if he can practice. “I don’t know if he’ll play or not.”

Though he has started 12 of the 16 games he’s played this season, Austin has shown only momentary flashes of effectiveness protecting the hoop at the base of Oregon’s defense and has gradually been phased out of the rotation. His season high of three blocks came on Nov. 29. The last time he grabbed more than one rebound was Dec. 29. In his last six games he is averaging six minutes of playing time. He has been featured on offense just 11.9 percent of possessions, the lowest of any of his teammates by a sizable margin of nearly 6 percentage points.

“He’s had his opportunities and we’ve given him his opportunities but we just haven’t seen the production so his time has diminished,” Altman said. “He is an option and Ben (Carter) played a little better, Richard (Amardi) played a little better.”

But though Austin’s influence has been minimal, he remains the tallest Duck and UO's largest -- though hardly its most skilled -- deterrent at the rim nonetheless. Another missed game would divide UO’s minutes at forward and center between a cadre of 6-foot-6 to 6-8 forwards of Elgin Cook – who started for the first time against Oregon State – Mike Moser, Amardi and Carter.

Though Austin’s play hasn’t been ideal, neither is the prospect of leaving a smaller group alone for an entire game without backup, even if it is against a UW team whose tallest contributor is 6-9 Perris Blackwell.

Altman has tried numerous combinations to find a workable core post group with equal parts success and problems, with the emphasis on the latter. Players at Oregon’s center position have scored 17.9 percent of UO’s points (215th in the nation), grabbed 29.5 percent of offensive rebounds (277th and well below the national average of 34.5 percent) and 29.5 percent of offensive rebounds (91st and above the average by nearly three percentage points).

“Whoever can rebound and defend would really help us,” Altman said. “We’ve given a lot of guys opportunities, we need to see more production.”

That search for the right combination will go on Thursday in Seattle – a Fox Sports 1 broadcast -- against the Huskies (11-8, 3-3 Pac-12) in what is the next chapter in what has become a larger search for Oregon’s (13-4, 1-4) defensive identity. It should help that Washington's offense ranks next-to-last in the conference shooting 44.2 percent from the field.

Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said his team’s relative lack of size has hurt his team, but wasn’t sure whether it was specifically UO’s undoing, or its influx of new players.

“Sometimes it takes a while for them to grasp the concepts,” Romar said. “They’re probably still learning. They could be a team that, before it’s all said and done could be a good defensive team as they learn all the concepts.”