By Dane Miller, SuperWest Sports
March 12, 2024
The time change due to Daylight Savings Time caused me to miss the deadline to submit my Player of the Week nomination.
For almost my entire life, I’ve lived in a state where we refuse to change our clocks. But when everyone else changes, we switch Time Zones.
As a result, I blew the deadline and only managed to sneak my Freshman of the Week vote in.
And since it was the last one of the season, I figured I would use it to highlight Oregon’s Jackson Shelstad.
The UO freshman had an excellent foundational season that should lay the groundwork for a strong career.
So instead of giving my reasons why I voted for him this week, I figured I would shine a spotlight on the UO guard, who was named to the Pac-12’s All-Freshman team.
He was the most underrated recruit that Dana Altman brought in this season.
Evaluated as a four-star, Shelstad was in some ways an afterthought of Oregon’s vaunted recruiting class that was ranked No. 8 nationally per 247Sports.
Entering the program with a chip on his shoulder, the Oregon native showed out for his hometown team.
Finishing the season shooting 45.9 percent from the field, Shelstad averaged 12.7 ppg, 2.7 RBG, and 3.0 APG. In many ways, he played like a young Payton Pritchard.
Keeping him in the program for his second season is Dana Altman’s most important task of the offseason.
He is the type of player that you can build a program around and he has the chance to be one of the greatest players in Oregon basketball history.
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