At the start of the season Kelly Graves gave each of Oregon’s players journals they could use to reflect throughout the season, track goals, improvement and express gratitude. Whether players individually kept up with the daily exercise was up to them, but the practice of finding positive trajectory and appreciation has been a challenge over the last month based on the on-court results for the Ducks (14-13, 5-11 Pac-12), who enter tonight’s game (7 p. m. , Pac-12 Oregon) against No. 14 Arizona (21-6, 11-5) on a seven-game losing streak, the longest of Graves’ tenure at UO. “What I am most proud of of this team, I know we’re on a losing streak, you couldn’t tell by being around them,” Graves said. “I think their chemistry off the court has been great. I think they’re having fun. They’re probably having more fun in the locker room before the game — they’re energized. They’re doing the right things. We have the right tenor. It’s not translating unfortunately on the court in wins. I’m proud of them for that; nobody’s thrown in the towel. My staff, they’re still grinding, they’re still doing their due diligence and we’re working on the next opponent. I think they’ve compartmentalized that pretty well; what’s next. “About a month ago or three weeks ago I gave them the big picture, this what I think we need to do and I’m not sure that helped. We’ve now taken the approach of we can only worry about Thursday night’s game. I think if we can get Thursday night’s game I’m going to feel a lot about Sunday, we’ll feel a lot better about going into the Pac-12 tournament. . . . I think this it’s just not translating into Ws on the court but it’s not for lack of trying. It’s not we have bad kids, bad chemistry. It’s none of that. It just hasn’t worked on the court yet and I say yet because there’s still some hope and all we can do is what we can do on Thursday night, play our best and hope to scratch out a win somehow. ” Oregon’s woes this season are multi-faceted, which made its current losing skid foreseeable. Despite being 1-11 against NET top 40 teams, Oregon is still No. 25 in NET and theoretically still on the outside of the bubble of the NCAA Tournament field. Graves said UO will play in the WNIT if it fails to earn an at-large bid to the Big Dance. Yet nearly all of the Ducks’ critical advanced metrics are at or near the bottom of Graves’ nine seasons, including field goal percentage (43. 1%), steals and effective field goal percentage allowed. “We want to win,” guard Taya Hanson said. “All of us came to Oregon to win and we recognize where we’re at right now and it’s not where we want to be. In order to make our goals happen we have to have a superior attitude over what’s been our reality and not to dismiss that, but to know we’re better, know we’re meant for greatness and come out with that attitude today. “It’s been difficult for us to bring that hope and that energy that we need to have to win every day to practice after what’s been happening. It’s defeating and I’m not going to sugar coat it. It hurts. We all are competitors. I think what’s showing up right now is that competitor inside of all of us that we’re not done yet and we want to finish strong this season. ” A lack of quality depth, especially in the posts, has made scoring in the paint difficult and opposing centers have dominated Phillipina Kyei. Fourth-year junior Endyia Rogers is having a career season, averaging 16. 0 points and 4. 0 rebounds on 46. 8% shooting from the field, including 43. 1% from three, all personal bests. But she and Te-Hina Paopao have not been able to produce simultaneously, with them each scoring 15 points in just three games and Oregon going 1-2 in those rare instances. “With a limited bench we just don’t have a ton of options; we don’t,” Graves said. “I think it’s been a lot of different things: size of our guards, inexperience at key positions. We’ve tried to adjust. Our kids work their tails off, they practice hard, they have good attitudes, we’re trying like crazy. As coaches we’re trying as well and we’re trying to figure out what’s going to work this game and that game and the next game and looking at last game what could we have done better. “We haven’t changed our approach to the game and neither have our players. We’re in one of those little spells right now that don’t come along very often. We got to continue with hard work to keep grinding and try and get out of it. . . . Some other things that I wish I would have done differently, without thinking about it, I don’t know. I think I’ve done the best job that I can do during this. We’ve stayed positive and I think our kids believe that we believe in them. That’s all I can do as a coach. ” For Oregon to snap its losing streak tonight or against last-place Arizona State on Saturday it’ll need to play much better inside, which will be significantly more difficult with Grace VanSlooten sidelined with a left ankle sprain. Rebounding has been a challenge all season for the Ducks, who rely too heavily on Kyei and don’t get nearly enough from their guards. Then turnovers have been a recent extreme with 62 over the last four games. “We’re not doing what we want to do and ending the season this way is not how we want to end,” Hanson said. “We have that fire in our bellies right now that we want to come out with two (wins) this weekend and it showed up (Tuesday). It showed up (Wednesday). I’m excited for what’s going to come (Thursday). . . . Our season is not over and have an opportunity to make a run for it and we can; we’re in this. That’s what I’m writing in my journal, ‘It’s not over yet. ’ Keep punching, keep finishing strong. ”.