Oregon Ducks men's basketball team begins final stretch of regular season at Washington

Chris Hansen, Register-Guard
·3 min read
Oregon center N'Faly Dante celebrates during the first half as the Oregon Ducks host the No. 7 UCLA Bruins Feb. 11 at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene.
Oregon center N'Faly Dante celebrates during the first half as the Oregon Ducks host the No. 7 UCLA Bruins Feb. 11 at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene.

Oregon Ducks men's basketball

Oregon (15-11, 9-6 Pac-12) at Washington (13-13, 5-10)

8 p.m., Wednesday at Alaska Airlines Arena

TV: ESPNU

Radio: KUJZ-FM (95.3)

About the Ducks

  • Oregon’s final five games of the regular season will come against the bottom five teams in the Pac-12 standings and none with an overall winning record as the Ducks will play at Washington (13-13, 5-10), at Washington State (11-5, 6-9), at Oregon State (10-16, 4-11), California (3-22, 2-12) and Stanford (11-14, 5-9). In other words, there’s still time for the Ducks to pad their win total — even reach the 20-win mark for the 13th straight season — and position themselves for a top four seed in the Pac-12 Tournament. They are currently tied for fifth with Arizona State.

  • Despite Saturday’s setback against No. 4 UCLA, the Ducks remain listed as NCAA Tournament bubble teams by ESPN’s Joe Lunardi and Jerry Palm of cbssports.com. Lunardi has Oregon as his first team to not make the 68-team field and Palm has the Ducks as one of his first four teams out.

  • The Ducks are 50th in the NET rankings through Monday’s games and their remaining opponents are ranked between 81 (WSU) and 296 (Cal). A sweep of the final five games probably won't give Oregon a huge bump in the rankings because of the level of competition. A loss to anyone besides the Cougars — and probably even to them — could be a crushing blow to the Ducks' NCAA Tournament odds.

  • With the unusual Wednesday-Sunday game schedule this week, Oregon will take advantage by traveling back from Seattle Wednesday night after the game to spend a couple days at home before leaving Saturday afternoon for Pullman where they play at 4 p.m. Sunday against Washington State.

About the Huskies

  • Washington has lost four straight and five of its last six, with the one win coming in overtime to Arizona State on Jan. 26.

  • Keion Brooks Jr. is the only Husky scoring in double figures this season. The 6-foot-7 senior forward averages 17.9 points and a team-high 7.2 rebounds per game. Oregon has struggled recently against talented forwards. Arizona's Azuolas Tubelis had 40 points and nine rebounds against the Ducks two weeks ago, and UCLA's Jaime Jaquez Jr. had 25 points and 12 rebounds on Saturday.

  • There won’t be a reunion on the court between Washington center Franck Kepnang and his former Oregon teammates. The transfer suffered a knee injury against Oregon State on Dec. 1 and soon after was ruled out for the season.

Statistical comparisons

  • Scoring average: Oregon, 70.7; Washington, 69.0

  • Opp. scoring average: Oregon, 67.0; Washington, 70.3

  • FG percentage: Oregon, 45.2%; Washington, 43.0%

  • Opp. FG percentage: Oregon, 41.4%; Washington, 41.6%

  • 3-point FG percentage: Oregon, 31.4%; Washington, 31.8%

  • 3-point FG per game: Oregon, 7.1; Washington, 6.7

  • FT percentage: Oregon, 70.6%; Washington, 74.7%

  • Rebounds per game: Oregon, 36.7; Washington, 34.1

  • Rebounding margin: Oregon, +4.4; Washington, -3.7

  • Assists per game: Oregon, 13.3; Washington, 11.5

  • Turnovers per game: Oregon, 13.0; Washington, 14.2

  • Blocks per game: Oregon, 5.2; Washington, 5.3

  • Steals per game: Oregon, 6.0; Washington, 6.9

Follow Chris Hansen on Twitter @chansen_RG or email at chansen@registerguard.com. 

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Oregon Ducks men's basketball take on Washington Huskies