LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Oregon sophomore guard Tajuan Porter can seem much larger than his 5-foot-6 frame in crucial games.
Last season in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament he hit 8-of-12 from three point range, finishing with 33 points to push the Ducks past the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels and into the Elite Eight.
But in these pivotal games he just seems bigger than he is. Unfortunately for Oregon, no matter how many shots he hits, he’ll still be 5-foot-6. That could be a problem today for the No. 9 seed Ducks (18-13), as the No. 8 seed Mississippi State Bulldogs (22-10) feature a backcourt that all stand over six feet tall.
Junior point guard Jamont Gordon leads the Bulldogs in scoring with 17.3 ppg and stands 6-foot-4, a full eight-inches taller than Porter, and weighs in at about 230 pounds.
“He’s a point guard in a fullback’s body,” Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette this week. “And he has the same kind of mentality to go with that body. He’s in attack mode all the time.”
Oregon coach Ernie Kent told reporters this week that Porter won’t be asked to guard the husky Bulldog point man.
“He cannot guard him,” Kent said. “That’s a bad matchup.”
But Porter presents a mismatch on the other end of the floor for the Bulldogs, as his quickness would be a mismatch against Gordon.
“They’ve got to guard him on the other end of the floor also,” Kent said. “He presents matchup problems for everybody else because he’s so quick and deadly shooting the basketball.”
The rest of the Bulldogs lineup shouldn’t present big matchup problems for the Ducks, as their frontcourt is smallish compared to the Pac-10 big men that the Ducks have faced all season.
Mississippi State starts 6-foot-9 sophomore Jarvis Varnado at center and 6-foot-8 senior Charles Rhodes at forward as their frontcourt. Varnado leads the NCAA with 4.63 blocks per game, but the Bulldogs’ size at the post positions is closer to the Ducks’ size than any team they’ve played since the preseason.