With as much as Oregon’s seniors have achieved in their careers, there’s one particular regular season task they’ve yet to accomplish.
That is beating the Huskies at home.
In fact, Oregon hasn’t won a game in Seattle since 2001 and it’s something that all the Ducks want to add to their résumé. It’s also the last chance for senior starters Bryce Taylor, Malik Hairston and Maarty Leunen to take out their conference rival.
“It’s been a tough place for us to play up there,” Oregon coach Ernie Kent said. “It would be huge for (the seniors). That’s the one place they’ve not won in.”
Fortunately for the Ducks, Washington hasn’t been the team that the Pacific-10 Conference has come to expect. The Huskies reside in the ninth spot in the league standings with a 9-7 record and are 0-3 in the Pac-10. This isn’t the typical Washington team that’s given Oregon trouble in the past, and the Ducks have plenty of confidence heading into the matchup having won their past three conference games.
Kent though, believes that despite the Huskies’ struggles thus far, they’re a team that always plays beyond its capabilities whenever they host the Ducks.
“I think we’re going to get a different Washington up there,” he said.
Oregon’s particularly worried about junior 6-foot-7-inch, 255-pound forward Jon Brockman who averages a double-double with 18.1 points and 11.1 rebounds per game. Although Washington isn’t as much of an offensive threat without the presence of Spencer Hawes, the center who left after his freshman year and was drafted as a lottery pick in the NBA. Despite Hawes’ natural ability, he was a slow-footed big man who struggled to keep pace with quicker opponents. Without him, the Huskies have became a faster team.
“What they’ve changed is that defensively, they get up the line more. They couldn’t do that with Hawes,” Kent said. “They’re much more effective defensively and they’re just as good banging on the boards. Especially when they play us, for some reason.
“Spencer caused us some problems,” Kent said. “But Brockman has caused us just as many, if not more problems with the way he plays.”
Leunen, who will have to guard Brockman for the majority of today’s game, has already had to guard some of the league’s best big men. After posting up against California’s Ryan Anderson and Stanford’s Brook Lopez last week, this won’t be any different game for him, though he has a slight height advantage against Brockman.
“He’s way more physical than anybody else,” Leunen said. “I might have a tough matchup trying to shut him down.”
Kent expects to see Washington’s senior three-point shooting guard Ryan Appleby break out of his recent slump to try to defeat the Ducks.
“He will not be the Ryan Appleby that you’ve seen. I guarantee that,” Kent said.
Kent also wants his own long-range scoring threat back as a starter. He wants sophomore Tajuan Porter to get as many minutes as possible to match Appleby’s potential to score buckets of threes. Kent’s isn’t content with relying on Porter’s production as a reserve. He thinks Porter’s more dangerous if he’s the starter.
“I’m not comfortable with it,” Kent said. “He needs to be back in the starting lineup so we’ll see how things go these next couple of days.
“He’s more comfortable and I’m more comfortable with him in the starting lineup.”
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