Seasons, faces, and the numbers on their jerseys change, but a Ben Braun-coached California team stays pretty much the same.
Oregon coach Ernie Kent should know. Kent came into the league 11 years ago, one year after Braun did, and has coached against Braun more than any other coach currently leading a Pacific-10 Conference squad.
Asked to describe the hallmarks of a Braun basketball team, Kent said, “They’re big, and this team is big. They really try to pound you inside, and this team tries to do that as well. And they are a very good chemistry basketball team, they play with a lot of passion.”
This season’s “bigs” for Braun’s Bears include sophomore forward Ryan Anderson, the Pac-10’s leading scorer at 20.8 points per game, and senior center DeVon Hardin, who anchors the Bears’ defense with 22 blocks on the season.
But while these two big men might be intimidating in the post, Oregon feels it has the weapons to spread the floor, stretch the defense and successfully score the ball.
“(Hardin’s) got to guard too. We’ve got guys that can exploit some of their things and he’s going to have to come away from the bucket and guard,” Kent said. “Otherwise Maarty Leunen better shoot that ball 20 times in this ballgame if that big fella doesn’t come out and guard him.”

In case Leunen’s outside shot isn’t falling, and to complement that aspect of the offense, the Ducks plan to use their multitude of capable slashers to take the ball right at the big men to get high-percentage shots and create foul trouble for Cal.
“We want to stick to putting the pressure on them by taking the ball to the hoop and putting them in situations where maybe they foul, and just make things difficult for them,” Leunen said. “We’re just going to stick to our game and try and get out in transition and take advantage of our mismatches.”
And for all the half-court planning the team can do for the offensive side of the floor, the transition game is where the Ducks can score in bunches. That part of their offense starts on the defensive end of the floor.
“We have to start with defense. That helps us play our game because when we get defensive stops we can get out and run,” senior forward Malik Hairston said. “I know I say that all the time but that’s basically our game. We have a lot of talented basketball players, one’s that are able to make plays, and we can’t make those plays if we don’t get out and run.”
The central cog of Oregon’s defensive strategy will also be Leunen. The senior has played against a virtual “who’s who” of college big men in his career (Al Horford, Joakim Noah, Roy Hibbert, and Michael Beasley, to name a few) and seems to have a knack for being able to play them tough physically and slow them down without getting himself in foul trouble.
Leunen’s secret, surprisingly, is not trying to do too much.
“I’m not really a shot blocker so I’m not going to be jumping up and swinging for the ball, I’m just going to be standing there trying to hold my ground and make things difficult,” he said. “That’s one thing, I guess, that’s to my advantage that I’m not the most athletic guy to be up there swinging for the ball.”
And despite the pressure of being the key to Oregon’s success on both ends of the court, Leunen is upbeat about the challenge.
“Every week is a big week for me because every team has got a great big man,” he said. “But, yeah, I always look forward to the challenge of going against the Pac-10’s best.”
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