Is it possible to lose by 27 points to one of the worst teams in the Pacific-10 Conference, and then turn around and beat the No. 2 team in the nation?
The Oregon men’s basketball team will find out at 7:30 p.m. tonight when it faces second-ranked Stanford at McArthur Court.
The Ducks will try to erase the memory of a 99-72 defeat to Arizona State last Sunday, and perhaps regain some of the magic they showed against then-No. 7 Arizona in a 12 point Oregon win last Thursday.
“If we can duplicate our effort against Arizona, I think we can play with any team in the country,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said. “We can’t worry about the Arizona State loss, because we’ve got a tough, tough basketball team coming in here.””We can’t sit and pout about that loss for days,” junior center Chris Christoffersen. “We lost the game, there’s nothing we can do about it now except play with more energy.”
Stanford may be on the prowl after a disappointing loss to UCLA last Saturday. The 79-73 setback was the Cardinal’s first loss this season.
Kent said the Ducks will try to focus their defensive efforts on Stanford’s twin centers, Jason and Jarron Collins.
“They’re just so big in there,” Kent said. “They’re so effective in what they do. They have the ability to score the ball, pass the ball and defend.”
In Stanford’s 100-76 pounding of Oregon in Palo Alto earlier this season, the Collins twins combined for 37 points and 15 rebounds.
Another player Oregon had trouble with in January was sophomore guard Casey Jacobsen.
“He’s in constant motion,” Kent said. “He can shoot the basketball extremely well.”
Jacobsen shot 5-for-7 from the floor, and 6-for-6 from the free throw line, to notch 20 points against the Ducks.
“They’re like Arizona, in that you’ve got to win those one-on-one battles all over the floor,” Kent said. “Then your bench has to outplay their bench, because they just keep coming at you.”
Kent has a history with Stanford that goes beyond the days that he was an assistant coach for the Cardinal under head coach Mike Montgomery in 1990-91. In his four-year Oregon coaching career, Kent has failed to beat the Cardinal in seven attempts.
The coach says he will use that as fuel tonight.
“The history is there to be broken,” Kent said.
Kent pointed to the records he has already broken — last year’s 20-plus win season for the first time in 55 years, back-to-back victories over Arizona for the first time in 17 years — and said his team is ready to buck history again.
After Stanford, the Ducks will take on streaking California at 3 p.m. Saturday. The Golden Bears lost to Southern California last Saturday, but handed UCLA only their second conference loss last Thursday in a 29-point blowout.
Saturday’s game will mark the second meeting between Oregon’s Bryan Bracey — the Pac-10’s leading scorer — and Cal’s Sean Lampley — the Pac-10’s second-leading scorer. Lampley won the battle in their first matchup, outscoring Bracey 23-10 and out-rebounding him 10-4.
The Ducks say they have almost no room to slip up this weekend and in the rest of the Pac-10 season.
“We’ve got to play at the top of our game,” senior center Flo Hartenstein said. “We can’t have the letdown we had against Arizona State, because [Stanford and Cal] will take every mistake to their advantage.”
Both games this weekend will be broadcast nationally on Fox Sports Net.