Junior guard Malik Hairston is expected to make his much-anticpated season debut tonight when Oregon (5-0 overall) takes on No. 18 Georgetown (4-1) in Washington, D.C., at 4:30 p.m.
Hairston has been sidelined for much of the season due to a strained groin that has continued to hamper the team’s leading scorer from last year. Without wanting to risk further injury, Oregon coach Ernie Kent plans on using the 6-foot-6-inch guard sparingly during the game.
“He’s full go, but he still has to get into basketball shape,” Kent said to the Register-Guard. “We’ll bring him in for spurts, two or three minutes at a time, to make sure he doesn’t get overextended.”
The Ducks would certainly like Hairston to play as much as possible, however, considering he led the team with 17 points in last year’s 71-57 loss to Georgetown in Eugene.
Georgetown junior Roy Hibbert poses a difficult match up for the Ducks as the center stands at 7-foot-2-inches and 278 pound. He leads the team by averaging 15 points per game and also contributes 6.8 rebounds per game.
Hibbert proved to be hard to handle for the Ducks last year as the Hoyas’ big man recorded a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Though the team keyed on Hibbert, he was able to dish it out to his teammates, letting then-senior guard Ashanti Cook score a team-high 25 points.
“If they take away one thing, then they can’t take away the other,” Hibbert said after last year’s victory. “If they’re covering me inside, we kick it out and hit shots.”
Georgetown reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament last year, losing by four to eventual champion Florida.
With Hibbert a constant threat to score and rebound, Oregon’s big men are expected to see more playing time. Taking Hibbert into consideration, Kent is expected to change his starting lineup from four guards and one forward to include one of the Ducks’ larger forwards or 7-foot center Ray Schafer. And with Hairston’s comeback, Kent is likely to have a harder time substituting players in and out of the game despite injuries to Churchill Odia and Josh Akwenuke.
“If we can get everybody healthy, I feel like we have a chance to be a really good ball club, when all of our weapons are healthy and in shape,” Kent said. “I don’t know if any team in the country ever gets there, somebody is always banged up.”
If Oregon wants to be competitive in today’s game, however, it needs to shoot better than it did against Rice last week when the team shot 37.7% from the field and had to mount a late comeback to force overtime, eventually getting the 79-73 victory.
The trip also marks the first time the Ducks have played in the nation’s capital. Oregon left Eugene Monday to tour the city.
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