One of No. 12 Oregon coach Ernie Kent’s main concerns coming off the men’s exhibition win over Concordia Tuesday was turnovers, which Oregon had 23 of in the game.
For the team to win its regular season opener Saturday against Pepperdine, 4 p.m., at McArthur Court, the Ducks will need to take much better care of the ball, according to Kent.
“(Pepperdine) is an uptempo basketball team that presses you the whole game,” he said. “We threw the ball away 23 times against a non-pressing team. Our focus these next couple of days will be taking care of the basketball.”
“We just need to be more precise,” senior guard Bryce Taylor said. “Taking care of the ball is something that is going to be important to us through the whole year.”
But Pepperdine is just the first of three opponents for the Ducks this weekend, including Pacific University Sunday and Western Michigan Monday, (both games at 6 p.m., at McArthur Court), and the players said they know they need to expect the best each team has to offer.
“We’re a target right now,” sophomore guard Tajuan Porter said. “We put Oregon basketball on the map last year and we’re a top-25 team now, so a lot of teams are going to be coming in here to target us.”
Conditioning could also play a role in this weekend’s contests, as each team plays three games in three days.
“It’s tough because you don’t want to just be drained,” Taylor said. “But at the same time you can’t pace yourself because you have to play to win and you have to give that maximum effort.”
Kent sees the schedule this weekend as a bigger problem for the visiting teams.
“Our opponents have three games in three days too. We’re at home, we’re with our crowd and everything else,” Kent said. “Hopefully the energy in the building will give us an opportunity, when we get to game number three, to get a little extra energy.”
And Mac Court won’t be the only arena full of basketball fans this weekend, as college basketball gets into full swing nationwide.
“It’s an exciting time for college basketball. You can see already some games start to show up on TV,” Kent said. “It’s going to be a big weekend for college basketball and hopefully this group is ready to play.”
One game that has already sparked a lot of national attention toward the college basketball season was Gardner-Webb’s upset of No. 22 Kentucky 84-68 Wednesday in Lexington.
Kent said he won’t use the upset as a motivational tool for his team this week, or talk about it at all.
“You don’t need to tell them,” he said. “They watch enough TV, they see SportsCenter.”
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