After beating two top-10 teams in consecutive weeks, the Oregon men’s basketball team’s matchup with Stanford might not have the same appeal as the Ducks’ previous games.
But that’s not the case for many of Oregon’s veterans.
Stanford is the only team in the Pacific-10 Conference that no one on the roster has beaten and the Ducks are eager for payback.
“All the teams that have beat us in the last couple of years – it’s kind of a revenge game just to get (Stanford) back,” junior forward Maarty Leunen said.
And a win this week would be especially sweet considering that Stanford twice defeated Oregon last year by two points or fewer.
“They are a tough basketball team and they’re no different this year,” Oregon coach Ernie Kent said. “They’re big, they’re a lot more athletic on the wings, they can score from the perimeter.”
Fortunately for the Ducks, the two players most responsible for winning last year’s games, Chris Hernandez and Matt Haryasz, have graduated.
Hernandez made the game-winning three-pointer last year in Eugene giving Stanford a 57-56 lead with 11.3 seconds to go. Leunen, who has guarded the final shot in Oregon’s wins against UCLA and Arizona, has taken notice of his recent last-second guarding instances and said he might have been able to get Hernandez to miss the shot given his recent success in accomplishing that.
“It’s usually my guy that screens for the guy that’s going to get the ball and I have to switch on to him,” Leunen said. “I just have to make it tough for him and hopefully it doesn’t go in.”
Still, Stanford is young and dangerous. The Cardinal recently knocked off both Washington schools, and the team has an influx of talented newcomers including the most recent Pac-10 Player of the Week, sophomore guard Anthony Goods and 7-foot freshman twins at center, Robin and Brook Lopez.
“Goods’ playing excellent basketball and those Lopez twins are going to be a handful,” Kent said.
Even with the possibility of matching up against two 7-foot inside players, the Ducks plan on sticking to what’s been working the best: the smaller, quicker lineups.
“You still want to get out and run, you still want to make easy baskets. We’ll see how the flow of the game goes,” senior guard Aaron Brooks said.
Although Oregon has beaten two top-10 teams in the same season for the first time since the 1970s, the players aren’t letting the success get in the way of what lies ahead.
“Things can go bad at any time so you have to keep things in perspective and stay hungry,” Brooks said.
But with as well as the Ducks are playing, they shouldn’t have to worry about things going too bad anytime soon.
“Everything’s going good, we’re playing confident so we just have it keep it going,” Leunen said.
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