Think of the Oregon men’s basketball team as a complicated mixing board, with coach Ernie Kent tweaking knobs and fiddling switches to get the team to work in perfect harmony.
By Saturday, when the Ducks face Massachusetts in the Papé Jam at the Rose Garden, the team will have to be fully tweaked. But first, Oregon will face an upset-minded Portland team at McArthur Court tonight at 7 p.m.
“This will be our last chance to tune up everything before we play UMass,” senior forward Bryan Bracey said. “This is an important game for us.”
Kent said Portland is a thinking team, akin to Athletes in Action, the team that beat the Ducks in their final exhibition game.
“We’re going to see a different team than what we’ve seen before,” Kent said. “The last three teams have been athletic, have run up and down and shot the ball. [Portland] is going to be more deliberate and hold the tempo of the game with smart play in the half-court.”
Portland is 2-1 on the season and has victories over Southern Oregon and Texas A&M Corpus Christi. The Vikings took Texas Pan American to overtime on the road, but lost 81-75. Portland finished last season sixth of eight teams in the West Coast Conference with a 10-18 record.
Oregon defeated Portland 74-62 at Mac Court last season.
“This is a big game on their schedule,” Kent said. “We know that, and that’s why it’s a good game for us. They’re going to be up, which is going to require us to be up.”
Since playing Athletes in Action, Oregon has defeated Mississippi Valley State, Denver and Portland State by a combined 52 points in its three regular-season matchups.
But Kent feels his team is too inconsistent, and gave the Ducks a “C+” as a three-game grade.
“Can we be perfect? No,” Kent said. “But we can certainly be somewhere between 90 and 100 percent of our capability, and we’re not there yet.”
The Ducks played tough defense Saturday night against Portland State, and with 30 minutes played, the Vikings had only 25 points. But then the Ducks let Portland State score 37 points in the final 10 minutes in a defensive melt-down.
Tonight’s game, Bracey said, will give the Ducks a chance to show some consistency.
“We’re excited to come out here and try to do everything right — offensively and defensively,” Bracey said. “We want to showcase before we go to Portland.”
Kent, despite the average grade he gave his team, was optimistic about the Ducks’ positive traits. The coach said Oregon is shooting well, and had gotten good play from the bench.
“It’s just the experience we need to gain,” Kent said.
The team’s freshmen played well Saturday, Kent said, but are “still coming.” Oregon’s four freshmen — Luke Ridnour, Luke Jackson, James Davis and Jay Anderson — combined for 39 points Saturday night.
“All four stepped up,” senior guard Freddie Jones said. “We expect them to do that.”
Jones and his teammates expected the high-profile recruiting class to make an immediate impact, but also realize that they are, after all, only freshmen.
The Ducks — freshmen included — will go for their fourth-straight win tonight on Mac Court. If Oregon gets the victory, it will be the Ducks’ first 4-0 start under Kent.