Oregon enters Thursday in a position it hasn’t faced since late November; the Ducks are tasked with bouncing back from a loss after they saw their 17-game winning streak come to an end when they lost to Colorado last Saturday.
The Ducks will welcome Arizona State (10-12, 3-6) to Matthew Knight Arena and aim to start a new winning streak as they face  a Sun Devils squad that has scored the second most point in the conference.
A look at both teams entering Thursday’s matchup
— Speaking of that powered Sun Devils offense, Arizona State has three players averaging more points per game than Dillon Brooks, Oregon’s leading scorer. Torian Graham , Tra Holder and Shannon Evans II form a potent three-headed scoring monster for the Sun Devils on the perimeter.
— While Graham and Holder are second and third in the Pac-12 in scoring respectively, Obinna Oleka has arguably been Arizona State’s most valuable player. The 6-foot-7 junior forward is second in the conference in rebounding (10.6 per game) barely trailing preseason All-American Ivan Rabb of Cal.
— While the Sun Devils have been almost unstoppable on the offensive end, they have been abysmal defensively. Arizona State is surrendering more points per game (83.7) by a wide margin. The Sun Devils have given up atleast 75 points in each of their last nine games.
— Oregon sits in the middle of the pack in the conference in terms of team free throw shooting. While they shoot a pedestrian 71 percent from the line as a team, freshman guard Payton Pritchard is shooting 81 percent from the charity stripe — far and away the best on the team. Pritchard may be Oregon’s go-to-guy at this point if they need to bury some late-game free throws, despite his status as the youngest player in the starting lineup.
Oregon vs. Arizona State
Time: 8 p.m. (PT)
Where: Matthew Knight Arena
TV: Fox Sports 1
Radio: Oregon IMG Sports Network (95.3 FM KUJZ in Springfield/ Eugene)
Stream: Fox Sports Go
Projected Starters:
Oregon
G Payton Pritchard (8.3 ppg, 3.6 apg, 3.1 rpg)
G Tyler Dorsey (12.2 ppg, 3.6 rbg)
G Dylan Ennis (11.5 ppg, 39 3PT%)
F Dillon Brooks (13.4 ppg, 48.6 FG%)
F Jordan Bell (11.0 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 2.1 bpg)
Arizona State
G Torian Graham (18.7 ppg,, 39 3PT%)
G Tra Holder (17.7 ppg, 3.2 apg)
G Shannon Evans II (15.4 ppg, 87.2 FT%)
G Kodi Justice (7.7 ppg, 42 FG%)
F Obinna Oleka (13.3 ppg, 10.6 rpg)
Follow Jarrid Denney on Twitter @jarrid_denney