Matching up with the same team three times in one season can be a tricky thing, but that’s exactly what the Oregon men’s basketball team (15-15, 7-11 Pacific-10 Conference) will have to do when they take on the Washington State Cougars (16-14, 6-12 Pac-10) in the opening round of the Pacific Life Pac-10 Tournament.
Oregon swept the regular-season series with Washington State, including a 74-66 win in the final conference game ever at McArthur Court last Saturday night. The Ducks have won three of their last four outings, while the Cougars have dropped six of their last seven.
“It’s always tough to play a team three times,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said. “Yet at the same time, we don’t look at it that way.”
Kent went on to say that Oregon is playing some of its best basketball over the past few weeks and reiterated that his squad has grown and made necessary adjustments to have success during this win-or-go-home scenario.
“We are what we are,” Kent said. “We don’t shoot it well all the time. We do leave some plays on the floor. We know that, and that’s part of growth and development.”
The Ducks have lost the turnover battle in both wins over Washington State this season, and one area Kent was particularly concerned with was the unbalanced free throw attempts in the first meeting.
When Oregon played in Pullman, the Cougars reached the charity stripe 42 times compared to just 16 for the Ducks. Exactly half of those free throw appearances came via sophomore guard Klay Thompson.
In the first matchup, Thompson, a first-team all-Pac-10 selection, torched the Ducks for 33 points on 19-of-21 shooting from the free-throw line. He followed that up with a game-high 22 points at Mac Court, but shot just 7-of-22 from the field to reach that mark.
“The difference is we zoned them here and we manned them up there.” Kent said. “He put the ball on the floor and attacked us so much better because we were one-on-one. He drew a lot of fouls up there.”
Offensively, Oregon was a far more balanced team the second time they took on the Cougars, with four of Kent’s starting five scoring in double figures. Sophomore Jeremy Jacob had 11, senior Tajuan Porter had 12, all-Pac-10 honorable mention freshman E.J. Singler had 15 and junior LeKendric Longmire added 17 points to go along with 10 rebounds for his first career double-double.
The first time around Oregon relied heavily on Porter for offensive output, and the Detroit-native posted 31 points on 11-of-26 shooting from the field. Porter hit six three-pointers in that game, and is now only five threes away from breaking the Pac-10 record.
“It’s win or go home,” Porter said. “Of course we’re going to be playing with more of a sense of urgency.”
The fact that the tournament is held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles plays somewhat into Oregon’s favor, having beaten USC and UCLA on their home courts just over two weeks ago. And as Kent has been preaching to his team all year long, they’ll be able to get out on the road and “drown out the noise.”
“This team needs to grow as much as it can,” Kent concluded. “I’ve always been one to say you embrace the Pac-10 Tournament. You embrace any opportunity you get to play in the post season because it’s only great growth and great development for next year.”
This will be the third time in as many years that Oregon has matched up with the Cougars in the opening round of the tournament. Washington State beat Oregon 62-40 last year and 75-70 in 2008. Tip-off for tonight’s game is set for 8:10 p.m.
Kent tells players he’s done

According to a report from Register-Guard reporter Bob Clark, Kent informed players this week that he will not coming back next year as head coach. Kent did not comment about his future with the Ducks at Monday’s press conference.
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