In the midst of a five game losing streak, the Oregon men’s basketball team has one bright spot to focus on. The final four games of the 2009-10 season are against teams the Ducks have already beat this year.
It may not be a big bright spot, but for a team that is both mentally and physically beaten right now, it’s something.
“It helps, but it’s also a little bit harder,” sophomore Matt Humphrey said. “It’s tough to beat the same team twice. We just have to take what we did against these four teams and do that much more.”
Tonight will be Oregon’s first chance to see if they can make good on beating a team twice. The team is in Los Angeles to play USC (16-10 overall, 8-6 Pacific-10 Conference), a squad the Ducks beat 67-57 on Jan. 30 in Eugene. In that game, junior college transfers Jeremy Jacob and Malcolm Armstead led the Ducks with 19 and 18 points, respectively.
But what stands out the most from that game is the shooting percentage. Oregon shot 50 percent from the field, and it will take another effort like that to ensure the Ducks don’t fall behind early.
When asked about what the team needs to do to end its scoring drought, head coach Ernie Kent said starting off well is the key.
“Make more buckets early in the game,” he said simply. “We are missing layups early in the game that affect our confidence.”
The game plan won’t be the same either for the Trojans, Kent says. This late in the year, they are a different team — and they are at home.
“We want to play them a little bit differently, but we feel like we have excellent game plans for the teams this weekend,” Kent said. “It’s still going to come down for us to score the basketball.”
Six-foot-5-inch guard Dwight Lewis led the Trojans in scoring the last time these teams played, netting 16 points. But it’s the post presence concerns Kent the most. USC has three guys 6-9 or taller, including 6-10, 240 pound Nikola Vucevic from Montenegro. Through Feb. 20 Vucevic is averaging 11.7 points per game and 9.7 rebounds.
“They are big, strong and a very athletic basketball team,” Kent said. “They are very hard to score on if you think you’re just gonna back them down and shoot over the top of all that size. You have to get up and down the floor a little bit.”
Oregon is confident that attacking the posts of the Trojans will yield results. Jacob has come on as of late, and with the status of center Michael Dunigan still iffy, Jacob’s ability to score in the paint will help the Ducks open up the perimeter game.
“We just have to go with our bread and butter,” Humphrey said. “Throwing it down in the post has worked really well for us right now…really put an emphasis on doing the fundamental.”
“Working inside out is always a good thing when we have two dominate post players,” junior LeKendric Longmire said. “If we can establish the inside game early, we can open up the outside for some shots.”
Longmire spoke to the media briefly for the first time since his return last week. He spoke to his problems off the court, and said he’s trying to put them behind him and get back to playing basketball.
“It was tough anytime your away from the game,” Longmire said. “It hurts as a player. I had some things I needed to take care of, and it was important for myself and coach that I did. But now I’m back.”
It has been a long road for these Ducks, with the current five-game losing streak weighing heavily on all of them. But the attitudes have remained positive.
“It’s tough, it’s really tough,” Humphrey said. “But at the end of the day you just want to keep working hard and persevere and hopefully get that win.”
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