The Oregon men’s basketball team will have a shot at redemption on Thursday night when they take on Arizona State in Tempe.
The Ducks (14-14, 7-9 Pacific-10 Conference) can avenge their final loss ever at McArthur Court, a 60-55 defeat at the hands of ASU, back on New Year’s Day.
And for seniors Joevan Catron and Jay-R Strowbridge, the trip to Arizona marks their final regular season road contests, having said goodbye to the Oregon faithful after a disheartening loss to Stanford last Saturday.
“It was sad to get ready to leave the family of Eugene and the Ducks,” Catron said after practice on Tuesday. “But you have to move on and try to look forward to these two games at Arizona and the Pac-10 tournament.”
Appeasing the Jan. 1 loss wasn’t a major focus, Catron said, but it will certainly be in the back of player’s minds as they gear up for Arizona State, who currently sits 10-18 overall and 2-14 in Pac-10 play.
The Sun Devils have picked up just two wins since beating Oregon more than two months ago — Tulsa (69-59) and Washington State (71-69). Prior to the win over WSU, Arizona State suffered a nine-game losing streak despite staying close to USC and taking UCLA into overtime before losing 73-72.
First-year head coach Dana Altman said the Sun Devils’ matchup 3-2 zone defense has been a point of emphasis in practice this week.
“I think they do a good job with their zone,” Altman said. “But I’m not sure it’s anything that’s much different than any other zone. They do a few different shifts than a lot of people, but I think they’re just more familiar with it.”
ASU has held its opponents to less than 34 percent from behind the three-point line this season. When the two teams met earlier, the Ducks shot just 25 percent (4-for-16) from distance, but have since turned the shooting corner throughout most of the lineup.
After looking at Saturday’s game film against the Cardinal, junior guard Garrett Sim assessed the team’s troubles as more than Xs and Os.
“It’s tough,” Sim said. “We let up a little bit, and I think it’s the effort things that we can control … we realized that we have to play harder; we’ve got to rebound; we’ve gotta out-hustle teams to get wins.”
For his part, Sim ranks third on the team with 35 made three-pointers on 106 attempts this year, trailing only Jay-R Strowbridge with 42 and E.J. Singler with 36. Singler had a particularly strong game against Arizona State last time out, recording game-highs in points (19) and rebounds (nine).
As a team, Oregon posted better numbers than the Sun Devils in almost every category the first time out. The Ducks made more free throws, had more total and offensive rebounds, committed fewer turnovers and had more steals.
But in a 32.1 percent shooting night with only nine assists on 17 made shots, it’s tough to expect a win after 40 minutes. Most of those numbers have evened out with Oregon shooting a much better percentage over the last dozen games, but the focus still remains on the other end of the court.
“Our focus going into the game is definitely not offensively — at all,” Sim said. “I think we’re going in defensively minded, which is what Coach wants, and what we know we have to do to win.”
The Ducks currently hold sole possession of sixth place in the league standings with the all-important top-six teams receiving a bye in the first round of the Pac-10 tournament next week.
Oregon has been flirting with the fourth, fifth and sixth spots for the passed couple weeks, and a split this weekend would put them in good position to hold off eighth-place Stanford, who plays at Cal on Saturday.
Oregon is 3-5 on the road this season with the exception of the loss to top-ranked Duke at the Rose Garden, and Altman feels comfortable taking his team into the desert.
“We’ve been competitive on the road,” Altman said. “I like our efforts on the road, I think we’ve been pretty consistent.”
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