It’s now or never for the Oregon men’s
basketball team.
After blowing numerous opportunities to clinch a berth in the Pacific-10 Conference Tournament, the Ducks need at least one win in their final two regular season games to earn a trip to Los Angeles.
Oregon (13-12 overall, 5-11 Pac-10) is tied for the eighth and final spot in the tournament with California (12-14, 5-11), but the Golden Bears hold the tiebreaker. Washington State (11-14,
6-10) is a game ahead in seventh place, with the Ducks owning the tiebreaker over the Cougars.
Oregon’s first step toward earning its goal of a tournament berth is to defeat Southern California (12-16, 4-12) at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. The Trojans are currently in last place in the Pac-10. Oregon prevailed in the first meeting between the two teams with a 90-83 win on Dec. 31 at McArthur Court.
The Ducks can clinch a tournament berth tonight with a win — and some help. Along with beating the Trojans, Oregon would need Washington to beat Cal and Stanford to beat Washington State.
The scenario would leave Oregon and Washington State tied with a 6-11 conference mark, while Cal would drop to 5-12. With the Cougars and Golden Bears playing each other on Saturday, and the Ducks holding the tiebreaker if all three teams finish with the same record, Oregon would be assured of no less than a No. 8 seed in the
Pac-10 Tournament.
The Ducks will have another chance to qualify on Saturday at UCLA if everything doesn’t go their way tonight, but they know their chances improve greatly with a win against USC.
“(Losing is) really not an option for us,” Oregon swingman Malik Hairston said. “We’ve been through a lot this season, and we’ve got
a game to win coming up on Thursday, and that’s the only thing on
our mind.”
Like Oregon, USC is a young team that shoots a lot of perimeter jumpers. The Trojans have attempted 590 three-pointers — 113 more than their opponents — knocking them down at a 37 percent clip.
The Trojans’ best perimeter players are sophomore guard Lodrick Stewart, freshman guard Gabriel Pruitt and freshman swingman Nick Young. The trio combines to average more than 36 points per game and is always looking for open shots.
Oregon head coach Ernie Kent stressed the importance of defending the perimeter after one out of every three shot attempts he saw the Trojans put up on film was a three-pointer.
“They shoot the ball better (than earlier in the season), and they’re shooting it a lot more from (three-point range),” Kent said. “We have to defend those shooters. We’ve been a pretty good defensive team for the majority of our games.”
On the offensive end, Aaron Brooks will likely play a big role for Oregon. The sophomore point guard has had several big games in his young career against the Trojans, including a 34-point performance in the Ducks’ win over USC earlier this season at Mac Court.
Brooks and the rest of the Ducks have been in an offensive funk of late, failing to reach the 70-point mark in their last five games.
“Our defense has been pretty good for a young team, but we have to pick it up on offense and score some points,” Brooks said. “You can’t win if you don’t score points.
“Our Pac-10 Tournament starts (tonight) against USC, and we need to win that game to break us out of the pack.”
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