Can it get any better than 79 first-half points?
Probably not, but the Oregon men’s basketball team hopes to better its defensive performance from its first exhibition game, when the Australian Institute of Sport team scored 49 points in a sluggish second half for the Ducks.
“We’ve got a lot to improve on,” point guard Luke Ridnour said of preparing for Oregon’s second exhibition game at 7 p.m. today against the EA Sports All-Stars. “Defensively, we’re not where we need to be.”
The Ducks, ranked No. 11 in the preseason Associated Press poll, shot 70.5 percent from the floor in the first half of their 135-86 win over the Australian traveling team last week. Junior forward Luke Jackson led Oregon with 32 points and nine rebounds in front of 8,206 fans at Mac Court.
“We put on a show in that first half,” senior forward Robert Johnson said.
But it won’t be that easy tonight. The EA Sports team, led by former Washington State forward Chris Crosby, has composed a 1-6 record against some of the top teams on the West Coast.
The All-Stars’ lone win came against Utah, 92-86, and lost to No. 1 Arizona, 115-92 on Tuesday.
“This team’s better than the (Australians),” Ridnour said. “They’re going to try to run with us. We just gotta focus on the defense and the offense will take care of itself.”
“People should not come and expect to see another Australian team,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said.
Two 7-footers named to recruiting class
Aaron Brooks, a point guard from Seattle, highlighted Kent’s recruiting class, which became official Wednesday.
Kent also signed two 7-footers — Mitch Platt of Henderson, Nev., and Ray Schafer of Wasilla, Alaska. Oregon’s recruiting class was rated the 15th-best in the country by ESPN.com.
Brooks was a member of Kent’s USA Basketball Junior National Team this summer, which the coach said gave him “a great leg up in recruiting him.”
“He’s a pure point guard who totally understands the game,” Kent said of Brooks, who averaged 18.7 points and 7.5 assists as a junior at Franklin High School. “He’s the point guard for the future.”
Platt averaged 12.5 points and 8 rebounds as a junior at Green Valley High School, leading the Gators to a 25-8 record.
Schafer is rated one of the top three centers on the West Coast by most recruiting services.
Kent said those post players, along with redshirt freshmen Ian Crosswhite and Matt Short, will make Oregon one of the biggest teams in the Pac-10 in years to come.
“We feel very good about what’s coming in,” Kent said. “We feel like we’ve gotten the program to a level now where we can be selective (about recruits).”
Zahn, Kent to sit
out season
Adam Zahn, a 6-foot-8-inch freshman from Redondo Beach, Calif., and Kent’s son, Jordan, a 6-foot-4-inch guard, will redshirt this season.
“Unless something out of the ordinary happens, both of those guys will be redshirting,” Kent said Wednesday.
That leaves Oregon with 11 active players for the season, including walk-on guard Tyler York.
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