Welcome back to “Who Wants to Step Up for the Oregon Men’s Basketball Team?”
Our next contestant is straight out of Houston, he’s a 6-foot-3-inch guard, his major is undeclared — it’s … Andre Joseph!
“I feel like I’ve got to step it up a lot more than I’ve been doing,” Joseph said. “With Luke (Jackson) out, coach said somebody’s got to step up, and I think I’m the guy to do it.”
Our next contestant is … everybody else on the Oregon team!
“Everyone on the team has to step up,” guard Luke Ridnour said. “We need to try to each do a little more to make up for (Jackson’s) spot.”
The Ducks will, indeed, need someone to step up as they take their second Pacific-10 Conference road trip of the season to Los Angeles, where they will face UCLA tonight and USC on Sunday.
The Oregon men need someone to step up for two reasons. For one, the Ducks were slaughtered on their last road trip to the Bay Area. For another, star forward Jackson will likely sit out the games because of a severe finger cut he suffered Thursday against Washington.
Ian Crosswhite (11) and the Ducks will face a seemingly down-trodden UCLA team tonight, but won’t take the Bruins lightly.
And the person to step up for Jackson could be … Jackson himself? He has said he’s ready to play at least a little bit, but head coach Ernie Kent and the Oregon medical staff are apprehensive about Jackson possibly re-injuring the finger.
“He knows I want to get back and want to play,” Jackson said of Kent.
Until Jackson can make a full recovery, Kent will stick with Andre Joseph in the starting lineup tonight. Joseph, a junior transfer from Lee Junior College, has made his impression by averaging 9.1 points and almost four rebounds per game this year.
“Andre’s really starting to learn the system,” Ridnour said. “He brings a lot of energy; he’s another guy that can score.”
Tonight, the Ducks will face a team which, currently, has nobody stepping up. The Bruins aren’t even trying to step up. They’re not even stepping sideways.
UCLA started the Pac-10 season with wins over Washington State and Washington, but has lost six straight games by an average of 13 points per contest. The Bruins are 4-11 overall on the season, including a 2-7 record at the hallowed Pauley Pavilion gym.
Of course, the Ducks won’t take lightly a team that is one of the most successful in college basketball history.
“I went through it my freshman year; it’s not fun,” Ridnour said of losing. “But they’re a dangerous team, they’ve got the capability to turn it around.”
USC, as well, has struggled this season, though not to the extent that UCLA has stumbled. USC is 3-4 in Pac-10 play and 7-8 overall.
“SC has been in every ballgame, they could easily be 7-0 right now,” Kent said. “With UCLA, something’s going to happen down there.
“You don’t look at these as struggling programs. It’s more about us and how we handle ourselves in that environment.”
And then there’s the revenge thing. Oregon sealed its Pac-10 title by sweeping the Los Angeles schools in Los Angeles last season, and the two squads are likely to have their Duck-hunting gear on.
“Both of these games, these teams, are going to be fired up to play us,” Kent said. “When we go down there, it’s going to be the same thing. We’re the team that won the championship down there last season — we’re the ranked team coming in.”
But the Ducks know they have a golden opportunity to win their first two road games of the Pac-10 season, which would likely move them into second in the conference at the midseason point. But, according to Kent, they need to do it themselves.
And they need someone to step up.
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