The last Oregon men’s basketball win over the California Golden Bears occurred on Feb. 9, 2008 by a score of 92-70. Current NBA forward Ryan Anderson, 25, finished tied for a team-high 17 points that night for Cal.
That was 11 games and nearly six years ago.
“They’ve given us a hard time,” Dana Altman said before Wednesday’s practice. “There’s no other way to put it.”
Altman is in his fourth year as Oregon’s head coach but his drought against Cal doesn’t match that of fifth-year guard Johnathan Loyd.
“Even when we play them at their place, we’ll be ahead the whole game, and then at the end, they’ll get us,” Loyd said before Wednesday’s practice. “It happened like three or four times to me, so I really want this one.”
Oregon (13-1, 1-1 Pac-12) gets an opportunity to finally end the skid Thursday night in what will be the first home conference game of the season for the Ducks. And Cal (10-4, 1-0) isn’t near full strength.
ESPN rated Jabari Bird as a four-star recruit and not only did he choose to play for head coach Mike Montgomery at Cal, he made an impact right away. This season, the freshman guard averages 11.3 points per game and 40 percent on three-pointers, but Bird sprained his ankle three games ago against Creighton and won’t be available on Thursday.
Junior guard Ricky Kreklow broke his hand in practice before the Creighton game and was ruled out 4-6 weeks right before the Bears tipped off against the Bluejays, who won 68-54. @@http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/team/schedule/_/id/25/california-golden-bears@@
“We all need each other to be our best,” Cal senior forward Richard Solomon told the San Jose Mercury News earlier this week.
Since the injury to Bird, the Bears have rolled over their opponents. They beat Furman 90-60 on Dec. 28 and defeated Stanford 69-62 last Thursday. Solomon recorded a double-double in each game and averages more than 11 points and 10 rebounds on the season. He and junior forward Davis Kravish make up a fearsome interior tandem.
“Mike does a good job with post players and those two guys (Solomon and Kravish) are fundamentally sound and really do a good job,” Altman said.
Senior guard Justin Cobbs leads Cal in scoring at 14.4 points per game and lit up Creighton and Stanford. He scored 18 points in each game and shot nearly 58 percent combined.
Even without Bird, the Ducks will encounter a tough team to guard, which could cause problems for Oregon’s struggling defense. Altman seems infuriated every time he discusses his team’s defensive effort.
“We haven’t guarded anybody all year,” Altman said, “so we have to get better.”
The Ducks lost their first game of the season Sunday on the road against Colorado. They scored 91 points but gave up 100 to the Buffaloes on over 56 percent shooting.  The defense will need to improve by Thursday night if Oregon wants to end the losing streak to Cal.
Loyd and Altman both denied the notion that Cal is in their heads, saying it’s just another game, another opponent. But even if the Bears have caused Loyd and Altman to lose some sleep, that stigma isn’t attached to several key Oregon plays. Joseph Young, Mike Moser and Jason Calliste, among other Ducks, were elsewhere last season, so they’ve never faced Cal in an Oregon uniform. For them, the gameplan might be their only worry on Thursday night.
“If we go out, pay attention to detail and play defense like we can,” Calliste said, “we’ll be fine.”
Thursday might be Oregon’s last chance to end the losing streak to Cal this season, as the two teams aren’t scheduled to meet again in 2014.
The game will tip off at 8 p.m. at Matthew Knight Arena.
Follow Victor Flores on Twitter @vflores415