It’s ironic that the Oregon men’s basketball team may be getting hot just as its season is coming to a close.
The Ducks have one hand in their pockets, and the other one’s playing some basketball.
After a split with the Washington schools last weekend, Oregon returns home to face UCLA Thursday and Southern California Saturday in the Ducks’ final homestand of the season. The Ducks will then close out the season on the road against Arizona State, Arizona and Oregon State.
If the Ducks can win at least one game this weekend, they will almost certainly be headed to the postseason.

It’s so hard to say good-bye
This weekend’s games should be emotional for Oregon: Five seniors will play their final games at McArthur Court.
Bryan Bracey, Julius Hicks, Flo Hartenstein, David Jackson and Kristian Kristensen will all participate in a pre-game ceremony to honor their careers at Oregon.
“This is our seniors’ last weekend, and we don’t want them to go out on a losing effort,” junior guard Freddie Jones said.
Senior student managers Andy Whiteside and Nick Graham will also participate in the ceremonies with the players.
“These guys know that it’s the seniors’ last homestand,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said after Tuesday’s practice. “The underclassmen understand how important it is to not let them lose. It’s important for us to finish out this homestand strong for those upperclassmen.”

Turn back the clocks
Saturday’s game against USC, originally scheduled for 7 p.m., has been moved back to a 6 p.m. tip-off to accommodate the television broadcast of the game. That contest, along with Thursday’s matchup with UCLA, will be shown locally on Oregon Sports Network.

Triple-double trouble
Oregon freshman Luke Jackson scored a rare triple-double in the Ducks’ 85-73 victory over Washington Saturday.
How rare? It was the first Oregon triple-double since Ron Lee did it in 1972. It was the first ever scored by a freshman in a Pacific-10 Conference game. It was only the 14th triple-double in the conference since the Pac-10 started keeping track in 1985, and the second for a freshman in that time span.
Jackson’s 14 points were not a career high, but his 11 rebounds and 10 assists were career highs. Jackson had only 31 career assists before Saturday’s game.

Hicks throwing

a block party
Oregon center Julius Hicks has picked up where Chris Christoffersen left off when “Big Chris” injured his hand before the Ducks’ matchup with Arizona State. Hicks has 10 blocks in the past three games, and has spearheaded a defense that has allowed opponents an average of 67.5 points in the last four games.
“We’re just allowing him to get into defensive position more,” Kent said about Hicks. “It’s important for us to keep him healthy. If he’s healthy, obviously we’re a much better basketball team.”
Hicks has picked up his offensive intensity as well. “Juice” averages 7.8 points per game, but is shooting 64 percent from the field to lead the Pac-10 in that category.

For what it’s worth
Oregon’s Pit Crew will be happy to know that Arizona forward Michael Wright finally got caught.
In a game last weekend, Wright was called for spending more than 10 seconds at the free-throw line. When Arizona played in Eugene, Duck fans counted the number of seconds Wright took to release his free throws out loud, often reaching 17 and 18 seconds.
Oregon will take on Arizona in Tucson March 3.