The Pacific-10 Conference season just won’t get any easier for the Oregon men’s basketball team.
A week after dropping two games on their crucial southern California road trip, the Ducks (11-6 overall, 2-5 Pac-10) will take on No. 7 Arizona on Thursday, and then No. 1 Stanford and California (14-5) the following week.
On a positive note, all those games will be played at McArthur Court.
Almost more important than those games is the invisible milestone that Oregon will pass after playing Arizona State on Sunday: the Pac-10’s midway point. While the past may look bleak, the future is bright if the Ducks can win some games at home that they lost on the road.
“We’re looking to win about seven or eight more games,” freshman point guard Luke Ridnour said. “We’re looking forward to the next two weeks, playing in front of the students.”

Postseason posturing
With only a 2-5 conference record, and games against the Wildcats, the Cardinal and the Golden Bears looming, the word “postseason” isn’t really in Oregon’s vocabulary right now.
But with a little luck and a few key wins in the second half of the season, the Ducks may be able to think March Madness after all.
Oregon would most likely need a 10-8 Pac-10 record to make the NCAA Tournament. If the Ducks lose to Arizona twice and Stanford once, that means Oregon would need to win the rest of its conference matchups to achieve that mark. But the Ducks have already faced their tough road tests against California, UCLA and Southern California. In the second half of the season, the Ducks will face those teams in the friendly confines of Mac Court, and could very well beat them with a little help from the Pit Crew.

Road warriors
Oregon head coach Ernie Kent thought his team would be good on the road, but so far the Ducks have failed to win as a visitor in the Pac-10.
Kent, however, believes those losses will help Oregon in the long run.
“We’ve learned a lot of lessons,” Kent said. “We’re still growing as a team.”
Kent said his team made mental mistakes on the road that it might not make at home. The Ducks will play five more road games this season — against Washington, Washington State, Arizona, Arizona State and Oregon State — compared to six home games.

The biggest toddler ever
Oregon’s 7-foot-2 center, Chris Christoffersen, has “come of age” recently, according to Kent. The big man is taking baby steps toward a starting role as the Ducks’ center, and may even find himself starting Thursday against Arizona’s Loren Woods, one of the premier centers in the country.
“We want to show the rest of the conference we’re a force to be reckoned with down low,” Christoffersen said.
Christoffersen had the best game of his Oregon career Saturday, scoring 15 points and grabbing seven rebounds before fouling out late in the contest. The usually timid big man dunked, hit free throws and held his own on defense in the post against UCLA. Christoffersen had eight points against USC last Thursday, and 11 against Washington State in the game before that.

The Jones-Bracey Express
Freddie Jones and Bryan Bracey have been carrying Oregon on offense throughout the 2000-01 season, and they show no signs of slowing down.
Jones and Bracey combine for 34.2 points per game, more than 40 percent of the Ducks’ total average. Bracey is currently the Pac-10’s leading scorer at 19.4 points per contest.