After a frustrating loss at home to California last Sunday, the Oregon men’s basketball team didn’t need any extra motivation as it prepared for a trip to the desert on Thursday. Oregon (11-5, 2-2 Pac-12) ranks right in the middle of the standings — far from where head coach Dana Altman and his players want to be. The stakes are high this weekend, and they know it.@@http://www.oregonlive.com/pac-12/index.ssf/2012/01/college_basketball_rundown_sun_devils_dismiss_soph.html@@
But the Ducks also remember what happened the last time they visited Arizona State’s Wells Fargo Arena back in March of 2011. The Sun Devils cruised to an overwhelming 73-53 victory, and Oregon shot a woeful 29.6 percent from the field.@@http://www.thesundevils.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/030311aac.html@@
Tonight’s game at Arizona State (5-10, 1-2 Pac-12), then, represents on opportunity for Oregon to right its own ship while also exacting revenge on a troublesome foe.

“We have a little bit of motivation from last year,” senior forward Tyrone Nared said. “The fact that we went down there and got beat by 20, when we know we should have won that game as well. So it’s a little anger out there, and we know where we’re at in the Pac-12 right now, and where we want to be at the end of the season.”
This year’s Sun Devil squad is far different from the 2010 iteration, and not in a good way. Just this past Sunday, leading scorer Keala King (13.7 points per game) was dismissed from the team due t0 “unacceptable conduct.” Though suspended players Kyle Cain (8.5 points, 6.5 rebounds per game) and Chris Colvin (5.4 points per game) are set to return to the floor tonight, the Sun Devils still come into the Oregon matchup immersed in disarray.@@http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/team/stats/_/id/9/arizona-state-sun-devils@@
Not that the Oregon players are paying any attention.
“They’ve had some trouble, they’re having some troubles with guys personally,” Sim said. “But sometimes that can bring a group together, so we have to be ready for their best punch. And it’s at their house, so we have to bring our A-game to take them down.”
Arizona State head coach Herb Sendek is known for presenting a different look on defense with the matchup zone set, but fit hasn’t kept the Sun Devils from falling to eighth in the conference in points allowed per game (65.3). The team has struggled even more on the offensive side of the ball, ranking 10th in scoring with just 63.6 points per game.
“They’re not picked high, but it’s a team that we can’t look past,” Sim said. “We can’t look past a Thursday game. We gotta focus on that game.”
Junior forward E.J. Singler agreed — for a middling team like Oregon, every game has to mean just as much as the other.
“Going into any Pac-12 (game) I feel like is the same game,” Singler said. “Any game is important, so I go into it — and I think our team goes into it — with the same frame of mind.”
Indeed, the players are all saying the right things. Whether the talk can translate to the court is a different issue entirely.
“We do so many things well in practice, but then we don’t do all the same things in the game,” Nared said. “It’s like when the light goes on, it’s like we switch a little bit. So we gotta stay together and stay confident, and stay as a family out there because sometimes we can get a little overboard, and things don’t work out for us.”
Should they avoid that pitfall tonight in Tempe, yet another challenge awaits on Saturday against Arizona (11-5, 2-1). Though the Wildcats are in a rebuilding mode after star forward Derrick Williams left for the NBA, they’re still a young and deep group that could cause problems for Oregon.
“They’re young, and (head coach) Sean (Miller) has a lot of new guys, so they’re making some mistakes they didn’t make a year ago,” Altman said. “But they’re still a very athletic team, very deep, we’re going to have to play awfully well down there.”