The Oregon men’s basketball team has been practicing for a month now. They’ve played scrimmages and pick-up games.
Tonight, the Ducks will have a scrimmage of sorts. Only the other team won’t be wearing green and yellow. And they’ll have Australian accents.
Oregon tips off its season at McArthur Court tonight at 7 p.m. against the Basketball Travelers from Brisbane, Australia. The contest is the first of two exhibition games for the Ducks, who open the regular season Nov. 15.
Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said the Ducks will try to use tonight’s game as a checkpoint for the young season.
“I don’t care if it’s an exhibition game or a Pac-10 game,” Kent said. “There are certain responsibilities for everyone on this team. If we have every guy doing the right job at the right time, that will tell us a lot about our basketball team right now.”
Kent said that Duck fans can expect a more tenacious, tight defense than last season. Oregon gave up almost 78 points per game last season. The addition of assistant coach Fred Litzenberger, who has a reputation for coaching good defenses, has helped the Ducks’ “D” this season, according to Kent.
“Our defense has come a long way,” Kent said. “So far we’ve proven to be very coachable.”
On offense, the Ducks will rely on a trio of guards for point production and will test out a revolving spice rack of big men in an attempt to find strength in the middle. The Ducks will test the early-season presence of senior center Chris Christoffersen and will also test out returning big men Mark Michaelis and Jay Anderson. Newcomers Robert Johnson and Brian Helquist, 6-foot-8 and 6-foot-9, respectively, could also see playing time.
Guard Freddie Jones, who was selected to ESPN.com’s preseason All Pac-10 Team, said the offense will be looking to put up big numbers on the Travelers.
“We’re going to try to play our game,” Jones said. “We want to cut down on turnovers and play hard.”
Jones will most likely square off with former Duck Terik Brown, who is now a member of the Basketball Travelers. Brown, a guard, graduated in 1999, and shows up several places in the Oregon record books. His 1,152 points put him 15th on the school scoring list, and he holds the University’s second place in career three-pointers with 223.
Despite Brown’s Oregon ties, Jones said he won’t go easy on the former Duck.
“He’s not a Duck anymore,” Jones said with a smile.
Kent said the Travelers represent a step forward in the 2001-02 season. Instead of scrimmaging with Ducks, the team will now scrimmage with Travelers, one of them an ex-Duck.
“We’ve been beating each other up for the past few weeks, and it will be good to play someone else for a change,” Kent said.