Luke Ridnour was running. Luke Jackson was gunning. And Freddie Jones was jamming.
Life was indeed good Tuesday night for the Oregon men’s basketball team, as it opened its exhibition season with a 97-45 win over the Brisbane Capitals, also known as the Basketball Travelers.
“I was pretty pleased with what we were able to do,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said.
Now, the Ducks get to face a team called Global Sports, a touring team consisting of former collegiate basketball players, at 3 p.m. Sunday at McArthur Court.
Global Sports should be able to give the Ducks more of a challenge after Oregon breezed by the Capitals with little to sweat about.
The Ducks will be facing a tired team, though. Oregon will be the ninth opponent for Global Sports in an 11-game stretch that began on Nov. 1 and will end on Nov. 14. The only win that Global Sports has been able to acquire came on Nov. 1, when it narrowly beat Kansas State, 58-57.
In the win, Global Sports’ Darren McClinton drained a three-pointer with one second left to steal the win at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, Kan. McClinton had nine points, five assists and four steals to lead his team to victory.
Since then, Global Sports has fallen to the likes of Fresno State, Nevada, San Jose State and Iowa State. Global Sports played at Southern Utah Thursday, will meet again with Nevada tonight, travel to Utah State on Saturday and then head into Eugene for the Oregon game Sunday.
The Ducks hope to come out with the same type of defensive energy that it exhibited Tuesday. Kent knows that the offensive firepower is there for this team, as was evidenced by Jones’ 27 points, Ridnour’s 17 points and Jackson’s 13 points against the Capitals.
But Kent said he especially wants to use these exhibition games to focus on its intensity on the defensive side of the ball, which he knows will be the deciding factor between wins and losses once the real season begins.
“Hopefully people can see marked improvement with our defense,” Kent said. “We are working hard from a coaching perspective and still feel like we can get 50 percent better defensively.”
Sunday’s contest marks the second and final exhibition game for the Ducks. They will then have to get ready in a hurry as they open the regular season on Nov. 15 against Alabama State on the opening day of the America’s Youth Classic, hosted by Oregon at Mac Court.