Malik Hairston hasn’t had an easy season.
After suffering a heel injury that kept him out for the first five games, a groin injury forced him to watch his team for another five, including Oregon’s win over then-No. 1 UCLA on Jan. 6.
While he’s still shown flashes of his athleticism by dunking over defenders or blocking opponents’ shots, the injuries have lingered and hampered his production at times this season. Most recently, he’s been held from scoring more than nine points since the last time the Ducks played Arizona on Feb. 10.
Last week Oregon coach Ernie Kent said Hairston was playing at around 60 percent of his capable production.
Hairston won’t use his injuries as an excuse for any poor performance in the Ducks’ Pacific-10 Conference Tournament opener today against Arizona, but he’ll admit that it’s slowed his production in recent games.
“I’ve been through a medley of different injuries that have kind of kept me down,” Hairston said. “Arizona isn’t going to know or care that I’m 70-75 percent or whatever the case may be. I’m going to go out there and give it my all.”
Twice this season Hairston has sat out through a stretch of games to allow ample time to heal. But when he’s trying to recover from one thing, the reliance on one part of the body resulted in another injury.
“It was the groin first and then the foot,” Hairston said. “You focus on the foot so much and you’re groin starts to hurt again.”
Not only have Hairston’s critics blamed his injuries for underwhelming games, but the fatigue issue is brought up as well. Does Oregon want to win all of its games in the Pac-10 Tournament if it means that the Ducks may be a bit tired heading into a nearly assured NCAA Tournament berth? Might Oregon want to lose a game before it gets too winded? Hairston, however, said it will never matter how tired you are heading into one of the biggest games of a player’s season.
“If you get to the tournament and your tank’s on empty and you can’t get up to play in those big games, then you shouldn’t be playing college basketball,” Hairston said.
The Ducks (23-7 overall, 11-7 Pac-10 Conference) may need all the help it can get from Hairston against Arizona (20-9, 11-7).
The last time the two teams met, the Wildcats walked away with a 77-74 victory in Eugene, thanks to a late basket by Ivan Radenovic and Oregon’s Aaron Brooks being called for a charging foul in the final seconds.
“The last four games, as I recall, have all been close ballgames,” Kent said. “We match up with them well and to me, it’s going to be who pays that price on the defensive end because we both score the ball so well.”
Specifically, Oregon will have to watch out for Radenovic, who scored 37 points on 12-of-18 shooting, while also dishing out seven assists and grabbing nine rebounds on March 3 against Stanford and Pac-10 Freshman of the Year Chase Budinger, who scored 30 points against Oregon in Eugene.
Kent said that many of Budinger’s points came while the team was in defensive transition.
“We didn’t do our responsibilities and gave up a lot of points,” Kent said. “There’s some things we can do differently that, hopefully, he doesn’t have a monster game. And certainly Radenovic doesn’t have a game like he did against Stanford. If you have one of those guys having one of those big games, you’re going to be in trouble.”
Maarty Leunen, who will likely match up against Radenovic, was impressed by the Arizona big man’s most recent game but knows there’s more than one guy to watch out for on that roster.
“We’ll do our best against him, but we know he’s not the only threat on that team so we’re just going to try and stop everybody,” Leunen said.
New Look
Arizona is one of four basketball teams debuting new Nike uniforms that accentuate the upper bodies, the Associated Press reported.
The Wildcats, along with the University of Florida, Ohio State University and Syracuse University, will wear the uniforms in the teams’ conference tournaments.
The jerseys are made to conform to the player’s body while the baggier shorts are made of a lightweight breathable material, Nike said.
Nike plans on introducing personalized uniforms to all of its NCAA partner schools in the fall.
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