Ernie Kent walked across McArthur Court with two preschoolers Tuesday afternoon for part of a meet-and-greet with the team, prompting one media member to say his team had managed to get even younger. To which Kent replied, “They can shoot it, though.”
The atmosphere at Mac Court has taken a 180-degree turn since February, when Oregon (6-8, 2-14) was in the middle of its 0-14 stretch. With back-to-back wins, Oregon plays USC (16-12, 7-9) and UCLA (22-7, 11-5) this weekend with momentum on its side.
The only negative for Oregon was junior guard Tajuan Porter getting his right eye scratched during practice Tuesday that kept him out the rest of practice. Kent said he expects him back for Thursday after he goes on antibiotics.
Meanwhile, the Trojans have taken a turn for the worse, losing six of their last seven games, and now stand tied for seventh place in the Pacific-10 Conference. The pressure that dogged Oregon for so long seems to finally be on its opponent.
“I think the pressure is on both of these teams,” Kent said. “UCLA is fighting for a co-championship and everything else. We’re going down just to get better. Whatever pressure they can put on us it’s going to be good for us.”
Freshman guard Matt Humphrey, who scored a career-high 17 points Sunday, said Oregon still can’t look past its game plan against USC and worry about the Trojans’ struggles.
“We can’t really worry about what the other team has to play for,” he said. “We gotta do what we do.”
The press’s pressure
What Oregon did exceptionally well in its last game was use the full-court pressure defense and the half court trap to force seven Oregon State turnovers.
Will we see more of that the rest of the season, which includes another trip back to Los Angeles next week for the Pac-10 Tournament?
Possibly.
“It just depends on what team we’re playing,” Humphrey said. “That team (OSU) couldn’t take pressure. Some teams can handle it really well and it can hurt you.”
Both teams this week have experienced point guards who can do such a thing. UCLA senior Darren Collison averages 15 points and five assists per game, while USC’s junior Daniel Hackett averages nearly five assists per game and scored 15 points against Oregon in their last meeting.
Junior forward Joevan Catron said the coaches want to go back to the pressing system if the matchups allow it.
“The coaches have talked about turning that into our system with the job we did against Oregon State,” Catron said. “I don’t have a problem with it. That’s the style of Oregon, up and down offense and defense.”
A measuring stick from the first time
Oregon began its Pac-10 schedule against USC and UCLA more than two months ago in what was a rude awakening for the young Duck team’s first league game.
Kent says he sees a new basketball team from UO in that time, but also said he will judge it more against the last road trip Oregon had, an 0-2 embarrassment to the Washington schools.
“What I also see is we’re a different basketball team now,” Kent said. “I don’t know how many teams over the course of the next two or three weeks can gain so much ground and get so much better. I don’t know how many teams can say that.”
Oregon lost by 21 to USC in the first game after a disastrous second half, and lost to UCLA after staying tight with the Bruins much of the game. That game gave them hope they could hang with the rest of the league, until they began losing even more.
“We didn’t play hard for 40 minutes the first time we played USC,” Humphrey said.
Catron said a light bulb has clicked for Oregon in its last two games compared to its first two.
“I remember them dunking a couple times,” he said. “Now our team has pretty much turned around.”
L.A. reunion
Sophomore guard Kamyron Brown is the lone LA native on the roster, but the trip back won’t be anything out of the ordinary for him besides seeing family, he said. He played in high school games for Mater Dei High at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion, so going home is no big deal.
If Porter isn’t able to play against USC Thursday, he said he expects to step up to fill the void. With Porter playing so well at point guard Sunday, it also freed him to play shooting guard, without ballhandling responsibilities.
“If he’s comfortable at the point I can play two,” he said. “I just like it when he gets in the zone.”
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