The Oregon men’s basketball team returns to Matthew Knight Arena tonight to face off with UTEP in a quick pit stop before heading to BYU this weekend.@@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&SPID=235&SPSID=4294@@
The Miners (1-3) arrive in Eugene fresh off a 53-35 loss to Stephen F. Austin over the weekend, while Oregon (3-1) is riding high after an impressive road victory over Nebraska last Wednesday.@@http://www.utepathletics.com/sports/m-baskbl/sched/utep-m-baskbl-sched.html@@ @@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&SPID=235&SPSID=4294@@
“We played pretty good,” Oregon head coach Dana Altman said. “Our vets carried us, our new guys are coming along, so I thought we made a big step.”
Altman is looking for another step forward against UTEP, which is coached by former USC head man Tim Floyd. The Miners are young, with 10 underclassmen on their roster, but the Ducks certainly aren’t looking past Floyd’s squad.@@http://admin.utep.edu/Default.aspx?tabid=64599@@
“They’re quick, they’ll get up and pressure,” Altman said. “We’ve gotta handle the ball. Tim will always throw something at you, so we’ve got to be prepared to make adjustments.”
UTEP’s lone win of the season came on Nov. 13 against UC Riverside and the Miners are averaging just 56 points per game on .405 shooting thus far. They turn the ball over 15.8 times per game, while also forcing opponents into 12.8 of their own. After giving the ball away at an alarming rate to start the season, Oregon has settled down of late and that will have to continue tonight against a pressure-oriented UTEP team.@@http://www.utepathletics.com/sports/m-baskbl/stats/2011-2012/teamcume.html@@
“They’re an athletic group,” junior guard Garrett Sim said. “So we just want to play together and play our game and hopefully come out with a win.”@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=1603562@@
This time around, Oregon will enter the contest with a legitimate road victory under its belt. The Cornhuskers had been undefeated going into their matchup with the Ducks and had a substantial home-court advantage on their side. However, Oregon was unfazed and came away from Nebraska with a renewed sense of confidence.@@http://www.huskers.com/SportSelect.dbml?spid=24&spsid=22&db_oem_id=100@@
“That was a good place to go in and get a win,” Sim said. “They had a good crowd that night and we faced some adversity — they came back in the second half and we had to deal with pressure at the end and we came through with the win. So that was big for us.”
With no word from freshman Jabari Brown, the Ducks will also be forced to move on without their top recruit. Brown left the team back on Nov. 20 and Altman no longer expects him to return.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205185544@@
“It’s been a long time,” Altman said. “I’m sure he’s moved on and we’ve got to move on.”
Oregon has plenty of available talent with or without Brown, and has another chance to showcase it tonight.
“We’re a lot better than we thought we would be this quick,” forward Jeremy Jacob said. “Talk across the nation would probably be a whole different talk if we had just beat Vanderbilt.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=3748532@@
“We’ve come a long way.”