The No.10 Oregon men’s basketball team will be working on turkey and relaxation — emphasis on relaxation — just as most other Americans will be over the short Thanksgiving holiday.
But the Ducks will also be thinking about rebounds, zone defenses and
free throws.
Oregon will take on Pacific on Saturday in their first of two tune-ups before facing No. 2 Kansas in the Papé Jam at the Rose Garden on Dec. 7. The Ducks will also face Portland — a team that upset Oregon in the preseason last year — Wednesday. Both games will be played at McArthur Court.
After Oregon struggled to an 86-77 win over California-State Northridge on Monday night in the title game of the John Thompson Challenge and the Ducks’ second game in as many nights, head coach Ernie Kent said his team would take it easy for a while.
“That’s pretty hard on us, back-to-back games like that,” Kent said. “We probably pushed that throttle a little too much (Sunday night) in terms of not getting a lot of rest, because it certainly showed tonight.”
The Ducks said they learned from Monday night’s scrappy, hard-fought contest.
“This should help us, because we found a lot of things that we need to work on,” center Brian Helquist said.

Helquist and the rest of the Oregon team will focus on rebounding and defense as they head toward a matchup with Pacific. The Ducks were outrebounded by Grambling State and Northridge by a combined 87-77 in the two games of the Challenge. And after holding the Tigers to 26-percent shooting in the first contest, the Ducks allowed the Matadors to hit 48.4 percent of their shots Monday.
“What I’m going to go back and work on after we rest this basketball team is getting back to a rhythm, getting back to fundamentals, get them reloaded again and get ready to play,” Kent said.
Pacific, which plays in the Big West Conference along with Northridge, could challenge the Ducks as did the Matadors, who won their conference and went to the NCAA Tournament in 2000-01. Pacific finished last season with a 20-10 record, beat Northridge in the first round of the Big West Tournament but lost in the second round to Utah State.
But few players from that team remain, as Pacific graduated four starters and nine total seniors in the offseason. This season, the Tigers lost their opener to Santa Clara by six points before beating Lamar in overtime Sunday.
Kent said it doesn’t matter who Oregon plays this season.
“The thing these guys need to understand is that it’s very similar to football; we do have a target,” Kent said. “For Cal-State Northridge, that’s the big game. They don’t fear you, and they’re going to get after you, just like Pepperdine will and Pacific coming in here, and that’s why we put this schedule together. Because even those schools whose names aren’t as big as Kansas and Cincinnati, they’re going to try to get after you and try to beat you.”
But not many teams have beaten Oregon at home recently. The Ducks have won 18 straight games at McArthur Court, a record that dates back to February of 2001, and have beaten 15-straight non-conference opponents at The Pit.
The streak is second-longest in Oregon history. The Ducks won 23 in a row from 1937-39, and if they keep up their pace, the current team will try to break the record against Arizona on Jan. 2.
Until then, the Ducks are just trying to work on turkey and rest after a long weekend of basketball.
“There were a lot of times in (Monday’s) game where, from a mental and physical toughness point, we were challenged a little bit, and luckily, we came out of it as the game went on,” Kent said.
The Ducks are likely to be challenged mentally and physically again Saturday, but this time they’ll be ready.