Remember this: Anything can happen in a rivalry game.
No. 23 Oregon (12-4 overall, 5-1 Pacific-10 Conference) will battle Oregon State (8-8, 1-5) in a game that is important to one team’s conference title hopes, at least. The first Civil War matchup of the season is at the Beavers’ Gill Coliseum, where the Ducks have won eight of the last nine.
Oregon has taken 15 of the last 16 contests overall in the series, a streak that dates back to 1994. Last season the Ducks won the two games by a combined 27 points.
Despite Oregon’s dominance, the mantra is the same every year for the Ducks.
“It’s going to be a tough game, especially up there, and this being the Civil War,” Oregon guard Luke Ridnour said. “They’re going to come at us, they’re going to want it pretty bad, and we’ve got to want it.”
Because in a rivalry game, anything can happen.
This season, the Beavers are led by 6-foot-7 junior forward Phillip Ricci, who sat out last season after knee surgery. Ricci averages 16.7 points and 7.2 rebounds per game.
“They are a much-improved basketball team over the last year, with a guy that’s playing at an all-conference level in Ricci,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said.
While the Beavers have an unimpressive record, many of their games have been close. Oregon State hung with Arizona in Corvallis, before falling short in the final minute, 76-73. The Beavers lost by 10 to Texas, six at Arizona, eight to California and five to Arizona State — twice.
“They’ve been involved in all their games, they just haven’t been able to close out games,” Kent said.
The Ducks have also had problems closing out wins, on the road at least. Oregon is 1-4 on the road this season, but 11-1 in games played in Oregon (including a victory over Louisville at the Papé Jam tournament in Portland). The Ducks’ one road victory came over then-No. 14 Arizona. Their road losses came at Massachusetts (currently 6-8 overall), Portland (4-12), Minnesota (10-6) and Arizona State (10-5).
So how do the Ducks deal with their shortcomings on the road?
“We can’t have letdowns,” senior guard Freddie Jones said. “We’ve got to keep our intensity consistent through the Pac-10 season.”
With each passing weekend, the Pac-10 games become more important for the Oregon team. Depending on what happens in the rest of the weekend’s conference games, the Ducks could be competing for a chance to lead the “Pac” on Saturday.
“It seems like each game gets a little bit bigger for us and this one is no different,” Kent said. “This is a big game for us on the schedule right now.”
“If we can get this win, it will help a lot, with those California teams going at it,” Oregon sophomore guard James Davis said.
The Ducks’ early success in the Pac-10 has been almost unprecedented in recent years. If Oregon can beat Oregon State to go to 6-1 in conference play, it will be only the second time in 63 years that the Ducks have achieved a 6-1 conference ledger. The last time Oregon was 6-1 in conference play was two seasons ago, when the Ducks went to the NCAA Tournament.
But, really, anything can happen in a rivalry game.
The Beavers will “certainly come into the game with a lot of emotion, because it’s a Pac-10 game, it’s at their place, and it’s a Civil War game,” Kent said. “We fully expect that.”
The Ducks will square off with the Beavers at 7:07 p.m. Saturday. The game will be broadcast with a one-hour delay in Eugene because of the NFL playoffs.