While the Oregon men’s basketball team plans on taking its run-and-gun offense into McArthur Court as its key element, Fresno State will be a team on the opposite spectrum.
The Bulldogs do not have the speed or the depth that the Ducks enjoy. Instead of employing an up-tempo offense, Fresno State plans on trying to stop
the Ducks in their tracks.
“That’s our identity,” Fresno State head coach Ray Lopes told The Fresno Bee after an exhibition win last week. “That’s our program. Defense and rebounding.”
Defense and rebounding led the Bulldogs to a 20-8 record last season. Two of the losses came in the team’s final two games of the season.

A 62-59 loss to Tulsa and a 92-71 heartbreaker to Rice tainted Fresno State’s Western Athletic Conference record of 13-5.
Entering tonight’s game against Oregon, the Bulldogs will be undermanned, expecting to have just seven players available to play. Forward Francis Koffi, a junior college transfer originally from Paris, will be held out of the game because of worries about his eligibility.
Junior forward Dreike Bouldin won’t play because of a fractured right pinky finger and sophomore guard Terry Pettis will sit due to suspension.
“We’re going to have to be an opportunistic team, because right now the numbers hurt us,” Lopes told the Bee on Wednesday. “Foul trouble hurts us. Fatigue hurts us.”
Fresno State will have senior Shantay Legans, a guard Oregon fans should recognize. After three seasons at California, Legans transferred to Fresno State previous to last season but had to sit out last year because of NCAA regulations.
Legans’ last game at McArthur Court proved to be a close one with the Ducks defeating the Golden Bears, 76-72.
The guard started and played 23 minutes, posting five points and two assists.
“[Jonathan] Woods and Shantay Legans are two very good players for them,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said. “They are guys with some experience; Woods from last year and Legans having played at Cal and knows this environment. This environment will not intimidate him.”
Only Woods, a senior forward who transferred to the Bulldogs last season from South Plains College, started 20 or more games for Fresno State last season.
The Bulldogs lost three others — Damon Jackson, Noel Felix and Travis DeManby — from a team that averaged 37.8 rebounds per game and held opponents to less than 67 points per contest.
“Fresno State will be a very athletic basketball team,” Kent said. “This is a good test for us because of some of the similarities. They play a lot of one-on-one basketball, they have a pretty good system and are pretty well coached. They really pound the glass.
“Blocking out becomes a huge factor. One-on-one defense becomes a huge factor.”

In the past…
Oregon and Fresno State have played eight times, with the Ducks winning six games.
The teams last played in 1996 with Oregon getting the win, 87-75. The Bulldogs last defeated the Ducks, 83-82, a year before.
Fresno State has never won at McArthur Court, and the Ducks have never won in Fresno.

Not the toughest schedule
Fresno State plays just two other teams this season other than Oregon that received votes in either the preseason Associated Press Poll or ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll.
Nevada, a WAC school, received three votes in the latter poll, while Creighton, which plays in the Missouri Valley Conference, received four points in the AP Poll.
The Ducks received 33 points in the AP Poll and 70 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll.