Oregon Ducks Look For 5th Straight Pac-12 Win, Face USC Trojans To Close Regular Season
The Oregon Ducks can take the Pac-12 Regular Season Title outright on Saturday with a road win against the USC Trojans.
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Finish Strong is a phrase that should not be taken lightly for the Oregon Ducks Men’s Basketball team. On Saturday the team has a chance to win their first outright Pac-12 Conference Regular Season Title for the first time since 2002. All the need is another road win, this time in the Galen Center against the USC Trojans. The Title would be the first under Head Coach Dana Altman and the first in fourteen years for a team that is on their way into the post season.
With the win over UCLA on Wednesday night, the ninth ranked Oregon Ducks took the top spot for the Pac-12 Tournament which starts next Wednesday. Oregon will have a bye in the first round and face either the 8 or 9 seed on Thursday. A win on Saturday would also give Oregon momentum and a 5 game winning streak, similar to the 5 game winning streak that Dana Altman and the Ducks put together last season heading into the 2015 Pac-12 Tournament. When the records reset next week expect Oregon to be in for a fight for the Conference Championship with Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and Cal all playing well and giving the Oregon Ducks their best shot.
USC enters the final game of the Pac-12 Regular season looking for a signature win to put them on track for the NCAA Tournament and a victory over Oregon might just do it. The Trojans enter at 20-10 and will also likely need a win or two in the Pac-12 Tournament next week. The Trojans enter averaging more points per game than Oregon (81 to 78), but the Ducks have proved they can step up to the challenge when needed this season. Against UCLA the Ducks were able to pull away in the final minutes to put the game out of reach.
One area that Oregon is vulnerable, and has been all season, is a slow start. If the Ducks come out flat, the Trojans will capitalize. USC has lost five of seven, but beat Oregon State earlier this week. Jordin McLaughlin is averaging just over 12 points per game this season. USC is dangerous from beyond the arc with seven players hitting better than .300 and two over 44 percent with McLaughlin and Nikola Javanovic hitting at close to 55 percent from three point range. Dana Altman has watched his team go from the best three point defensive team in the Conference to the worst this season, which will bear watching to see if the Oregon Ducks can close it out.
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Oregon and USC tipoff Saturday at 1pm on Pac-12 Networks.