Oregon Ducks Take To The Road, Face Upstart Arizona State
The Oregon Ducks Men’s Basketball team faces their biggest challenge to date vs Arizona State on Thursday night.
Arizona State has not played a home game in 2018. The Sundevils are also undefeated at home this season after opening Pac-12 play on the road loss to Colorado but beating Utah last weekend. ASU comes in with some momentum and a high RPI, currently 9th in the nation. The team started the season undefeated at 9-0 averaging close to 90 points per game.
Before the start of Pac-12 play, the Oregon Ducks were second in the Pac-12 averaging just over 85 points per game, but have lost momentum after a 1-2 Conference start. Head Coach Dana Altman had the team focused in practice earlier this week as Oregon had what he said was the best practice so far this season.
The focus was Offense and passing the ball as well as Defensively working on Rebounding, which has been the theme for the Ducks since Altman joined the program.
Arizona State is led by Tra Parker who is hitting 45 percent from the floor and averaging 21 points and 5 rebounds per game. ASU has shown they are prepared for big games this season. They beat Xavier in Las Vegas and also took care of Kansas on the road. The team can also score with 8 players scoring 20+ points in games this season.
"They’ve gone out and played well. They lost a tough one to Arizona and a tough one to Colorado. Those two losses aren’t going to hurt them.Oregon Head Coach Dana Altman on What Arizona State has done this season."
The Oregon Ducks have lost two of their last three games, but Freshman Kenny Wooten has been a bright spot on Defense. He is averaging over 3 per game and the Ducks are 10-1 when outrebounding opponents this season. Freshman Troy Brown and Junior Payton Pritchard were keys to the non-conference slate and need to find the ball on Thursday night.
Pritchard was shut down against Oregon State last weekend missing 10 shots from the floor. The Ducks are averaging just 60 points per game the last two games after pushing over 85 points per game entering Pac-12 Play.
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The Oregon Ducks and Arizona State Sundevils tip off at 7 pm Pacific Time on Fox Sports 1.
Quotes obtained firsthand at Oregon Basketball Practice