Oregon Ducks Look To Defend Home Court vs Washington Huskies
The Oregon Ducks(15-8, 5-5 Pac-12) host the Washington Huskies(17-6, 7-3 Pac-12) Thursday night at Matthew Knight Arena
At this point, every game is important for the Oregon Ducks Men’s Basketball team. The Washington Huskies come to Matthew Knight Arena on Thursday with a 7-3 Pac-12 mark. The Oregon Ducks have won three of their last four games. The Ducks suffered a setback on the road at Stanford. The Cardinal shot the lights out from three-point range and Oregon was not able to find the answer.
While the Washington Huskies have not blown out opponents, they have won recently in more dramatic fashion. They beat Arizona on a buzzer beater and have won four straight Pac-12 Conference games entering Thursday. The win over the Wildcats was also their third win over a ranked opponent this season.
Washington Freshman Jaylen Nowell has been impressive this season. He has scored at least 10 points in 16 straight games and has 7 games of 20 points or more this season. The Huskies are also a team that is experienced enough to not panic if they are down. Washington has trailed and come back to win. The team has trailed by five points and come back to win in 7 of their 17 wins this season.
According to Ken Pomeroy’s Rankings, both Oregon and Washington are well outside the Field of 64 right now. The Ducks are 91st, Washington comes in this week at 90th. It is clear that both teams have work to do over the next three weeks to be in consideration for the NCAA Tournament.
The Oregon Ducks have done some things well this season. The team leads the Pac-12 in Free throw percentage hitting 78 percent from the charity stripe. Elijah Brown is a big reason why. He has made 39 consecutive free throws dating back to the game against Oklahoma in the Phil Knight Invitational. Payton Pritchard has shown better leadership on the court over the last four games and on-court communication is improving.
Senior MiKyle McIntosh has been in beast mode of late. He has scored in double figures in the last five games and has three double-doubles over the same span. Troy Brown also seems to have found a positive groove after a less than stellar road trip against the Arizona schools last month. The Ducks will need to be competitive against Washington
Next: Oregon Football Recruiting: Ducks Add To Offense On National Signing Day
The Oregon Ducks and Washington Huskies tipoff at 7:15 pm Pacific Time on Fox Sports 1