Oregon Basketball: Ducks Open Road Trip At Arizona

Oregon Basketball heads to the Desert to take on Arizona and Arizona State this week.

There are seven teams in the Pac-12 that have ten wins or more, including both Oregon and Arizona. Each team in the Conference has at least four losses which gives the Conference very little respect in the eyes of the National polls. Last week Arizona State, who beat Kansas the week before received not a spot in the poll, but a single vote. Entering this week, Oregon can make a lot of noise with some road wins in the State of Arizona.

Up first, a revamped Oregon Lineup heads to Arizona to take on the Wildcats. Sean Miller has Arizona at the top of the Pac-12 Conference with a 4-0 mark. While that may seem impressive, this is a team that lost to Alabama in the non-conference slate and like Oregon, is working toward finding the right matchups to dominate.

The Oregon Ducks took 24 three-pointers against USC last weekend and landed 13 of them in a big win against the USC Trojans. Louis King and Paul White led the team in scoring with 19 points each. With the loss of Bol Bol for the rest of the season, along with the transfer of Abu Kigab, the youth movement is in full swing in Eugene. With King, Oregon has a player that can create his own shot, when he needs to. Will Richardson has shown that he can play a big role on Defense, when he needs to and Francis Okoro and White are the two biggest players that the Ducks have to push on Defense, at the moment.

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Kenny Wooten was expected to be out for at least another month with a broken jaw, but may return sooner than expected. Oregon has played and competed over their last two games. The Ducks had a lead in the final five minutes against UCLA last Thursday, but let it slip away and lost in overtime. They learned from their mistakes and picked up a big win vs USC Sunday.

The key for Oregon Thursday night is to get off to a good start. Oregon could potentially start three Freshman with King, Okoro, and possibly Richardson. King can help the Ducks get into an early rhythm and Payton Pritchard will need to find the basket more than he did last weekend. (against UCLA, he had just four points, off Free throws)

For the Arizona Wildcats, Dylan Smith may be the player to watch. He is 6 foot 5 and will likely see time vs Oregon as a Power Forward. His height could also play a role on the Defensive end of the floor on Thursday night.

Oregon and Arizona tipoff at 6 pm Pacific Time on ESPN.

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