Oregon Basketball: Ducks Face Sweet 16 Challenge vs Houston
The Houston Cougars bring experience and a Sweet 16 team to Matthew Knight Arena on Friday night to face Oregon Basketball.
When the season schedule was released for the Oregon Men’s Basketball team, there was a game that was circled on the calendar. It will be played tonight at Matthew Knight Arena and pits two teams that made it to the Sweet 16 of last year’s NCAA Tournament with Houston Cougars.
Oregon Basketball is off to a solid 4-0 start on the season and ranked just outside the top ten. Chemistry has come early for Dana Altman in his tenth season and the sparkplug is Payton Pritchard. He picked up where he left off last season after taking Oregon in a 10 game winning streak into the NCAA Tournament.
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The addition of Anthony Mathis has certainly helped move things along over the opening weeks of the regular season. Mathis has shown his ability to shoot from beyond the arc with precision in key moments of games and that is a solid sign of things to come. Altman has assembled another contending team in the Pac-12 Conference that is gelling earlier than expected.
The Houston Cougars are 2-1 and unranked entering the matchup, but there are likely some matchup problems to keep an eye on. Quentin Grimes is the player to watch for Houston. He had a career-high 32-points vs Rice earlier this week and is hitting a blistering 57 percent from the floor. The Kansas transfer is showing his skills at the next level and has scored in double for the Cougars first three games.
The Oregon Defense held UT Arlington to shooting just above 25 percent from the floor for the game earlier this week, which was their worse shooting in school history. Transition defense will play a role on Friday night for Oregon Basketball. The Ducks have improved in this area specifically and it has shown early on in 2019. The Ducks will also need to stay out of foul trouble early and look for some fast break points.
Payton Pritchard may have an easier time being guarded by Houston Freshman Marcus Sasser which Cougars Head Coach Kelvin Sampson recently called ‘not a fair fight.’
Oregon and Houston tipoff from Matthew Knight Arena at 6 pm Pacific Time Friday.