If anything is true about Oregon basketball, it is that the Ducks are difficult to figure out.
They stunned then-No. 9 Arizona in blowout fashion on Jan. 14. They handed Utah a loss in Salt Lake City earlier this month. But on the flip side, the Ducks have suffered through poor shooting games in losses to lower-echelon conference teams, including Stanford last Saturday.
Host Oregon (11-9, 5-4 Pac-12) gets a shot to atone for a 41-point effort at Colorado earlier this month with a rematch against the Buffaloes in Eugene, Ore., on Thursday.
The Buffaloes (12-9, 4-6) blasted Oregon 68-41 at home on Jan. 5, with the Ducks shooting 26.9 percent and making just 1 of 14 3-pointers. This time, a Ducks’ win would keep Oregon in the top half of the Pac-12 standings.
Oregon is coming off a split in the Bay Area, with a blowout win at Cal and a loss at Stanford, where Jermaine Couisnard’s 18 points led the way in defeat.
“I complimented the guys on how hard they played the last two games (before Stanford) and we just didn’t have that same kind of effort, that same kind of focus,” Oregon head coach Dana Altman said.
Altman enters the week with 148 victories in Pac-12 regular-season games, two shy of becoming the 11th head coach to reach 150 wins in conference history.
Colorado got a big performance from Tristan da Silva (30 points) in the previous Ducks-Buffaloes meeting. da Silva has six 20-point games this season, including the 27 he scored last Sunday when Colorado ended a three-game losing streak with a win at home over Washington State.
Colorado head coach Tad Boyle said da Silva has something to prove in coming up with a similar performance on the road, where he has struggled. But Boyle was glad to get the win over Washington State.
“Our players really deserve that win. I mean, for all the disappointment and frustrations we’ve experienced over the last three to four weeks,” Boyle said.
–Field Level Media
