Oregon Prepares for Colorado Challenge
DUCKS CONTINUE TOUGH PAC-12 ROAD TRIP AT No. 20 COLORADO
Oregon continues its mountainous Pac-12 opening road trip when it faces off against No. 20 Colorado on Sunday at 2 p.m. Pacific (3 p.m. Mountain). The Ducks will play five of their first seven league tilts on the road. The Buffaloes are 12-2 on the season with impressive wins against Kansas, Georgia and Colorado State. CU opened Pac-12 play with a 64-58 victory over Oregon State on Thursday.
THE STARTING FIVE
1 - Oregon is 13-0 for just the fourth time in school history. The current start matches the school’s best since 2006-07. That Aaron Brooks-led Duck squad, which won the Pac-10 tournament and advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight, went 13-0 to open the year before falling to USC. Oregon last began a season 14-0 in 1937-38, and also went 14-0 in 1926-27.
2 - Oregon defeated Utah on Thursday night in spite of getting just 16 points combined from its top three scorers, Joseph Young (9 points), Mike Moser (3) and Jason Calliste (4). The Ducks’ depth showed with 14 points from Richard Amardi, 12 from Dominic Artis and 11 from Damyean Dotson.
3 - Oregon leads the nation in scoring and continues to be one of the best shooting teams as well. The Ducks average 89.2 points per game to pace the country. Oregon is also among the national leaders in field goal percentage (.503/7th), 3-point field goal percentage (.419/10th) and free throw percentage (.761/13th).
4 - The Ducks have scored at least 80 points in 10 of 13 games this season. Oregon has also gone over 90 points seven times and 100 four times. Oregon has put up those big scoring totals through a collaborative effort. Oregon has had at least four players score in double figures in nine of the last 10 games. The Ducks have also had five reach double figure five times, and six twice.
5 - Stealing away. The Ducks have recorded double-digit steals in four of the last six games. That’s after recording 10-plus steals only once in the first seven games.
TOURNAMENT TESTED
Colorado will be the fifth 2013 NCAA Tournament team the Ducks have played this season. So far Oregon is 4-0 against 2013 NCAA Tournament squads with wins over Georgetown, Pacific, Ole Miss and Illinois.
BACKCOURT EXPERIENCE
The Ducks have five backcourt players who combined to play nearly 5,000 minutes in 2012-13, and own more than 500 career three-pointers at the NCAA Division I level. The breakdown in 3’s: Jason Calliste - 196, Joseph Young - 150, Johnathan Loyd - 65, Damyean Dotson - 59, Dominic Artis - 35.
80 WIN CLUB
Now with 86 victories in an Oregon uniform, Johnathan Loyd trails only former teammate E.J. Singler, who won 89 times as a Duck from 2009-13. Loyd became the sixth member of Oregon’s 80-win club. That list now looks like: Singler (89), Loyd (85), Fred Jones (81), Joevan Catron (81), Luke Jackson (80) and Dick Wilkins (80).
LOYD ASSIST/STEAL NOTES
Johnathan Loyd tied the Matthew Knight Arena record with 13 assists Nov. 29 against Pacific. Former Duck Malcolm Armstead also had 13 assists at MKA against Oregon State in 2011. Earlier this season, Loyd passed a trio of Oregon legends on the Ducks’ career assists list, going by Kamikaze Kids’ point guard Mike Drummond (309/1974-78) for eighth, NBA all-star Terrell Brandon (315/1990-91) and former NBA player Fred Jones (367/1998-02) for sixth. Loyd now needs 20 more assists to become the sixth Duck with 400 career assists. On the steals chart, Loyd moved by current Houston Rocket Aaron Brooks (127/2003-07) for seventh in career steals Thursday against Utah. Loyd now has 129 total swipes.
LOYD NEARS ASSISTS RECORD, GETS FIRST CAREER DOUBLE-DOUBLE
Johnathan Loyd set a career high with 15 assists Dec. 8 at Ole Miss. He also just missed a career high with 23 points, but did record the first double-double of his career. The 15 assists were the second-highest single game total in school history. Only the great Ronnie Lee had a bigger assist game at Oregon, doling out 17 in a 116-77 win over Villanova (12-23-74).
DOUBLE FIGURES ENDS FOR YOUNG
Joseph Young had scored in double figures in every game this season before coming up one point short of 10 Thursday at Utah. Still, dating back to last season while at Houston, Young has scored in double figures in 14 of 15 and 37 of his last 39 outings. The junior recently reached the 1,000 point milestone of his NCAA career. Young scored 916 points in two seasons at Houston, and has added another 251 this year for 1,167 career points. He joins Jason Calliste, who surpassed 1,000 career points in three seasons at Detroit, in the 1,000-point club.
“HOO-AH” DUCKS HONOR TROOPS WITH A WIN IN SOUTH KOREA
Oregon opened the regular season on Nov. 8 by defeating Georgetown 82-75 in the Armed Forces Classic on Army Base Camp Humphreys in South Korea. The Ducks travelled more than 12,000 miles round trip to participate in a game that honored the troops serving America. The crowd in attendance consisted entirely of active military members and their families based at Camp Humphreys. At the end of the game, Oregon players removed their jerseys and gave them to the troops, who had stormed the court to celebrate with the Ducks.
The team also got a helicopter hangar tour, where the servicemen and women who fly and maintain four different types of helicopters - Chinook, Blackhawk, Apache and Kiowa - showed off their impressive machines. The Ducks also served lunch to the troops, had a meet and greet at the gym and conducted a kids’ clinic. Said Oregon coach Dana Altman after the game, “the servicemen and women came out and cheered for us and made us feel like we were the best team in America, but it’s those men and women who are the real heroes. Our guys are going to remember this experience for a long time.”
Oregon continues to remember the troops they met in South Korea by breaking their team huddle with the Army cry “HOO-AH” as opposed to the traditional “TEAM.”
DOUBLE DOUBLE NOTES
When Johnathan Loyd (23 pts., 15 asst.) and Mike Moser (24 pts., 10 reb.) recorded double-doubles versus at Ole Miss, it was the second time this season two Ducks had a double-double in the same game. Moser (10 pts., 15 reb.) and Elgin Cook (10 pts., 10 reb.) each pulled down double-doubles Nov. 30 against North Dakota. That was the first time Oregon had two players with double-doubles in a single game since meeting Alabama on Nov. 24, 2008 (Joevan Catron, Michael Dunigan). The double-doubles were the first two for Moser as a Duck and the 19th and 20th of his NCAA career.
CENTURY NOTES
Oregon tied a school record by reaching the century mark for the fourth time this season Dec. 21 against Brigham Young. It is just the third time in 109 seasons of basketball that the Ducks have scored 100 points four times in the same season. Oregon has never had more than four 100-point games in the same year. The Ducks last had four 100-point games in the same year in 2001-02. Oregon first accomplished that feat in 1995-96.
NEWCOMER COUNT HITS NINE
All nine newcomers have seen action for the Ducks this season. Senior transfers Mike Moser (UNLV), Jason Calliste (Detroit) and Richard Amardi (Indian Hills CC), junior transfers Joseph Young (Houston) and Brian Crow (Sonoma State), and sophomore transfer Elgin Cook (Northwest Florida State) all played in the season opener versus Georgetown. Those six players combined to score 66 of Oregon’s 82 points versus the Hoyas. Freshman Theo Friedman became the seventh newcomer to play this season when he entered the Western Carolina game. Freshman A.J. Lapray made it eight newcomers with his debut in the Utah Valley game. The last newcomer on the roster, Jalil Abdul-Bassit, made his debut against San Francisco
SCORING MARK, SEVEN MKA TEAM RECORDS FALL VERSUS WESTERN CAROLINA
Joseph Young set a Matthew Knight Arena record with his 36 points in the Nov. 13 home opener versus Western Carolina. That was the highest total by a Duck since Tajuan Porter netted 38 against Portland State in the 2006-07 season. In addition to Young’s scoring record, the Ducks set a number of Matthew Knight Arena team records in the Western Carolina game. Perhaps the most impressive mark established was the field goal percentage record, .653 (32-of-49). Other MKA marks included points in a half (66), points by both teams in a half (110), free throws made (35), free throw attempts (47), fouls (34, by Western Carolina) and fouls by both teams (53). Oregon’s 107 points was one shy of the MKA record of 108 scored versus Iowa in the 2012 postseason NIT.
MOSER HITS IMPRESSIVE STEALS MARK
Mike Moser had 15 points - 11 in the second half - to help Oregon defeat Georgetown 82-75 Nov. 8 at Camp Humphreys, South Korea. He also added seven rebounds, three assists and six steals. The career-high six steals were the most by an Oregon player in 15 seasons. The last Duck to record at least six steals was Darius Wright, who had that number against USC on Jan. 7, 1999.
PRESEASON PICKINGS
Oregon was picked to finish fourth in the Pac-12 preseason media poll. Nationally, Oregon was 18th in the USA Today preseason poll and 19th in the Associated Press’ opening rankings. A sampling of other preseason prognostications include No. 13 by The Sporting News, No. 16 by CBSSports.com and No. 22 by Bleacher Report.
LOOKING AT THE 2013-14 TEAM
The Ducks return two starters, Dominic Artis and Damyean Dotson, and Pac-12 Tournament Most Outstanding Player Johnathan Loyd for the 2013-14 season. Four seniors departed from the Ducks’ 2012-13 Sweet 16 team — E.J. Singler, Tony Woods, Carlos Emory and Arsalan Kazemi. Singler finished his career with the Ducks as the program’s winningest player (89) and ranked 11th all-time in scoring (1,546). Kazemi totaled 56 double-doubles in his four-year career at Rice and Oregon, including 11 during the 2012-13 season, before becoming a 2013 NBA Second Round draft choice by the Philadephia 76ers (following a trade from Washington). Woods finished his time in Eugene as the program’s third-best shot-blocker, racking up 91 blocks in two seasons. Emory, who appeared in all 37 games in 2012-13, finished third on the team in scoring (11.1 ppg).