Game Notes: Ducks Host UW
Oregon and Washington square off for the 310th time Saturday at Matthew Knight Arena (1 p.m., CBS).
THE STARTING 5
• 1 – Oregon leads the Pac-12 in steals at 7.9 per game.
• 2 – Eugene Omoruyi has scored in double figures in 12-of-13 games this season. He is fifth in the Pac-12 in scoring at 17.1 points per game.
• 3 –Will Richardson saw his first action of the season Thursday night against Washington State, scoring 10 rebounds with five assists and six rebounds. A preseason all-Pac-12 first team selection, Richardson missed the first 12 games of the year after injuring his thumb just prior to Oregon's season-opener on Dec. 2.
• 4 – LJ Figueroa had his second double-double in his last four games Thursday versus Washington State (12 points, 11 rebounds). He leads the Ducks with three double-doubles this season.
• 5 – Dana Altman hit a couple of coaching milestones recently. With the Ducks' last three wins, Altman passed both Denny Crum of Louisville (675 wins) and former Stanford and California coach Mike Montgomery (677 wins) to move into 23rd on the NCAA Division I career coaching wins list. Not only was the game against Utah Altman's 678th career Division I win, it was also the University's 1,700th win all time.
• BENCH – Dana Altman has been named the coach of the year of four different Division I conferences: Southern Conference (1990, Marshall), Big Eight (1993, Kansas State), Missouri Valley (twice, Creighton) and the Pac-12 (three times, Oregon).
RICHARDSON RETURNS
Preseason all-Pac-12 first team selection Will Richardson saw his first action of the season Thursday night against Washington State. He scored 10 points with six assists and five rebounds. Richardson missed the first 12 games of the year after suffering a thumb injury just prior to Oregon's season opener on Dec. 2. Richardson led the Pac-12 in three-point field goal shooting last season at 46.9 percent (38-of-81). The junior from Hinesville, Ga., was at his best late in the season when he scored in double figures in nine of the last 11 games of 2019-20. He averaged 14.2 points per game in that span and hit 54.5 percent from three-point range (18-of-33).
HOME COURT ADVANTAGE
The Ducks are 160-22 (.880) all-time at Matthew Knight Arena since the building opened in 2011.
PAC-12 AT MKA
The Ducks are 74-18 (.804) in Pac-12 games at Matthew Knight Arena. Arizona State is 0-7, USC and Washington State are 1-8, Washington is 1-7, Arizona, Utah and Colorado are all 1-6, Stanford is 2-7, Oregon State is 3-8, UCLA is 3-6 and California is 4-5.
1,000 POINT SCORERS
Dec. 31 against California, Eric Williams Jr. became the third active Duck to reach 1,000 points as a collegian. He joined Amauri Hardy and LJ Figueroa, who himself reached 1,000 career points Dec. 19 versus Portland. With 939 points coming into Saturday's game, Eugene Omoruyi is also on pace to join that club this season. When Omoruyi hits that plateau, Oregon will join Ole Miss as the only two programs in the country with four active 1,000-point scorers.
STAT FILLER FIGUEROA
Senior transfer LJ Figueroa had his team-leading third double-double of the season Thursday night against Washington State (12 points, 11 rebounds). It was his sixth straight game scoring in double figures, a streak that dates back to Dec. 19 against Portland (15) and includes California (11), Stanford (13), Colorado (10), Utah (15) and WSU. Jan. 2 against Stanford, it was his rebound dunk to tie the game at 41-41 with 12:43 to go that seemed to spark the Ducks; Oregon outscored Stanford 32-15 the rest of the way. Ranking sixth in the Pac-12 in rebounds (6.9 per game), Figueroa has led Oregon in rebounding six times this season, steals twice and blocks once. Figueroa missed Oregon's season-opening Dec. 2 loss to Missouri before the NCAA approved his transfer waiver on Dec. 3. As a junior in 2019-20, Figueroa led St. John's in scoring at 14.5 points per game. The Lawrence, Mass., native paced the Big East in steals at 1.9 per game last season.
UNSTOPPABLE OMORUYI
Senior forward Eugene Omoruyi is the only Duck to start all 13 games this season and has scored in double figures in 12 of those 13 games. He's coming off a 21-point, 7-rebound night Thursday against Washington State. Omoruyi was nearly unstoppable in the paint Dec. 31 versus California, making nine-of-10 field goal attempts in the lane, finishing with 26 points and a career-high five steals. He had 15 points and a season-high five assists Jan. 2 against Stanford and 18 points Jan. 7 at Colorado. He has been Oregon's leading scorer eight times.