Ducks Open Pac-12 Tournament with ASU
Top-seeded and defending champion Oregon will play #8 Arizona State Thursday at 11:30 a.m. in the Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinals in Las Vegas (Pac-12 Network). Oregon is 4-0 all-time against ASU in Pac-12 Tournament play.
THE STARTING 5
• 1 – The 2021 Pac-12 regular season championship is the eighth league title in program history, joining 1919, 1939, 1945, 2002, 2016, 2017 and 2020. It is the Ducks' fourth league title in the last six years.
• 2 – With 19 wins, Dana Altman is the winningest coach in Pac-12 Tournament history. In their seven tournaments played in Las Vegas, the Ducks are 17-4 with three titles (2013, 2016, 2019) and five championship game appearances.
• 3 – There are four major conference teams - with respect to No. 1 Gonzaga - that have won 10 of their last 11 games: No. 2 Baylor, No. 3 Illinois, No. 8 Arkansas and Oregon.
• 4 – Combined, Oregon's four scholarship seniors - Chris Duarte, LJ Figueroa, Eugene Omoruyi and Amauri Hardy - are averaging 50 points per game.
• 5 – Chris Duarte is one of five national finalists for the Jerry West Point Guard of the Year Award. He is one of only two Division I players in the country averaging at least 17.0 points and 1.8 steals per game while shooting 50 percent from the field.
• BENCH – 2020-21 is Oregon's 11th consecutive winning season, a program first. Dana Altman also extended his streak of winning seasons as a head coach to 24; an active streak shared by only by Altman and four Hall of Famers: Jim Boeheim, Mike Krzyzewski, Bill Self and Tom Izzo.
DUARTE, OMORUYI EARN ALL-PAC-12 HONORS; DUARTE NAMED AP PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Two seniors who helped Oregon win its fourth Pac-12 regular season title in the last six years, Chris Duarte and Eugene Omoruyi, were named to the All-Pac-12 first team in a vote by the coaches, while Duarte was named the Pac-12 Player of the Year by the Associated Press. Duarte was also named to the league's all-defensive team. Duarte and Omoruyi gave the Ducks two players on the first team for just the second time since 2003. Dillon Brooks and Elgin Cook were both first team selections in 2016. Duarte is the seventh Duck in the last seven years to be named to the all-defensive team, but is the first guard from Oregon to make the all-defensive team.
ALTMAN PAC-12 TOURNAMENT'S WINNINGEST COACH
With four wins in the 2019 Pac-12 Tournament, Dana Altman became the winningest coach in Tournament history. He enters the 2021 event with 19 career Pac-12 Tournament wins. In 2019, he passed Sean Miller, Arizona (who now has 18), and Lute Olson, Arizona (16), for the all-time lead. It was also during the 2019 event that Oregon became the first school to win the conference tournament by defeating the top three seeds.
DUCKS IN THE DESERT
No one has won more Pac-12 Tournament games in Las Vegas than Oregon. The Ducks are 17-4 since the league moved the championship to the desert in 2013. In seven tournaments in Las Vegas, the Ducks have played in five championship games (winning in 2013, 2016 and 2019) and have advanced to the semifinal round six times. The only year the Ducks departed Vegas prior to the semis was in 2014 after a quarterfinal loss to UCLA.
PAC-12 TOURNAMENT STAYING POWER
Since the conference tournament returned in 2002, Oregon has won at least one game in 14 of 17 appearances and went on to take the conference crown five times (2003, 2007, 2013, 2016, 2019). The Ducks are 30-12 (.714) in 17 appearances since 2002. Oregon's only first round exits during that span came in 2008, 2009 and 2012. Including the conference tournaments from 1987-90, Oregon's overall .667 winning percentage (32-16) is third-best in the conference, while the Ducks' five titles trail only Arizona's seven.
DUCKS NEAR 11TH STRAIGHT 20-WIN SEASON
The 2019-20 season marked Oregon's school-record 10th straight 20-win season. Oregon is currently one of 11 schools nationally that won at least 20 games for 10 consecutive seasons through 2019-20. With its next win, Oregon will join Belmont and Gonzaga as the only three current teams with at least 11 consecutive 20-win seasons though 2020-21.
Teams with 10+ 20-Win Seasons:
Belmont*, Cincinnati, Duke, Gonzaga*, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville, Oregon, Saint Mary's, Vermont and Wichita State.
* - has already reached 20 wins in 2020-21
LEADERS OF THE PAC
Oregon leads the Pac-12 in field goal percentage (.469), three-point field goal percentage (.380), steals (7.2 per game) and three-pointers per game (8.4).