Ducks Take Momentum To Cal

A modest two-game win streak has the Oregon men's basketball team feeling better about itself as the Ducks head south to play in the Bay Area this weekend.

But lest anyone get ahead of themselves, the big picture still shows ample work to be done for the UO men. Oregon's win streak, over UCLA and Oregon State, isn't nearly enough to get the Ducks back into serious discussion to continue another streak: the team's run of NCAA Tournament appearances, currently at five.

Oregon ranks 81^st in the NCAA's RPI figures, entering Thursday's game at California (6 p.m., Pac-12 Network). The Ducks are still very much advised to keep their heads down and focus game-to-game, rather than peeking ahead at the big picture.

"When you have an inexperienced group, when you have a group that's not used to making a run, you better just worry about the next one," UO coach Dana Altman said. "I hope that's the approach they're taking, because it's definitely the approach our team needs to take."

The Ducks (14-7, 4-4 Pac-12) are still feeling the RPI effects of losses to a couple of middle-of-the-pack teams nationally, Connecticut and later Oregon State in Corvallis to open January. There is ample opportunity to make up for that, when Oregon plays in Los Angeles and hosts the Arizona schools later in February. But as Altman said, you can't go on a run without taking care of the first one.

Translation: Oregon's focus best be completely on Cal come Thursday, and not affected by the Golden Bears' eight-game Pac-12 losing streak, which UO junior Paul White said was misleading.

"They're still good players; the wins and losses don't necessarily reflect that, but they're still a good team," White said of Cal, which is rebuilding under new coach Wyking Jones. "Some of their games have gone down to the wire, and they play teams hard. We know we can't go in there and take anything for granted, especially on their home court."

Oregon has received a lift over the last couple weeks from its veterans, namely sophomore point guard Payton Pritchard and graduate transfers Elijah Brown and MiKyle McIntosh. Over the last three weekends of Pac-12 play, Pritchard leads the team with 16 points per game and 31 assists against six turnovers. Brown is scoring 15.4 points per game in that stretch, and McIntosh is averaging 13.6 points and 8.8 rebounds per game.

The impact form the veterans has been particularly welcome given the wall Oregon's talented freshman class appears to have hit. It's due time for those freshmen to break through, Altman said.

"They're talented enough to; they're tough enough," Altman said. "They've just got to dig down there and find it. Hopefully they're effective down the stretch. It's the last third of the season … so they need to play like vets."

Four freshmen have played in all five games over the last three weeks – Troy Brown Jr., Victor Bailey Jr., Kenny Wooten and Abu Kigab – and they're averaging a combined 19.2 points and 8.6 rebounds in 69 combined minutes per game.

Given that production, the freshmen are following Altman's lead and focused on the here and now – namely, increasing their production beginning Thursday at Cal.

"One game at a time, one game at a time," Bailey said. "We're thinking about Cal right now, going down there and trying to get a win."