Ducks Head To L.A. With Eyes On the Prize

With three weeks left in Pac-12 Conference race, traditional power Arizona finds itself in familiar territory, leading the rest of the field by two games.

Behind the Wildcats is an eight-team group within a game of each other – two-thirds of the conference battling for the other three first-round byes available for the conference tournament in early March. Atop that group of eight are UCLA and USC at 8-5, and lurking a half-game behind them is Oregon, which plays in Los Angeles this weekend.

The Ducks (17-8, 7-5) are riding a wave of positive momentum. They've won five of their last six, including their first weekend sweep of this conference season, last week with resounding victories over both Washington and Washington State. Point guard Payton Pritchard and forward MiKyle McIntosh are providing veteran leadership, and freshman Troy Brown Jr. and Kenny Wooten are coming off their best weekend yet in conference play.

Still, the Ducks are facing an uphill battle to a first-round tournament bye, and beyond that NCAA Tournament consideration. To get off the bubble, Oregon will need to survive a late-season gantlet that begins Thursday at USC (6:05 p.m., ESPN2), and continues next week at home against Arizona and ASU.

"We hopefully will play well and are ready for the challenge," UO coach Dana Altman said. "Obviously it's a big challenge, but we've put ourselves in this position. We hope to go play well."

If Oregon is desperate for wins, it won't be the only team in that predicament this weekend. The latest edition of "bracketology" by Joe Lunardi for ESPN includes both USC and UCLA in the NCAA tournament field – just barely. Both are listed among the "last four in" to the tournament field.

"You better be ready to play hard and play well," Altman said. "USC needs the game; they've lost a couple so they need the game. UCLA needs the game. Everybody needs the game – February, everybody's trying to scratch one out."

The Trojans (17-8, 8-5) have lost three straight, in part because forward Bennie Boatwright is battling a foot injury. Boatwright had 18 points in USC's 75-70 win in Eugene on Jan. 18, when the Ducks battled back a couple of times to take late leads but couldn't make enough plays down the stretch to hang on.

At that point in the season, finishing well wasn't a strength of this Oregon team. The Ducks turned that on its head last week against UW and WSU, dominating both game start-to-finish and winning by an average of 26 points. But every week and every matchup is different, so the UO men aren't getting ahead of themselves entering a two-week stretch that could determine their postseason fate.

"Going to L.A., they're in a battle with us," Pritchard said. "It'll determine how the rest of the Pac finishes out, just how we want it. …

"Everybody's doing their role excellent right now. We had a good weekend, but we've got to carry that on."

The sweep of the Washington schools was particularly encouraging for the way the Ducks' first-year players appeared to push through the "freshman wall" that seems to slow up players in that class around midseason each year. Brown combined for 37 points, 15 rebounds, five assists and seven steals in the two games, while Wooten added 22 points, 13 rebounds and 10 blocks off the bench – a role that seems to suit him.

That duo plus Pritchard played an encouraging few minutes late in the WSU game along with fellow freshmen Victor Bailey Jr. and Abu Kigab, extending Oregon's lead in the second half. Bailey went 3-of-7 from three-point range over the weekend, and Kigab had three steals against WSU, providing a jolt of energy and athleticism to the Ducks' press defense.

The play of the freshmen allowed the Ducks to overcome a 3-of-15 three-point shooting weekend for senior Elijah Brown. Oregon's fortunes this season have tended to be in sync with the ebbs and tides of Brown's shooting, but the Ducks broke out of that trend last week.

"He's just gotta keep going," Altman said. "I liked his shot selection better. He took some bad ones the week before, but I thought he took some pretty good shots; they just didn't go in. He'll keep shooting it. Fortunately, (Bailey) came off the bench and gave us a pretty good lift. We've got a 1-2 punch there that, hopefully one of them is shooting it a little bit."

Bailey could carve himself our even more time by improving his contributions defensively and on the glass. But he's showing improvement as a shooter, making 7-of-13 three-pointers in the last five games, after opening the conference season 5-of-18.

"That just comes with being out there, getting used to the flow of things," Bailey said. "Once you see it go down a couple times, you get used to it and feel better about it."

Bailey said Oregon's freshmen live together, and were motivated last week to finally get the Ducks that elusive weekend sweep. Now, they're hungry for more.

"That was a big goal, to try and get out of there with two wins," Bailey said. "We want to try and do it when we go to L.A."