PK80 Will Celebrate Knight's Legacy, While Testing Young UO Team

After four home games to open the 2017-18 season, the Oregon men's basketball party is ready to leave the house – in order to attend a birthday party.

The level of competition is about to take a jump for the Ducks, who play Connecticut on Thursday in Portland's Moda Center (6 p.m. PT, ESPNU). The game is one of eight being contested in the Rose City on Thanksgiving day to open the three-day, 16-team PK80, two eight-team mini-tournaments being held in recognition of Nike founder and UO graduate Phil Knight's 80th birthday.

"This is a tribute to him," UO coach Dana Altman said. "The 16 schools are all very honored to be Nike schools, and I think it'll be a great tournament."

The Ducks (4-0) are in the event's "Victory Bracket," which also includes the likes of Michigan State, Oklahoma and North Carolina. The winner of Thursday's game between Oregon and UConn will face the winner between the Spartans and DePaul, on Friday in the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Concurrent to the "Victory Bracket" over the course of Thursday, Friday and Sunday is a "Motion Bracket" featuring Duke, Florida, Stanford and Ohio State. The tournament will take a break Saturday, when the women's PK80 is held at Matthew Knight Arena, and the Civil War football game will be contested in Autzen Stadium.

"Credit to the people that put the tournament together; they knew what they were doing," UO junior Paul White said. "It's a lot of great teams in it, and we're honored to be one of those teams – and to see where we are this season. This is the perfect opportunity to see where we are, and what we need to work on moving forward."

The Ducks were unbeaten in four home games to open the season, most recently a win Sunday over Ball State. They're still working to mesh a roster featuring returners Payton Pritchard and Keith Smith, redshirts White and M.J. Cage, graduate transfers MiKyle McIntosh and Elijah Brown, and a talented freshman class headlined by Troy Brown Jr. and Kenny Wooten.

So far the Ducks are shooting .530 as a team, and holding opponents to .332. They're outrebounding the opposition by an average of 43.0 to 28.8, and they have 79 assists against 53 turnovers.

UConn is off to a 3-0 start, with wins over Colgate, Stony Brook and Boston University. The Huskies are shooting .446, holding foes to .386 shooting and have 34 assists against 39 turnovers. But though Oregon would appear to have an edge statistically, Altman is wary.

"It's a great opportunity to find out where we're at with our team," he said. "We needed to have some home games here to get everybody on the floor and kind of get 'em used to playing together. Whether we've made enough progress to compete on that level, we'll find out Thursday."

Altman is perturbed by what he calls "floor shots" hurting the Ducks on the defensive end. Opponents are averaging 21 free-throw attempts per game – Ball State had 29 on Sunday – and creating other easy looks, the UO coach said.

"We're giving up some uncontested threes, we're giving up some layups and we're giving up a lot of free throws," Altman said. "We're giving up the shots that traditionally put you in trouble."

Altman's concerns about the level of competition this weekend is balanced by his appreciation for the way it is honoring Knight, and his contributions to the college game.

"What he's meant to college basketball, his vision a number of years ago to really promote the game, he was a visionary there," Altman said. "When it got started, those original coaches, that was big for the school, that was big for them. And it still is. It's big for Oregon to have that support – all the programs."

Altman said Knight has been "very supportive" and "never put any pressure on us" during his tenure as UO head coach.

"He wants us to be successful," Altman said. "He put his son's name on the arena, so there's a certain amount of pride that goes into that. He wants us to be successful, but I've never felt any pressure or anything like that."

Perhaps not from Knight. But the Ducks figure to be pressured by the PK80 field this weekend, more than they have at any point so far in this young season.

"I like the direction we're headed," Altman said. "Whether it's far enough to compete with the teams we have to compete with this weekend, I don't know. But we'll go in and swing away, and hopefully keep moving in the right direction."