Notes: Oregon Visits USC

Oregon and USC - two teams looking to climb up the Pac-12 standings - meet Thursday at the Galen Center in Los Angeles (6 p.m., ESPN).

THE STARTING 5
• 1 – Under coach Dana Altman, Oregon has a 53-22 record (.706) during the second half of Pac-12 play. Only Arizona, with 54, has won more games than Oregon in the back half of league play during that span.
• 2 –The Feb. 6 win against Cal moved Dana Altman into the NCAA's top 30 in all-time Division I coaching victories. He currently has 635 career wins at the Division I level, which is one ahead of Hugh Durham and Norm Sloan. The next coach Altman will pass on that list is John Wooden, who had 664 wins at Indiana State and UCLA.
• 3 – Oregon is 14-2 when shooting a better percentage from the field than opponents, but only 1-8 when the opposition shoots a better percentage.
• 4 – Louis King, who scored 20 points last week at Oregon State, is the top freshman scorer in Pac-12 contests at 16.0 points per game. He has scored in double figures in all but one conference game.
• 5 – The Jan. 31 win at Utah was Oregon's 100th victory over the last four seasons. It is the fifth time in a row that Oregon has won 100 games over a four-season span, all of which have come during the Dana Altman era. Those are also the only five times in program history that Oregon has won 100 games over a four-season time span.
• BENCH – Freshman Miles Norris checked in with a solid performance off the bench last week at Oregon State. He scored seven points and set career highs in rebounds (5), blocks (3) and minutes (17).

SECOND HALF SURGE
Under coach Dana Altman, Oregon has a 53-22 record (.706) during the second half of Pac-12 play. That breaks down to 4-5 in 2011, 7-2 in 2012, 5-4 in 2013, 7-2 in 2014, 8-1 in 2015, 7-2 in 2016, 8-1 in 2017, 5-4 in 2018 and 2-1 in 2019. Only Arizona (54) has won more over the last nine seasons. The last five years, Oregon is 25-4 after Valentine's Day in Pac-12 Conference games (credit to Pac-12 Network's JB Long for that note).

Second Half of Pac-12 Play, 2011-19 (through Feb. 18)
Arizona                   54-22   .711
Oregon                   53-22   .706
UCLA                      50-26   .658
Utah                        39-28*   .582
Colorado                 37-30*   .552
California                37-39   .487
Stanford                  36-40   .474
Arizona State          33-43   .434
Washington             31-44   .413
USC                        30-46   .395
Oregon State          29-46   .387
Washington State   21-54   .280
*joined Pac-12 in 2011-12

PRITCHARD NEARS JACKSON, TOP SIX IN CAREER ASSISTS
With four more assists, Payton Pritchard will pass Luke Jackson (424/2000-04) for sixth in UO career assists. Pritchard comes into the USC game with 421 career assists. Pritchard is just the sixth player in program history with 1,000 career points and 400 career assists.

PRITCHARD REACHES 1,000 CAREER POINTS, CLIMBS CAREER LISTS
Jan. 17 at Arizona, Payton Pritchard became the 37th 1,000-point scorer in program history. His back-to-back 20-point games versus California and Stanford (Feb. 6-10), helped him pass Charlie Franklin (1,090/1955-58) for 29th all-time at Oregon. Pritchard enters the USC game with 1,106 points. Terik Brown (1,152/1995-99) is 28th. In addition to the points and assists lists, Pritchard is also climbing the UO career steals list. Jan. 27 against Washington State, he jumped into eighth, passing Aaron Brooks (127/2003-07) and now has 135. Anthony Taylor (147/1984-88) is seventh. Against Cal, Pritchard passed Luke Jackson (174/2000-04) for ninth in three-pointers. He now has 180. Garrett Sim is eighth (185/2008-12).

PRITCHARD AMONG NCAA FREE THROW LEADERS
Payton Pritchard is second in the Pac-12 and ranks 24th nationally in free throw percentage at 87.7 percent. Pritchard has made 64-of-73 attempts from the line this season.

NEW BACKCOURT DUO
Will Richardson moved back into the starting lineup Jan. 27 against Washington State. The freshman and Payton Pritchard combined for 14 assists and no turnovers against the Cougars. In the 10 games this year those two have started together in the back court, they have combined for 82 assists and 37 turnovers, for an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.2-to-1, an average that would be rank third in the Pac-12.

STEAL AWAY
Oregon has three of the Pac-12's top 13 players in steals. Ehab Amin and Payton Pritchard are tied for fourth at 1.6 per game and Will Richardson is 13th at 1.3 per game. As a team, the Ducks are second in the Pac-12 at 7.6 steals per game.

KING LOUIE BREAKS OUT
Freshman Louis King opened Pac-12 play with back-to-back double-doubles and has scored in double figures in all but one league game so far this season. In conference games, King is the top freshman scorer (16.0 points per game, 10th overall). He had 17 points and 10 rebounds Jan. 5 against Oregon State, and followed that with 22 points and 10 rebounds Jan. 10 versus UCLA. Jan. 13 against USC, King had 19 points and a season-best six assists. He just missed his third double-double of the season Jan. 17 at Arizona when he had 10 points and nine rebounds. He led Oregon with 19 points Jan. 24 against Washington before matching his career high with 22 points Jan. 27 versus Washington State. King had his third 20-point game Feb. 16 at Oregon State. King made his Oregon debut Dec. 8 against Omaha and made efficient use of his minutes. He scored 11 points on four-of-six shooting from the field (three-of-four 3FG) in 16 minutes. He missed the first seven games of the season recovering from a knee injury he suffered in high school.

WOOTEN MOVES INTO TOP THREE IN UO CAREER BLOCKS
Kenny Wooten swatted 11 shots during the Feb. 6-10 week against California (4) and Stanford (7). He matched his career high with seven against the Cardinal. With three blocks Jan. 31 at Utah, Wooten passed Blair Rasmussen (116/1981-85) for third on the UO career blocks list and now shows 133. On the season, Wooten has 42 blocks, which is tied for eighth in single-season history. Wooten matched a career high with 20 points Jan. 27 against Washington State. Prior to breaking his jaw at Baylor, which caused him to miss the next four games, Wooten set a career-high 20 points Dec. 8 versus Nebraska-Omaha. Wooten's 92 blocks as a freshman ranked third on both the UO single-season list, and the Pac-12 freshman list.