February 16 at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, OR
ESPN
That's two consecutive Thursday evenings I've gotten a chance to watch Oregon and before they blew a 19-point lead at UCLA a week ago & tonight they were very impressive.
In a 79-61 win, the Ducks made 53% of their shots with four main guys - Dillon Brooks (20 points, 9-of-13 shooting), Jordan Bell, who did a bit of everything with 17 points (missed just one of eight shot attempts), seven rebounds, five of the team's 10 blocked shots and three assists, Tyler Dorsey (16 points) and Payton Pritchard (seven assists) - leading the way.
Oregon, which won its 41st consecutive home game (longest in the nation), has a really good eight-man roation with Dylan Ennis the other starter and Chris Boucher (three blocks Thursday), Kavell Bigby-Williams and Casey Benson coming off the bench. Combine an offense with five players averaging double-digit points with a defense that leads the country in blocked shots and is top-20 nationally in field goal percentage and three-point defense (Utah shot 38 and 15%, respectively in those categories on Thursday), and Oregon is on a fairly long list of national title contenders.
If not a title, then this certainly looks like a team capable of at least making the program's second final four and first since winning the first NCAA Tournament in 1939.
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