Oregon is on the NCAA Tournament bubble and has no margin for error as it enters Thursday’s Pac-12 game against Washington in Seattle.
The Ducks (18-11, 11-7 Pac-12) are sliding in the wrong direction with four losses in six games and they could badly use a sweep of the Huskies and Washington State on this road swing to conclude the regular season.
Anything short of two victories and Oregon will likely need to win the Pac-12 tourney to crash the NCAA party.
Ducks coach Dana Altman is well aware of the situation and said there is no need to discuss it with his players.
“We’ve just got to get better, we just got to go play Washington,” Altman said. “The wins will take care of themselves. I think the guys know where we’re at. My job’s getting ready for Washington. They look at that stuff, they know where we’re at, they know what we need to do.”
Seeing the Huskies (14-14, 9-9) on the docket has to be a good sight for the Oregon players.
The Ducks crushed Washington 84-56 in Eugene on Jan. 23 when they built a 48-13 halftime lead. Oregon has won six straight and 12 of its last 13 matchups against the Huskies.
Will Richardson scored 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting in the first meeting and the team is hoping he will break out of his recent funk.
Richardson missed all eight of his field-goal attempts and had just two points in Saturday’s 70-69 home loss to then-No. 15 Southern California.
Richardson is averaging 6.5 points on 3-of-21 shooting over the past two games as his team-best scoring average dropped to 14.6 per game.
Washington also is struggling with five setbacks in its last six games.
The Huskies lost to No. 17 UCLA 77-66 on Monday when they played stout defense in the first half by allowing 25 points and held a four-point lead. But the Bruins rolled up 52 points in the second half to continue Washington’s recent misery.
“It was an uphill battle,” leading scorer Terrell Brown Jr. said afterward. “They wanted it more than us.”
Brown, who averages 21.5 points, scored 20 against UCLA. That marks his 17th 20-point effort of the season.
He will be looking to avenge a poor outing in the previous loss to the Ducks when he was held to 14 points on 3-of-16 shooting.
Washington is tied for sixth place in the Pac-12. Winning the conference tournament is its only avenue to reaching the NCAA tourney.
–Field Level Media
