After putting on a clinic on Thursday night against Stanford, the UCLA men’s basketball team returns home today to host the Oregon Ducks at 2 pm PT. The game will be broadcast on ESPN with Dave Pasch and Bill Walton.
The Ducks are just 4-4 overall and 1-0 in Pac-12 play so far this season. Oregon opened conference play Thursday night by beating Washington State, 74-60. The Ducks have played a tough schedule so far this season with three of their four losses coming against ranked teams. In fact, it’s worth noting that Oregon has lost to every ranked team they have played this season.
The Ducks’ other loss came at the hands of UC Irvine in the second game of the season.
So, it looks like Oregon is down a bit compared to past seasons, but Dana Altman is a solid coach and he will have his team prepared to play this afternoon. In fact, Altman’s teams have beaten the Bruins in four straight games.
Let’s look at the starting lineup for the Ducks.
Oregon will play a traditional lineup of two guards, two forwards and a center. The Ducks are led by a trio of seniors. Forward N’Faly Dante leads the team in scoring with an average of 14.3 ppg. He also leads Oregon in rebounds with an average of 6.4 per game. Interesting, Dante has not taken a single three-pointer all season. So, look for him to be the Ducks’ go-to man down low.
In an interesting twist, guard Will Richardson is second in points per game with 14.1, but actually leads the team in overall points with 113 to Dante’s 100 points. Richardson also leads the Ducks in assists with an average of 5.3 per game. Richardson is also the man mostly likely to shoot the three, even though his three-point percentage is just 30.2%. He’s taken 43 shots but only made 13 of them.
Quincy Guerrier is the third starting senior for Oregon. Guerrier is averaging 9.5 ppg and 4.0 rpg. He’s also the Ducks’ biggest three-point threat. Like Richardson, he’s made 13 threes, but he’s only taken 37 attempts, giving him the team’s best three-point shooting percentage for anyone who has more than ten attempts.
Freshman center Kel’el Ware is the third Duck averaging in double figures with 10.8 ppg. He’s second on the team with 6.2 rebounds per game.
Junior guard Rivaldo Soares is the team’s fifth starter. Soares may be Oregon’s best defender. He is tied with Richardson for the team lead in steals with nine. He’s made nine of his ten free throw attempts. So, he’s the guy you don’t want to send to the charity stripe, especially during crunch time.
Look for sophomore center Nate Bittle to see the most minutes of the team’s bench guys. While he averages just 6.2 ppg, he is also tied with Dante for second on the team in blocks with eight.
Listen to the Game With TMB!
Bill Walton is back working today’s game with Dave Pasch. So, you may not want to miss Big Red, or you might feel like playing the Bill Walton drinking game. Take a drink every time he says “Throw it down, Big Man!” If he mentions Coach, put your drink down. Coach might not approve of you drinking. Though he might if he knew how crazy Walton can be. If you do want to listen to Lewin and Murray, just be sure to right-click on it so that you can open up another tab and have it going while you chat in the comments below. Listen to today’s game online.
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I feel like tyger is getting worse. Being allowed to do too much these days. Shooting 0-7 this half. Not sure who else will shoot it, but that’s what you get when you have a coach whose only offensive strategy is to go iso and your best iso player is on the bench… we need better offensive strategy
At the half, Ducks up on Bruins 27-21. We're shooting 30% to their 52%, so it's a surprise we're actually in this game. I was also shocked to see we won the rebound battle, 17 to 14
Good coaches can put on a clinic against ucla these days… it’s too easy to see that cronin is out of his league. His iso offense isn’t going to work with this set of players and it’s another wasted year with some good 5 star recruits… hope for some good transfer students next year
StatBroadcast link incorrect; please see below for correct link.
http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=428826
U!
U clap clap!
C clap clap!
L clap clap!
A clap clap!
UCLA Fight fight fight!
Jaime!
They have a center, Nuba et.al. are going to have their work cut out. Our hands need to be quick.
Jaime! After going to the floor to recover the ball.
Geez, we are missing some bunnies at home
Happy whistling SPTRs and cold shooting by the Bruins.
We've 3 fouls to their 0; something to keep an eye on re. SPTRs
Go for it Bill Walton!
2 on Jaime; that was a stupid decision. We need better from our leaders
WTF is with the split screen?? I don't wanna look at announcers -_-
OMG Walton, the answer is our idiot AD Guerreror put us in debt and then ran away.
So the question is, who is our goto when Jaime on bench?
Where's the foul on Clark's layup?
Nuba! After a beautiful D-reb by Canka!
They're shooting 50% to our 25%
Cold shooting for the Bruins
Okay, now SPTRs calling it both ways
Beautiful post-up by Clark!
Jaylen! Step it up, dude!
Dylan Andrews with the floater-- nice!
Etienne getting mugged under the basket and no calls smdh
Yo! Passing and Nuba!
We really need to step up D because our offense is non-existent
Terrible half against a terrible team that actually wants to win.
I feel like tyger is getting worse. Being allowed to do too much these days. Shooting 0-7 this half. Not sure who else will shoot it, but that’s what you get when you have a coach whose only offensive strategy is to go iso and your best iso player is on the bench… we need better offensive strategy
At the half, Ducks up on Bruins 27-21. We're shooting 30% to their 52%, so it's a surprise we're actually in this game. I was also shocked to see we won the rebound battle, 17 to 14
Shooting 30% won’t get it done. Refs have been poor and inconsistent.
Good coaches can put on a clinic against ucla these days… it’s too easy to see that cronin is out of his league. His iso offense isn’t going to work with this set of players and it’s another wasted year with some good 5 star recruits… hope for some good transfer students next year
Good ball movement!
Clark with the trey!
Finally, Tyger hit a shot!
Tygrrrr!
Thanks for the game recap! I made it for the second half.
Sweet, Amari!
They stopped having tyger try to do everything… refs hitting Jaime hurt. He is going to be the biggest factor in ucla this year
Tyger!
Jaime rebounding and assisting…
At last, the Bruins are clicking!
Bailey having a much better second half
Bailey is what we hoped Watson would be last year.
Three straight bad possessions out of the timeout.
Make it four straight.
I sense the insecure Bruins coming back.
Getting out worked and outcoached.
Singleton 3!
Richardson got away with two obvious carries before bricking that three. Refs are brutal.
Jaime!
Bailey with the exclamation point!