Tonight, Jaime Jaquez and the Bruins will look to beat the Ducks in Eugene for the first time since January 2019. (Photo Credit: Jan Kim Lim/uclabruins.com)
This evening, the UCLA Bruins will be in Eugene to conclude their Oregon road trip with a game against the Ducks. When the teams met in Westwood at the beginning of December, the Bruins beat Oregon, 65-56, but the Ducks are always tougher to beat on the road.
In fact, Oregon has won the last three meetings between these teams in Eugene. The last time UCLA beat the Ducks on the road was January 2019. They can’t afford to stumble tonight. The Bruins are just a half-game ahead, and one in the loss column, of Arizona. With the Wildcats playing Stanford this evening, they are virtually assured of a win. So, an Arizona win combined with a Bruin loss would move the Wildcats into first place in the Pac-12 standings. That makes tonight’s game a huge one for the Bruins.
Hopefully, Mick Cronin can build on what the team has done in their past two games against Washington State and Oregon State when the team has had, arguably, two of their best conference games of the season.
Ducks head coach Dana Altman would love to pick up a win against the Bruins tonight because that would help his team lay a claim to the third seed in the Pac-12 Tournament. The Ducks have already swept Utah and, on Thursday night, they beat Southern Cal in their only game against the Trojans this season. Their split with Arizona leaves just UCLA as the only team above the Ducks in the Pac-12 standings which the Ducks have not beaten.
Oregon’s Starting Five
Given that UCLA and Oregon last played at the beginning of December, it’s not surprising to see that Dana Altman might have a few changes to his starting lineup. When the Bruins hosted the Ducks, Altman started Quincy Guerrier and Kel’el Ware. Since then, he has replaced Quincy Guerrier in the lineup with transfer guard Jermaine Couisnard. Guerrier will probably still get playing tonight, though. He played 21 minutes against Southern Cal on Thursday night, but look for Couisnard to get more minutes than Guerrier. He played 31 minutes on Thursday against Southern Cal.
The other likely change to the Ducks’ starting five is the addition of Nate Bittle who will likely replace Ware.
The Couisnard swap makes sense because he is averaging 12.4 ppg to Guerrier’s 9.1, but sitting Ware in favor of Bittle doesn’t seem to make much difference and, in most statistical categories, Ware seems to be the better player. Of course, Ware will still play too, but he probably isn’t going to get the anywhere close to the same amount of playing time that he got at Pauley in December. He only played 13 minutes against the Trojans on Thursday compared to almost 28 minutes against the Bruins in December.
Will Richardson, N’Faly Dante and Couisnard are the top three offensive threats on the Ducks and those are the guys that the Bruins will need to stop to come out with a win tonight.
Despite the decrease in playing time, Ware still leads the team in blocks, followed closely by Dante.
Look for Ware and Guerrier to be joined by Keeshawn Barthelemy as the first three Ducks off the bench. On Thursday against the Trojans, Barthelemy had 8 points in 26 minutes along with 4 assists.
Listen to the Game With TMB
Tonight’s game will be on ESPN with Dave Pasch and national treasure Bill Walton calling the game. If you prefer, you can listen to Josh Lewin and Tracy 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.
This is your UCLA men’s basketball vs. Oregon Ducks game thread. Here’s how to watch tonight’s game:
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U Clap! Clap!
C clap ! clap!
L clap clap!
A clap clap!
U C L A Fight fight fight!
Good evening, Bruin Mama!
Hi Doctor!
Good evening, Terry!
Good evening to you.
Hi Terry!
Good evening. Tonight will be the test - did we right the ship the last two games and break out of the January slump??
In other news OSU beats U$C. Stanford and Cal giving their respective Arizona schools a run for it. Both close games midway through the second halves.
Go Trees!
Stanford up 72-69 with 4:44 left. I agree with bruinballer. Love OSU beat SC!!!!!
Stanford up by 10 with 3:30 to go!
Trees hustling for the ball, playing tight D, while AZ looking stunned and out of sorts-- love it!
Stanford up double digits at the under 4 TO
Lead still 10 with 1:30 to go. Cal and ASU go to OT.
Trees foul on a 3 point shot. Lead down to 6.
Trees have Zona by 10 with 3:28 left
SPTRs are rearing their ugly heads and making a bunch of calls to help Arizona.
and now Stanford trying to give the game away with stupid fouls and sloppy turnovers
Up by 10 again with 1:42 left.
Audio messed up on ESPN of our game
Thanks, BB, I hear it too.
They finally fixed it
Hope espn can fix the sound before the game starts.
It's awful!!!
Stanford is playing sloppy right now, but Ariz. just missed 2 very long 3 point shots.
Got lucky on some dumb turnovers.Still holding a 9 point lead with 40 seconds to go.
Let's go, Bruins!!
Good idea, Tyger, but bad execution
Dammit! Bona picked up a foul in the first minute of the half
He can't get into foul trouble tonight. Already on the bench.
Already a foul on Bona
Okay, no way AZ wins tonight-- way too late :-)
Argh - why pull him less than a minute in? How does that help anyone?
Do we really need to sit Bona with just one foul? Seems way too quick!
And Nwuba gets one right away. Wow
Dumb push by Nuba.
I absolutely despise that floor. It makes it so hard to follow action. Players get lost among the dark trees.
Another slow start for the Bruins
Yeah, this is not the way we want to start this game. Can we get a do-over?
Any Mulligans tonight?
8-0 run for the Ducks. Come on!
Is it necessary for me to comment on how I hate this ridiculous court?
I completely agree. Hideous IMO.
It's always been too irritating to look at.
You can laugh about how much nike spent on it.
Time for a time out. Our heads are elsewhere right now.
Definitely not ready or something.
Out of the time-out, we turnover the ball on shot clock-- really??
C'mon Bruins get it together!
Oregon is playing with more energy right now.
Clark makes the bucket and gets fouled
Jaylen gets us on the board with a sweet dance to the basket.
Great pass by Clark
Nice dish to Jaquez
Great pass Jaylen.
We need more of those off ball cuts in our offense.
Yep! Hi, Gregg!
Hey everyone, just rushed home and turned on the TV
Welcome to the party!
Welcome, Henry, sloppy Bruin start so far.
We need to settle down
Oregon somehow seems to rattle our players at this point
Yeah BruinMom17, first time for me, LOL
Amari Bailey with an elite defensive move that leads to a steal.
Jaime! There's the right cut to the basket.
Love the Bailey factor!
Hope Bailey can our them in again tonight!
Nice to see a jumper made!
Baileys jumper has vastly improved.
I love Bailey going to the basket in control or taking those mid range jumpers.
It makes such a huge difference.
Bailey's pedigree is showing,
Bailey ties it eight all.
Great class by Bailey going to help up the Oregon player too.
Tyger with the teardrop!
Bona immediately makes his presence felt :-)
Tygrrrr!
Block party by Bona!
And there's Bailey a bit out of control.
HS mistake.
Cool it, Oregon coach. It was a bad foul
Ya that was on his hand. What’s to argue??
Great move by JJ.
McClendon and singleton in
And andrews
Wow, we'll be in the bonus in no time the way Ducks are playing
Good D for 30 sec.
Oh Kenny gonna get a T
Walton said history, tradition etc etc. Bill, you meant UCLA, right ?!?
I am listening to the radio feed. I can't do the Oregon floor and Bill Walton in the same game.
Bill was just waxing on talking to Ken Kesey.