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LIVE THREAD: Oregon Takes on USC in Important Road Swing

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Live updates during the Oregon at USC basketball game as the Ducks look to remain in first place.

 

Follow the action between the first-place Oregon Ducks (14-6, 6-3) and the USC Trojans (8-12, 2-7) from Los Angeles as both programs look to bounce back from a tough weekend and return to the winning track.

 

For the Ducks, they enter Thursday night's game squarely on the bubble of the NCAA Tournament. The Ducks need to start winning games and getting themselves back on the right side of the bubble. For USC, the Trojans have seen a once-promising season crumble before their eyes and have now lost five straight games coming into Thursday night.

 

We should be seeing two programs that are going to be playing desperate and with everything on the table as they look to get back on the winning side. Follow the action as we provide pregame, in-game, and postgame updates between the Ducks and the Trojans.

 

Oregon is 17-7 against USC under head coach Dana Altman. The Ducks have split the last ten games played against the Trojans 5-5. The Ducks have won two of the last five played in Los Angeles, including a 79-69 win in January 2022, the last time the game was played at USC.

 

Thursday night's contest is set for 7 PM and will be broadcast by ESPN. Dave Pasch and Bill Walton are on the call.

 

Oregon Projected Starters

G - Jackson Shelstad 6-foot FR 12.4 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 2.6 apg
G - Jermaine Couisnard 6-foot-4 SR 14.9 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 2.8 apg
forward - Jadrian Tracey 6-foot-6 JR 7.2 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 1.7 apg
forward - Nate Bittle 7-foot JR 8.3 ppg, 3.7 rpg
C - N'Faly Dante 6-foot-11 SR 14.8 ppg, 8.2 rpg, 1.8 apg

 

USC Projected Starters

G - Boogie Ellis 6-foot-3 SR 18.1 pgp, 4.1 rpg, 3.4 apg
G - Kobe Johnson 6-foot-6 JR 11.4 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 3.5 apg
forward - DJ Rodman 6-foot-6 SR 7.2 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 1.1 apg
forward - Joshua Morgan 6-foot-11 SR 6.0 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 1.3 apg
C - Vincent Iwuchukwu 7-foot-1 SO

 
247SPORTS.COM

Live updates during the Oregon at USC basketball game as the Ducks look to remain in first place.

 

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If you are missing this game, turn on ESPN.  Ducks leading USC 46-39.  Shelstad shooting the lights out and Bill Walton spewing Duck love.

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What?!  Bill Walton...Spewing???

 

Wouldn't have it any other way.  😁

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And yes.  Shelstad had a solid first half.  Hope he keeps it up and get a little more help.  (Especially off the bench).

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Bittle?

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Yeah.  Was wondering the same.  Please don't be a setback on his wrist.  🙄

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Seven minutes and up by 15.  Need to close out strong!

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Well wrong team finished strong...but still got the win.  Thanks for the attempt at establishing the thread, NJDuck.  Try again on Saturday.  Maybe have more participation.

 

And hopefully Bittle also.  Go Ducks! 🦆🏀👍

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Bottle was I’ll.

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If any losses that keep us out of the tourney come back to haunt us it'll be the winnable ones. Utah, Arizona. Those are two for sure that should have been w's.

 

The team's playing mostly well. The comeback tonight for USuCk was disappointing.  There are still too many stretches of excellent play followed by lapses.  These lapses need to diminish.  

 

The Ducks need to complete the sweep of the LA schools. Follow that with a sweep of those schools up north and things will look good. A sweep of the bark rats would be great, but the way they're playing lately I can see a split. I hate losing to the Tinkle family after seeing them in the stands a few years ago being complete rear-ends. But it's enough that I snicker every time I say the word Tinkle.

 

Sooooo many winnable games left to play.  I hope that everyone can stay healthy and we can all go dancing in March.  The dance is so much more satisfying when your team is dancing with you.

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Nice road W. If they get Bittle healthy, and put it together down the stretch, we could have some fun in the Madness and win 2 or 3.

 

Some stats that jumped out to me, for starters, were free throws, as Oregon got to the line 21 times and hit 18 for nearly 86%. Dang, that's an exceptional night. SC only got to the line 6 times making all 6.

 

The other stat that actually cause my jaw to drop were blocks. Oregon averages a respectable 4 per game. Last night they had 6. But that's not the block stat that caught my attention.

 

It was USCs blocks. They average a healthy 6 blocks per game but last night they had 14. I thought it was a data error when I first saw that, but it is legit. I can't remember when I've ever seen a team get 14 blocks on an opponent playing in the same division. It's actually quite stunning.

 

Usually, there is no way an opponent is going to win if they are dominated by blocks anywhere close to that. I only watched a little bit of the game, but I'm guessing we must have recovered a fair amount of those blocks.

 

USC even shot the 2 ball better by about 20%, and also made more (27-24). SC shot 41% overall. 

 

The Ducks 3 ball % was slightly better as we made 12 triples compared to 9 for SC. And yet overall, we only shot 37% from the floor.

 

Rebounds were equal, except we dominated them on the all important offensive glass 17-12.

 

Assists and steals were pretty much a push. 

 

And yet, we still won by 9... on the road. Thank goodness for 21 trips to the line followed by an ice-water-in-veins FT % of 86%, and nearly 38% 3 points shooting.

 

All-in-all, this team might just get quite interesting down the stretch. Let's hope for another amazing Altman late season run. 

 

Edited by Desert Duck
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On 2/1/2024 at 9:29 PM, MicroBurst61 said:

What?!  Bill Walton...Spewing???

 

Wouldn't have it any other way.  😁

 

Love Bill, but I just can hardly listen to the guy anymore. 

 

I recently watched The King's Speech and as I listened to Bill a bit last night, I was reminded that he once has a pretty severe speech impediment. 

 

This was naturally inflamed when Bill had to speak in public. He hated the cameras in college because of it. 

 

But the truly amazing part is that he chose to work his as off to overcome it. It's really quite remarkable and impressive. I can only imagine the amount of hope he has given, and gives, to those who struggle with this challenge.

 

And now, the "Conference of Champions" Dude can't even begin to shut his yapper 😉 .

Edited by Desert Duck
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I didn't get to watch the game live and the ESPN app was acting up but what I got to see was Shelstad with a spring in his step that we haven't seen in weeks. This team seems to be gelling with Dante and his conditioning is looks better all the time.

 

This was a really good road win with the team showing better defense and team play. No one wants to play a Altman team in February and this looks to me too be a great start. 

 

Personally I'm not too worried about Bittle and I think he's a great player but he's more of a natural 5 spot than a 4. Evans athleticism is a little more in line with the college 4 spot and he can guard the more athletic guards when forced to switch off on a screen. He did a pretty good job on Ellis without fouling. Offense is generally not the problem with this team as just about anyone can score, defense should dictate the personnel on the court.

Edited by Dave23
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