Busting Brackets
Fansided

Oregon Basketball: 2019-20 keys to beat Gonzaga in Battle 4 Atlantis

By Matthew Travis

PORTLAND, OREGON - NOVEMBER 12: Head coach Dana Altman of the Oregon Ducks reacts to a play during the first half of the game against the Memphis Grizzlies at Moda Center on November 12, 2019 in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images)
PORTLAND, OREGON - NOVEMBER 12: Head coach Dana Altman of the Oregon Ducks reacts to a play during the first half of the game against the Memphis Grizzlies at Moda Center on November 12, 2019 in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
3 of 4
Next
PORTLAND, OREGON – NOVEMBER 12: Shakur Juiston #10 of the Oregon Ducks drives to the basket on Lance Thomas #15 of the Memphis Tigers during the second half of the game at Moda Center on November 12, 2019 in Portland, Oregon. Oregon won the game 82-74. (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images)
PORTLAND, OREGON – NOVEMBER 12: Shakur Juiston #10 of the Oregon Ducks drives to the basket on Lance Thomas #15 of the Memphis Tigers during the second half of the game at Moda Center on November 12, 2019 in Portland, Oregon. Oregon won the game 82-74. (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images) /

2. Keep the Turnovers Down

Oregon does a very good job of protecting the ball with an average of only 12.8 turnovers per game. If they want to get their third ranked win of the season and the second in two nights, they are going to need to do this once again.

Oregon committed only 13 turnovers on Wednesday night, which was a huge reason as to why they managed to come back and top the Pirates. If you keep handing the ball over and giving the other team easy chances to score time and time again, the game will not go your way.

Luckily for the Ducks, this is not the case and because they do such a great job of holding onto the ball, they are still undefeated with two top-15 wins already in the books.

The bad news, however, is that while Oregon only had 13 turnovers on Wednesday, Seton Hall had only three steals while Gonzaga averages 8.2 per game. Because of this, you might see a little more turnovers than usual from Oregon, but as long as they keep the overall number down, they should be in good shape.

Oregon does a great job of moving the ball around averaging over 16 assists per game and the fact that they do this while averaging less than 13 turnovers per game is quite remarkable.

One of the most important statlines in basketball is the turnover margin and the sign of a great team is whether or not they control this margin and so far the Oregon Ducks have done exactly that.

The question is though, can they keep it up against a team like Gonzaga who does well on the defensive end? Only time will tell but considering the fact that Seton Hall averages 8.4 steals per game, which is more than Gonzaga, it appears as if Oregon might do fairly well.

Home/Oregon Ducks