The Oregon Ducks come into Stanford in the Cardinal’s toughest conference test yet this season.
Who: 11. Oregon Ducks (18-4, 7-2) vs. Stanford Cardinal (15-5, 4-3)
When: Saturday, February 1st at 6:00 PM ET
Where: Maples Pavilion in Stanford, CA
TV Schedule: PAC12 Network
The Stanford Cardinal will defend their home court against a team from Oregon for the second time in three days. Fresh off of a tough loss against the Oregon State Beavers on Thursday night, the Cardinal face an even tougher test as the 11-ranked Oregon Ducks come into town. The Ducks come in playing their second game in a row in California, having knocked off the Cal Bears on Thursday night as well. Stanford has been very good at home this year and will present quite the challenge for the visiting Ducks.
Oregon has clearly been one of the best teams in the nation this year, with a resume including victories over Seton Hall, Arizona, Michigan, and Memphis (with James Wiseman). The Ducks are led by senior Payton Pritchard, one of the most talented, if not very flashy, players in the nation. Pritchard is surrounded by plenty of experienced talent in the starting lineup with him, including junior second-leading scorer Chris Duarte, and the Ducks have lots of youthful energy coming off the bench as well.
Stanford is still somewhat of a puzzle to figure out this far into the season. The Cardinal currently has 15 wins and no bad losses, but a fairly unimpressive resume still. A one-point loss to Butler at a neutral site game might be their best outcome of the season. Not to say the Cardinal aren’t talented. Junior Oscar Da Silva and freshman Tyrell Terry do a bit of everything for coach Jerod Haase’s team, with both players averaging over 15 ppg and 5.0 rpg. It will be interesting to see how the duo performs, and the young team as a whole does, against such a well balanced and talented Oregon team.
One key for the inexperienced Cardinal to pull off the upset at home will be to keep up their three-point shooting. Stanford currently leads the PAC-12 in three-point field goal percentage at an impressive 39.2% from deep in conference play. Overall, the Cardinal is 15th in the nation with the long ball. Stanford is lead in shooting by Tyrell Terry and Spencer Jones, both of whom average over 42% from 3 on at least 5 attempts per game. Terry will need to step up more against the Ducks, as he was only 1-5 from beyond the arc against Oregon State.
The Ducks are no slouches from deep themselves. Oregon is currently 17th in the nation overall from three, though they have struggled a bit in conference play only shooting 33.5% in those games. Three players on their roster currently are shooting better than 40% from three, with Will Richardson leading all shooters with 42% shooting from deep off the bench. The Ducks will need to heat back up from beyond the arc in order to keep up with Stanford’s team-wide shooting.
Oregon will be the toughest team Stanford has played in the PAC-12 this season. In order for the Cardinal to remain towards the top of the conference standings, they will need to play tough defense and hit their shots from deep. Oregon has talent across the board and Stanford will probably struggle to keep all of it in check. They will likely focus on slowing Payton Pritchard, a very tough task, and forcing other Ducks to beat them.
Fortunately for Oregon, distributing the ball is one of the things Pritchard does best (5.8 apg) and he will have plenty of opportunities to set up his teammates. A win in this key matchup would be huge for both teams looking to improve their tournament resumes and seedings in the PAC-12 tournament.
Final Prediction: Oregon – 68, Stanford – 64