Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | T | The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)

Ducks vs. Ducks.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Bob Clark The Register-Guard

U O b a s k e t b a l l

It's off to Los Angeles for the Oregon basketball team, with first place in the Pac-10 at stake, as it was in 2002.

The current Ducks are led by a point guard having a breakout season, as they were five years ago. Oregon is shooting three-pointers well, and often, as the Ducks of '02 certainly did.

Is it deja vu? Or is it too early to say?

When the Ducks went on the road to play UCLA and USC five years ago, it was on the final weekend of the conference season and a pair of victories did wrap up the Pac-10 title. This trip by Oregon opens the second half of the conference season, so sweep, split or get swept, and the Ducks will still have seven league games to settle where they finish in the standings.

Still, it isn't entirely a reach to compare the current Oregon team to the one of five seasons ago. There are personnel and statistical similarities, if also some notable differences.

Exactly the same, for both teams, is the 7-2 record halfway through the Pac-10 season. What the Ducks did five years ago was also win seven of nine games in the second half to finish 14-4, two games ahead of four teams tied for second place.

This season, that second time around the league is only just beginning.

`We've got to keep plugging away,' UO coach Ernie Kent said. `Each weekend becomes another challenge.'

The primary comparison Kent will make between '02 and now is that `with both of those teams, you knew you were going to be in for a dogfight in the second half (of the...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!