Stopping Evan Mobley on the Road to a Four Seed
Ducks work in a make-up game against the conference-leading Trojans. It's the biggest game of the year and it's also not.
Last week, I rode the high of a Desert sweep and great expectations from talking heads like Jon Rothstein. I thought long and hard about whether or not this Oregon Men’s team had the chops to make another trademark run into March.
I concluded that yes, if the Ducks kept winning; and if they added at least one of the LA schools back to their schedule; and if Chris and Will started playing like we all know Chris and Will can (plus, if the selection committee is very forgiving of covid circumstances); then yes, I think this team is a four seed.
Lo and behold, Chris and Will have been as clutch as ever, the Ducks swept the Mountain schools, and we even welcomed USC back to our schedule.
Just like Dana (and me) drew it up.
Tonight, Duarte and the Ducks travel to Los Angeles to play the biggest game of the season so far.
They didn’t beat CU and Utah with much authority, but they don’t care about that. They know that February & March college basketball has never been about style points, it’s about grinding a game out. And these Ducks are grinders.
Tonight will be another big test for this ragtag team as they take on the Pac-12 leading Trojans, and their lottery pick/real Pac-12 POY candidate, Evan Mobley.
Mobley has been a force all over the floor, but at 7-foot, 215 lbs., the freshman phenom is going to be an absolute pressure test for Oregon’s defense at the hoop.
Young Frank the Tank will need to continue his upward trend, Eugene (from Eugene) will probably need to avoid fouling out until at least twenty seconds left in regulation, and LJ Figueroa will be called upon to play some of the best on-ball defense of his career.
At least two of those three things—and preferably all three—will have to happen in order to answer Mobley’s 17.1 ppg, and 8.8 rpg. It’s a tall task, to be sure, but if this team really is the four seed I think they are (and they are), then they’re up to it.
I can see it now:
Maybe the 19th-ranked Trojans are up at half by five or six points. Maybe they’ll even go on a run or two to start the second half. But Dana will start running his press early enough to keep the Ducks in it.
It’s anyone’s game with three minutes to go, and Chris Duarte and Will Richardson’s spin move will do the rest.
But honestly—as big as this game feels—a win is still only a “nice-to-have.”
This game can mean a lot to the regular season standings, and maybe shift some seeding around for the conference tourney, but Dana knows how to prepare for the marathon that is called: March.
If he senses that this third game in five days is too much—let alone the travel of it all—then I also wouldn’t be surprised if he decides not to press his guys too hard.
There are more games ahead of us, and I don’t believe we are in “win or go home” territory quite yet.
A win is huge for momentum, yes. It would be very Dana to win and remind the conference that he is him. But it would also be exactly like him to decide to preserve his team to finish the season strong and keep something in the tank for the gauntlet that lies ahead of them.
And even if they did lose a close one tonight, it wouldn’t make them any less of a four seed.
Let’s get one thing straight, if the committee chooses to be blind and ends up slating Oregon anywhere between a ten or a five seed, the Ducks will still be a four seed. No matter what. Dana Altman will deliver a four seed every single night, because that’s what he does.
Tonight is fun. It’s a great reminder that a big month of basketball is coming up. But it’s nothing close to a do or die game.
And I can tell myself that all I want, but it won’t keep me from clapping and screaming at my TV screen with every play.
This is March. Even though it’s February.
Go Ducks.