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Tonight, your Washington State Cougars and their THIRTEEN game losing streak head back out on the road to Ernie Kent's old stomping grounds to take on the THIRTEENTH (see the symmetry?) ranked team in all of the land, the 21-6 Oregon Ducks. The game will tip off at Matthew Knight Arena at 7 PM PDT.
You can catch this game on the Pac-12 Networks and can be streamed live on the Pac-12 App and Pac-12.com if you're into masochism. You can also listen to the WSU radio broadcast on tunein.com.
This is the lone matchup between these two teams this season, and the stakes could not be any more different for all involved. Oregon is looking to secure a protected seed in the NCAA tournament and may be going for style points tonight, while also looking to get the end of the rotation some minutes before postseason play begins. The Cougs, on the other hand, are just looking to leave the state without getting too embarrassed. Oregon has won 23 (!!!) consecutive games at home.
Is an upset tonight for WSU possible? Of course not, don't be ridiculous! Oregon does far too many things too well to hope that it will all collapse for them at home. The Ducks are averaging 1.13 points per possession in conference play, 2nd in the league. The Ducks don't turn the ball over with any regularity, with TO Rate of 15.1%, best in the conference and on the flip side, get a steal on 6% of defensive possessions, best in the league. They aren't a particularly fast team at 68 possessions per game, which doesn't bode well for a Cougar team would like to speed things up and create chaos to stay in the game.
Oregon is led by conference player of the year candidate Sophomore Dillon Brooks. The forward is averaging 17 points per game, and 22 per game over the past month. Elgin Cook, Tyler Dorsey and Chris Boucher are also all averaging double figures and distribute the ball between the four of them pretty evenly. Boucher is one of the best rebounders in the country, nationally ranked in both offensive and defensive rebounding rates. The Cougar big men will have a tough test keeping him off the glass.
The Ducks have bounced back after being swept in Northern California, taking down rival Oregon State 91-81 last Sunday. Dorsey led all scorers with 25 points going 9 of 16 from the field and Boucher added 14 with 9 rebounds. It appears that Oregon has righted their ship and a 24th consecutive home win for the Ducks is imminent.
The RPI loves Oregon, slotting them 4th in the entire country and KenPom's laptop has them at 17. Pomeroy predicts this game to be an 87-67 laugher with 95% confidence. Vegas currently favors the Ducks by 18 points and 94% of the money is still coming in on Oregon. The current over/under is 148 points.
This page will also serve as your game thread for this evening so feel free to cheer for the unrealistic upset along with the rest of us here.
Go Cougs!