Pac-10 member Oregon heads east for a date with Tony Bennett’s Hoos Friday night at 8 p.m. Will the 10-day exam hiatus cool the Wahoos down a little bit, or will this extremely young hoops team come out on fire?
Virginia could not hit the broad side of a barn in their last contest before the break. The Hoos found a way to win, but if someone had gotten hot for Radford, the outcome would have been very much in question.
The Wahoos will play the second contest of an eight-game home-stand at the JPJ starting Friday night. Virginia has won four out of their last five games, and are 6-3 so far this season.
Oregon is 7-3 on the young-season so far, but they have not beaten anyone of note. Their losses are to Duke (in Portland), San Jose State, and Missouri (at home in Eugene). The Ducks move in to the newest college hoops paradise next month, a $200-million dollar palace named for Phil Knight from Nike’s son Matthew Knight. Matthew died in a SCUBA accident in 2004.
The Ducks are led by 6-6 center Jason Catron. Catron has scored 20 or more points four different times this season, and he will be a very difficult matchup for Virginia’s young defense.
This is the first time the two teams have met on the hardwood. Tony Bennett was 6-2 against Oregon while coaching at Pac-10 member Washington State. The Hoos are 15-1 under Bennett if they score at least 70 points, and 6-18 over the past two years if they don’t hit the 70 point threshold. Sounds like a team that lives and dies by the three-pointer!
Mike Scott, who was the ACC player of the week December 6th, is averaging 16.3 PPG, and 10.4 rebounds per game. Freshman Joe Harris leads the team in three’s with 19 of them so far. Mustapha Farrakhan is averaging 10.7 PPG, and Jontel Evans leads the team in assists with 4.2 a game.
Assane Sene and Farrakhan both had splendid games earlier this month in the road win at Minnesota, and if the Hoos are going to beat the Ducks, both of them will be needed to play stifling defense as well.
I think Virginia wins this game 74-62. It’s nice to have this game played on a Friday night, and I bet the JPJ will be rocking come game-time. Go Hoos!