EUGENE – If Arizona is the country’s No. 5 college basketball team than the Oregon Ducks will win the national championship.
The Ducks throttled fifth-ranked Arizona 85-58 Saturday in Matthew Knight Arena. If you think the game was that close, you weren’t paying attention.
Oregon was up 38-11 late in the first half and 64-27 with 11:24 left in the second.
I covered Jerry Green’s first season as Oregon coach, and saw Arizona thump the Ducks 92-60 in 1993 at old McArthur Court.
One of the Arizona beat writers asked the Wildcats afterward if they had played better teams in high school.
Holy role reversal.
This was like that.
Arizona looked that overmatched.
The No. 13 Ducks were that dominant.
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“I hope that’s their best,” Arizona coach Sean Miller said. “If they have another level above that, it’s a bad thing for every team in the country.”
Every time Arizona made a gesture, the Ducks made it futile by hitting another three-pointer.
Oregon was 10 for 14 from beyond the arc in the first half, and 16 for 25 for the game. Arizona arrived with what statistically is the Pac-12’s best defense, and the Ducks shot it full of holes as the sellout crowd of 12,364 roared.
Dillon Brooks made four of seven three pointers. Tyler Dorsey made six of six. Casey Benson made three of five. Chris Boucher made two of three.
“They shot like a NBA team,” Arizona guard Rawle Alkins said.
And Wildcats backed off the three-point line defensively like it was radioactive.
“I thought they were an aggressive team that attacks the rim,” Alkins said of Oregon. “But all their points came from ‘threes.'”
On the other end, the UO zone defense swarmed Arizona. The Ducks contested every shot. They blocked seven.
Arizona shot .259 from the floor in the first half, and never was in it in the second.
There is so much to like about this Oregon team. The Ducks are unselfish. They’re athletic. They are so deep they went on a 19-0 run in the first half with Brooks, their marquee guy, cooling his heels on the UO bench.
Afterward, Miller made the case in a hallway outside Arizona’s locker room that his team had prepared well, played hard and just run into a UO outfit that for 40 glorious minutes, did everything right.
“Tyler Dorsey was incredible,” the Arizona coach said.
Miller noted Dorsey had made 15 three-pointers in Pac-12 play, shooting .313 from distance.
“He made six today,” Miller said. “He was six for six. And Casey Benson really really hurt us.”
It’s worth pointing out the Ducks have won 40 consecutive games at Matthew Knight. The home-court advantage does count for something, especially when the place is full, Nike co-founder Phil Knight courtside and the student section rocking.
The Ducks (21-3, 10-1) have to take this show on the road next week at UCLA and USC.
The L.A. schools are formidable, especially when you remember the last time the Ducks played away from home they were upset at Colorado.
Oregon doesn’t have a No. 1 seed locked up yet. The Ducks have to finish, both the regular season and in the Pac-12 Tournament.
“Hopefully, we’ll see them again.” Alkins said.
Perhaps he should be careful for what he wishes, because there was nothing fluky about Oregon’s victory on Saturday.
“Today, we needed to play great,” Miller said. “In my opinion, if we would have played great, it still wouldn’t have been enough today because of how well they played.”
It could be, as the student section suggested in the closing minutes, Arizona (21-3, 10-1) is overrated.
Or it could be, Oregon is a Final Four team in the making.
— Ken Goe
kgoe@oregonian.com | @KenGoe
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