Civil War basketball: Ducks must solve Beavers' zone for shot at NCAA tournament

EUGENE ? If Dana Altman could cocoon his team in the regular season, keeping his guys away from all the NCAA tournament talk, the coach of the Oregon men's basketball team would prefer to do so.

But in the Internet era, that's not going to happen.

So as the Ducks prepare to travel to Corvallis and take on Oregon State in the second Civil War game this season -- tip is at 4:30 p.m. in Gill Coliseum in Corvallis -- Altman and his guys already know what the bottom line is.

"I think they understand that if we don't win all three (games left), we don't have much of a chance (at the NCAA tournament) outside of winning the Pac-12 tournament," Altman said. "We just have to go play Oregon State and let things take care of themselves. It's the end of the season, lots of people talk about different things, so you've just got to make sure you focus."

Part of that focus Sunday against the Beavers (15-12, 5-10 Pac-12) will be making sure the Ducks (19-8, 10-5) can handle Oregon State's 1-3-1 zone defense, which gave Oregon all kinds of problems the first time around.

In that game, Oregon State's length and anticipation forced the Ducks into a season-high 23 turnovers, which resulted in 31 points for the Beavers.

Junior forward E.J. Singler says that this week, the Ducks will be ready for a defense they don't see much.

"I think we're more prepared," said Singler, who is averaging 13 points and six rebounds per game. "The players who hadn't played against them before have now, and that helps."

OSU coach Craig Robinson acknowledged the importance of the 1-3-1, saying it helped his team pull off a much-needed road win.

"It was a nice little injection of adrenaline to get us back into the game," Robinson said. "And once we got back into the game, we started making shots."

OSU guard Jared Cunningham torched Oregon for 27 points in the teams' first meeting ? 24 in the second half ? many of them coming off Duck turnovers.

"It's a game where we really feel like we beat ourselves, and we want a chance to redeem ourselves," Singler said.

But Sunday is about more than revenge. The Ducks must win their last three regular season games (at Oregon State, then home against Colorado and Utah) to have a shot at securing at top four finish in conference, which would give them one of the coveted byes in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament.

"(Oregon State) came in and took one from us at home," senior point guard Garrett Sim said. "It definitely motivates us. Especially with where we're at in our season, looking forward, we need to win this."

--Lindsay Schnell (I came, I saw, I tweeted)

Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2012/02/civil_war_basketball_ducks_mus.html

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