Oregon-Boise St. Preview
Last season, Oregon featured the Pac-12's leading scorer and Boise State had the Mountain West's top scorer.
Those players are gone and these clubs are using more balanced attacks ahead of Saturday night's matchup in which the No. 24 Ducks will try to snap the Broncos' 12-game home win streak.
Oregon (7-1) was led last season in scoring by Joseph Young, who averaged 20.7 points before graduating. Freshman Tyler Dorsey is the Ducks' leading scorer now with 14.4 points per game, but he missed Monday's 67-47 rout of Navy with a mild knee sprain.
With Dorsey out, Dillon Brooks had 19 points and six assists. Brooks averages 14.0 points and 2.8 assists.
"Coach (Dana Altman) said that I had to step up," Brooks said. "Tyler Dorsey was scoring a lot for us so people had to come in and score."
Dorsey is questionable for this contest after Dwayne Benjamin started in his place.
The Ducks have five players averaging at least 11 points, and Boise State (6-4) features similar balance with four players averaging between 10.5 and 14.6 points.
The Broncos are trying to replace Derrick Marks, who averaged 19.6 points.
"Last year we always knew that Derrick was going to get that last shot, it's not going to be the same this year," coach Leon Rice said. "It isn't going to just be one guy every night."
Boise State has won at least 21 games each of the last three seasons with two NCAA Tournament appearances. The Broncos got off to a 3-4 start before a three-game win streak, including Wednesday's 67-66 victory over Loyola Marymount on Mikey Thompson's three-point play with 12.7 seconds left.
James Webb III had 17 points and 10 rebounds and four other Broncos each scored 10 in the opener of a five-game homestand.
"We started out a little slow," Webb said. "We are trying to build back up our reputation again. Everyone has high expectations for this season, but I think we really just need to focus on one game at a time."
One reason for Boise State's woes is a tough schedule that includes three losses to ranked teams - two to Arizona and one to Michigan State. None of those games have been at home, where the Broncos have dropped their last four to Top 25 teams.
Oregon, which is 5-0 in the series, hasn't visited Boise State since winning 61-58 in 1996. The last meeting was the Ducks' 79-71 win in the 2011 CBI semifinals.
"They are a really good team," Rice said. "We need to get this place sold out. We need to get Bronco Nation to come out and hate the Ducks as much as they do. They can help us win the game."
Boise State is second in the MWC with 26.4 3-point attempts per game. That's a concern for the Ducks, who allowed UNLV to shoot 44.8 percent from beyond the arc in last Friday's 80-69 defeat.
"We didn't do a very good job," Altman told the Ducks' official website. "(If) we don't get pressed out against Boise we're going to be in trouble, because they can shoot it."
Altman said that Jordan Bell, who led the Pac-12 with 94 blocks a season ago, may make his season debut following foot surgery.