Hawaii @ Oregon preview

No. 14 Oregon was thisclose from a top-five ranking and a week to remember at the Battle 4 Atlantis over Thanksgiving weekend. The Ducks, who host Hawaii on Saturday afternoon, edged No. 15 Seton Hall (71-69) in their opener before losing a pair of heart-breakers to No. 9 Gonzaga (73-72 in OT) and No. 7 North Carolina (78-74).

The home game with the Rainbow Warriors, who bring a three-game winning streak to Eugene, gives Dana Altman's squad a chance to reset after the two narrow losses to the Zags and Tar Heels before they head to No. 5 Michigan next Saturday. The Ducks, who earlier defeated then-No. 13 Memphis (82-74) with likely No. 1 NBA Draft pick James Wiseman in the lineup, in the inaugural Phil Knight Invitational in Portland, Ore., are the only team in the country to have faced four top-15 ranked opponents. Playing the tough competition has exposed a few warts like rebounding, where Gonzaga (plus-five) and North Carolina (eight) both outrebounded the Ducks, and also free-throw shooting where they were outscored by a combined 14 points in the losses. "You go to those tournaments to find out what you need to work on," Altman told oregonlive.com. "We realize board play has got to improve drastically, and every facet of the game, we have to get a little bit better."

TV: 7 p.m. ET, Pac-12 Network

ABOUT HAWAII (6-2): This is the second road game against a Power 5 conference school for the Rainbow Warriors who lost at Illinois, 66-53, on Nov. 18. Senior guard Eddie Stansberry is the team's leading scorer (18.8 points per game) while shooting 44.1 percent from 3-point range and has scored 20 or more points in five straight home games. Junior point guard Drew Buggs (12.3) and forwards Samuta Avea (11.6) and Zigmars Raimo (10.4) are also averaging double figures, with Raimo also averaging a team-best 7.0 rebounds per game.

ABOUT OREGON (6-2): Senior Payton Pritchard has started 117 consecutive games and is one of the premier point guards in the nation, averaging 18.6 points, 5.5 assists and 4.4 rebounds per outing. Guard Chris Duarte, the 2018-19 NJCAA Player of the Year at Northwest Florida State Junior College, is second in scoring (11.0) and third in rebounding (5.6) while Anthony Mathis, a grad transfer from New Mexico, is also averaging in double figures (10.8) while shooting 48.8 percent (21-of-43) from 3-point range. The Ducks are also getting key contributions from Shakur Juiston, a 6-7 grad transfer from UNLV who leads the team in rebounding (6.5) while also scoring 8.8 points per game.

TIP-INS

1. The series history is tied 5-5 with Hawaii winning the last meeting, 66-63, on Dec. 30, 1999 in Honolulu.

2. Pritchard is one of only two players in program history with 1,000 points, 500 assists and 400 rebounds, joining Ron Lee who is in the school's Hall of Fame and was the Pac-8's Player of the Year in 1976.

3. Mathis ranks second in the Pac-12 with an average of 2.6 3-pointers per game.

PREDICTION: Oregon 89, Hawaii 67