Oregon @ Washington preview

Oregon at Washington

Last Meeting ( Jan 18, 2020 ) Oregon 64, Washington 61

Oregon and Washington will not be meeting on the football field to decide the Pacific-12 Conference's North Division title Saturday because of coronavirus concerns, but that won't be the only game scheduled between the schools that day.

The Ducks (3-1, 0-0) and Huskies (1-3, 0-1) are set to play a Pac-12 men's basketball game at Seattle.

A victory in their conference opener could help propel the Ducks back into the top 25. They dropped out after a season-opening 83-75 loss to Missouri but have since won three consecutive games.

The Ducks are coming off an 87-66 victory against Florida A&M when Chris Duarte scored a game-high 23 points and N'Faly Dante added 22 on 10-of-10 shooting from the field.

"I thought we tried to share the ball more," Oregon coach Dana Altman said. "I haven't been too excited about some of our shots and our ball movement, but I thought (Wednesday) our guys really moved the ball."

Dante is helped up front by a trio of transfers in Eugene Omoruyi (Rutgers), LJ Figueroa (St. John's) and Eric Williams Jr. (Duquesne). They helped Oregon shoot 32 of 40 from inside the 3-point arc against the Rattlers.

"We've got a lot of work to do but we should be making progress," Altman said. "I told the guys I don't expect us to be perfect, but we gotta make improvements."

The Huskies snapped a season-opening, three-game skid with a 73-41 victory against Seattle University on Wednesday. Point guard Quade Green, a transfer from Kentucky, led Washington with 18 points and fellow guard Nate Pryor added 13.

"It's a heck of a combination," Huskies coach Mike Hopkins said of Green and Pryor. "I thought they shared the ball, they got the ball moving. And you can see chemistry. Sometimes you can't explain how it happens, but it happens and they've got it."

Forward Nate Roberts added 10 points and eight rebounds for Washington, which opened Pac-12 play with a 76-62 loss at Utah on Dec. 3.

"It's all about getting better," Hopkins said. "The last three years when we played Seattle U., we beat them by single digits (twice) then they had a one-point lead at halftime last year and we ended up pulling away with five minutes to go in the game.

"Our defense (Wednesday) was the brightest spot. You know that's going to travel. You know you can trust that. I thought the intensity and the focus was there ... those are the positives moving forward."

--Field Level Media