Looking to build on its best start in 11 years, No. 12 Oregon begins its Big Ten Conference tenure on Wednesday in Los Angeles when it visits fellow league newcomer Southern California.
The Ducks (8-0) extended their hottest opening stretch since the 2013-14 season with a dramatic, 83-81 win over then-No. 9 Alabama on Saturday in the championship game of the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas.
Nate Bittle capped a 19-point, nine-rebound performance with a tip-dunk just before the buzzer, helping Oregon avoid a late-game collapse after the Crimson Tide scored six straight in the final minute to tie the score.
Bittle’s game-winning play continued a strong start for the 7-foot center in his return from various health issues that sidelined him for almost the entire 2023-24 season. He missed two months after breaking his wrist, then the final two months due to illness.
Bittle heads to Los Angeles averaging team-highs of 14.6 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. He is one of three Ducks averaging more than 10 points per game, along with forward Brandon Angel, who has posted 10.1, and TJ Bamba, Most Valuable Player of the Players Era Festival, posting 13 points per game.
“Some nights are going to be your night, some nights are going to be your teammates’ nights. You’ve just got to be happy for everybody, just knowing that you’re going to have off-nights and you can trust your teammates,” Bittle said of Oregon’s depth in an episode of the Ducks’ behind-the-scenes YouTube series.
Jackson Shelstad, whose 20 points powered Oregon to a 78-69 win when the Ducks last visited USC in February for a Pac-12 Conference tilt, has a team-high 3.9 assists per game despite his individual scoring output dropping from 12.8 points a season ago to 9.8 so far in 2024-25.
The win catapulted Oregon from unranked to No. 12 in the Ducks’ first Associated Press Top 25 appearance of the season. This marks the 10th time in which Oregon has been ranked at some point in the season during coach Dana Altman’s 15-year tenure, and the sixth time in seven seasons.
USC (5-3), meanwhile, returns home after a disastrous showing at last week’s Acrisure Classic in Palm Desert, Calif. The Trojans’ first two games away from home this season produced a pair of double-digit losses, starting with a 71-36 blowout defeat on Thursday vs. Saint Mary’s.
USC’s scoring output against the Gaels matched its lowest since November 2011. The next night against New Mexico, the Trojans gave up 83 points, the second-most they have allowed in a game this season, in a 10-point loss to the Lobos.
First-year Trojans coach Eric Musselman said last week that “it’s a mystery” how USC has allowed scorers to get into positions to get off clean shots so far this season. Against Saint Mary’s, Gaels guard Jordan Ross’ ability to get into the lane off the dribble repeatedly after halftime turned a manageable, 11-point deficit into a landslide in shorter order.
“We’ve got to figure out what and who we are defensively,” Musselman said.
Opponents are shooting 35.7 percent from 3-point range and 53 percent inside the arc against the Trojans through eight games.
–Field Level Media
