Oregon vs. Stanford Pre-Game Thread/Keys to the game

Fresh off of a reportedly intense meeting yesterday, the Ducks try to find their footing in the Pac-10 with what will most likely be the most-winnable road game left this season. That's saying something, because we haven't won in Palo Alto in 43 loooonnnggg years. the Men will try to end that drought without the services of Malcolm Armstead (most likely according to Bob Clark)  due to injury.  Below, feel free to mingle amongst yourselves, and all people who want to fire E.K. may make your own thread.

Keys to the game:

1. Slow down Landry Fields--Stanford's dynamic senior scorer is averaging over 21 ppg, and will look to exploit a Duck defense that has been very forgiving as of late. If Longmire and Teondre Williams in particular can force Fields to take bad attempts or disrupt his shot, there's a much better chance the Ducks will be close late. More after the jump.

2. Take care of the &$*@% basketball--Turnovers kill. On average, over 2,000 more runs are killed each year by turnovers than by smoking. The last few times on the court, the ducks have been using the excess gift-wrap from the holiday season, and spotting a few extra possessions to the opposing team at the start of each game. What makes this game scary, is that with Armstead extremely limited at best today, T.P. will be running the point more often than i think anyone wants to see. I think a reasonable benchmark is 15 turnovers or less, or this will be ugly.

3: Drive+Penetration+Kick out=Open shots--Most mathematicians will agree that this formula cannot be dis-proven.The ducks need to get back to what worked so well against Washington in particular: setting a ball screen at the top of the key or beyond to get the point guard (Sim in this case) into the key, forcing the defense to adjust, and getting open shots. Speaking of...

3b: Make the bunny shots--How many open shots from 15 feet or less have we seen go wanting this season. I don't even want to try and figure out or find a percentage, because i like it when I'm not pulling my hair out. If we want to win another game this season, those shots need to fall. Period.