Oregon has its biggest test of the NCAA Tournament yet in the Sweet 16 against Michigan.
The No. 3-seed Ducks are coming off a nail-biting win over Rhode Island in the second round in Sacramento after convincingly beating Iona in the opener. Oregon’s late heroics from Tyler Dorsey gave the Ducks the win over Rhode Island, but they’ll need a stronger showing to take down No. 7-seed Michigan, who has performed incredibly and beaten Louisville since the team’s plane slid off a runway.
“They’re playing better now than they were playing earlier,” head coach Dana Altman told reporters before the team left for Kansas City. “They’ve got a lot of guys who can shoot the three; they’ve got a lot of guys who can put the ball on the floor. They will be a lot to handle defensively.”
Michigan has only lost two of its last 14 games and has an overall shooting percentage of 50.4 in the tournament. It has three players shooting above 40 percent from behind the arc with more than 100 attempts each, as well as two more players with above 35 percent 3-point shooting with more than 100 shot attempts.
The Wolverines, led by guard Derrick Walton Jr. during the regular season, found their March Madness groove in a narrow 92-91 win over No. 10 seed Oklahoma State in the first round. Walton Jr. scored a team-leading 26 points and 11 assists while forward D.J. Wilson scored 19 points in the team’s opening win.
Michigan’s more impressive win came in the second round over No. 2-seed Louisville as the Wolverines came out on top, 72-69, thanks to a 26-point game from Moritz Wagner.
The Ducks will run into some height on Michigan with Wilson and Wagner, who tower at 6-foot-10 and 6-foot-11, respectively. Oregon avoided a size test in Rhode Island as Hassan Martin was injured and only earned 14 minutes on the court.
“It is going to be a tough game,” Altman said. “We haven’t been as good in the paint. We’ve been exposed a little bit without Chris (Boucher). People are going to attack us and we better get ready for it.”
Though Michigan is not as much of a blocking team as Rhode Island or Oregon itself, the Ducks will have to work their way around the Wolverines’ stature.
The game tips off at 4:09 p.m. PT on Thursday on CBS.
Follow Shawn Medow on Twitter @ShawnMedow
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