EUGENE — Oregon and Wisconsin had two common opponents this season, but unlike Iowa, Stanford faced the Ducks without Bol Bol.
The Cardinal lost Wisconsin, 62-46, at the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas and lost to Oregon, 69-46, in Eugene.
Stanford coach Jerod Haase shared his thoughts and unique insight on Friday’s (approx. 1:30 p.m. PT, TBS) first-round NCAA Tournament matchup between No. 12 seed Oregon (23-12) and No. 5 seed Wisconsin (23-10) in San Jose.
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Though the Ducks and Badgers mirror each other in a lot of statistical categories, specifically in slow pace on offense and stingy defense, Haase said they are quite different in methodology.
“I think you do have two unique styles of play and they believe greatly in what they do and really stick with that,” Haase said. “While they may be similar statistically, I think there are a lot of differences with how they approach things. I think it’ll be really interesting to watch how that plays out.”
The No. 1 difference is an obvious one, Wisconsin All-American center Ethan Happ, who leads the Badgers in nearly every statistic. Both teams have three players averaging in double-figures but Oregon does not have a dominant player like Happ ever since the season-ending injury to Bol.
“Offensively they’re looking to go through Happ and they do have great pieces around him,” Haase said. “They have a big-time three-point shooting team and the decision has to made how you want to defend Happ and then the byproduct, how you’re going to defend the rest of the guys on the three-point shooting.
"They are methodical. They believe in what they do and they don’t get sped up very often. I think great guard play for Wisconsin is important, they tend to make really good decisions.”
The final score doesn’t indicate it but Stanford was within two with 6:43 to go against Wisconsin before the Badgers blew the game open late. Happ had 16 points and 12 rebounds against Stanford but no assists, which was a point of emphasis for the Cardinal, the only team to hold him without an assist this season.
“I felt really good about game plan, which was probably fairly unique,” Haase said. “We had pretty good length to be able to defend him and we ended up playing him one-on-one with the intent of taking away the three-point shooters, which we did pretty effectively. I thought we ran out of gas late in the game but for the most part I thought we executed the game plan pretty well. (We) played him one-on-one with an understanding you’re probably not going to shut him down but as much as anything his assists ignite their game just as much or more so than his points.”
Wisconsin averages less three-pointers per game than Oregon, but UW shoots 36.6 percent from behind the arc, 70th nationally. Having a 6-foot-10 center who also leads the team in assists to facilitate that outside shooting is a unique asset, particularly in today’s game with three-pointers so potent.
“It’s extremely unique. Much of college basketball right now is based around the three-point shot and a lot of times based around the point guard making plays for others,” Haase said. “They’re a little bit inverted with that knowing that Happ is the one making the plays and finding his teammates and they have a great deal of patience and a great deal of intelligence on the offensive end.”
Like Wisconsin, Oregon’s identity is primarily as a defensive team. The challenge the Ducks present is Dana Altman uses a wide variety of ways to defend, from a variety of zones in the half-court to full-court pressure and some man-to-man.
“If your goal offensively is to figure out what they’re doing and try and create the best play and get a perfect matchup and a perfect play you’re going to struggle,” Haase said. “At the end of the day you have tp be basketball players and read situations and act accordingly, as opposed to asking the coach, ‘Hey let’s get down here, let’s try and call a play, let’s get organized.’ It doesn’t work very well. You have to have players that are instinctive, they’re intelligent and then aggressive.”
Payton Pritchard scored 20 points to lead Oregon over Stanford, including a 6 for 6 shooting performance in the second half. It was the first time in Pritchard’s career that he scored 20 points in back-to-back games and he’s coming off matching that feat in leading the Ducks to the Pac-12 tournament championship.
Though Pritchard had just two assists against Stanford, not only has his scoring gone up but his distributing went through the roof during Oregon’s eight-game win streak, with 39 assists to 11 turnovers including 22 assists with only four turnovers during the Pac-12 tournament.
“I think the biggest thing is he seems to be a great leader and at point guard you want to have stability and you want to have organization,” Haase said. “I think he does those things. Obviously when he shoots the ball well, penetrating and getting a bunch of assists, all those things are marks of a great player and a great point guard. He’s certainly doing those things.”