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Oregon MBB Set for Huge Test vs Auburn

On3 imageby: Justin Hopkins11/24/25

Later today Oregon will face off with No. 22 ranked Auburn to being the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas. Tipoff for this contest is set at 5 PM PST and will air/stream on TruTV.

It’s a loaded tournament and will give all of us a real feel for this Oregon team early on. The Ducks are currently 4-0 to start the season with the latest win coming over in-state rival Oregon State last week.

Dana Altman once again seemingly has a lot of work to do this season if the Ducks want to be contenders in March. A matchup with Auburn will tell them a lot about how close or how far away they are from that goal.

The spread for this game is 3.5 points which means the smart money thinks the Ducks have a shot at an upset. Here are my keys to getting a win later today.

Rebound, Rebound, Rebound

Oregon has not done well in this area against inferior competition. It seems to all fall on Nate Bittle and he can’t do it alone. Auburn will punish Oregon if they are given second chance opportunities. However the rotation works, Altman needs to find a couple more players that can consistently get 7-10 rebounds.

Don’t Settle for Bad Shots

If Oregon can shoot the three with a high success rate, it’s a win. The problem is they don’t always do that and get into long scoring droughts by settling for threes early in the possession. The Ducks will need to hit some threes today. But they will get better looks if they at least get the ball in the paint first and get the defense to collapse a little. Otherwise they run the risk of falling behind to a very good Auburn team.

Kwame Has to Step Up

I wanted to add this under the rebound section above, but I think it deserves its own section. I think Kwame Evans has shown some area of growth this season but still has yet to put it all together. A guy his size should be able to move around and create mismatches. I’d also like to see him be just a bit more aggressive and physical down on the block. Evans should be a double-double machine every game. 10 points, 10 boards should be his baseline. This would give Oregon a much better shot winning today.

Feed the Studs

Taking a line from Will Stein, these are the games you lean on your best players. Oregon has got to get the ball into Nate Bittle on a more consistent basis. Even if he doesn’t take the shot, he draws the defense down and creates better threes like mentioned above.

Conversely, we need to see Jackson Shelstad being Shelstad. Not only on the offensive side of the ball, but applying pressure and forcing turnovers on defense. This is the kind of game where these two must show up and KJ Evans and TK Simpkins need to chip in with some big moments.

If Shelstad and Bittle don’t have solid games, Oregon won’t win this game.

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