College Basketball

No. 4 Oregon facing tough road test at Baylor

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 6:25 p.m. ET

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Four days into the college basketball season, fourth-ranked Oregon faces a test that concerns coach Dana Altman.

After opening the season with an uninspiring 91-77 win over Army, the Ducks will head to Baylor on Tuesday afternoon.

"We've got a lot of work to do and I've been telling the guys that for the last two or three weeks," Altman said. "I liked the first couple weeks, but then we got stuck in gear and have had a hard time getting out of that. We had better figure out a way to get in another gear before Tuesday."

Oregon has a difficult early schedule as it returns home from Baylor to face Valparaiso before heading to the Maui Invitational.

"We knew we had some super tough games this year from the jump that are away from home so we won't have the home crowd to help us win," Ducks junior forward Jordan Bell said. "So we have been going extra hard in practice and working on rebounding."

Oregon beat Baylor 74-67 last season in Eugene, Ore.

"I don't think we will be that excited like we were last year when we were licking our chops because we knew we were the underdog," Bell said. "This year people are saying we are good so I think we need to take the mentality last year like we were underdogs. We will get everyone's best game so we have to come out with energy and go for it."

Last year, Baylor was in the Top 25 when it lost to Oregon, but now the Ducks are the ranked team in the matchup.

"They were ranked and we weren't and it was a big ballgame for us," Altman said. "It is a big one for us to go down there, it will be tough on the road. We are not playing very well and we will be the underdogs going down there. Whether they think they are the favorites or not, we are going down there and it will be a tough game."

Oregon will once again be without All-Pac-12 Conference junior forward Dillon Brooks, who is expected to miss the first few weeks of the season following foot surgery.

"That is no excuse, we have not had him for the summer or the preseason," Bell said. "When he comes back, he will help us a lot."

Baylor opened the season with a 76-61 win at home over Oral Roberts.

"This will be a tough game for us, our first real test against a good team," Oregon forward Roman Sorkin said. "We are really excited and want to play."

Junior guard Al Freeman led the Bears with 16 points against Oral Roberts, including three 3-pointers. Baylor shot 10 of26 from behind the 3-point line.

"That's something when you play guards, you hope they make those threes," Baylor coach Scott Drew said. "I thought we had some good looks, and in the second half I thought we did a good job getting to the paint and getting to the 3-point line and mixing that up. I thought guys got a little more comfortable at the 3-point line in the second half, so that was good."

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