With a younger team, Oregon men's basketball coach Dana Altman might be more reticent about his thoughts on the race for the Pac-12 regular-season championship.
But the Ducks feature a seven-man rotation that includes two seniors and three juniors. They kept their heads down and their minds focused through a school-record 17-game win streak earlier this season. And they themselves recognize the realities of the conference race.
On Thursday, No. 5 Oregon (21-3, 10-1 Pac-12) kicks off a seven-game sprint to the finish at No. 10 UCLA (7 p.m., ESPN). After beating Arizona this past weekend and then facing the Bruins, the Ducks will play at the Pac-12's other 20-win team, USC, on Saturday.