Welcome back to Assist Map Mondays! This week we review an intriguing non-conference upset from this past week. On Monday, November 26, Texas Southern travelled to Eugene and defeated #18 Oregon 89-84.
Coming into the game, very few thought that Texas Southern had any chance of defeating the Ducks—KenPom gave the Tigers a 1.8% chance of winning heading into the game. Their chances seemed even bleaker as the game progressed, as they trailed 51-38 with 16:28 left in the second half. At that point, KenPom gave them a 0.6% chance of winning the game. From that point on, however, Texas Southern outscored Oregon 51-33 and pulled off a stunning upset.
Perhaps most shocking about this game was the fact that Texas Southern, with KenPom’s 230th ranked adjusted offensive efficiency, was able to score 89 points on an Oregon team with the 37th ranked adjusted defensive efficiency. In this game, both teams shot approximately the same percentages from the field (47.8% for Texas Southern and 48.5% for Oregon) and from beyond the three-point line (33.3% compared to 35.5%). The main difference was the Tigers’ ability to get to the free throw line, where they made 16 of their 22 free throws (72.7%). This mark was slightly above their season average of 67.9%. The Ducks, on the other hand, were very efficient with their free throw attempts but only were able to shoot eight of them. They made seven of those eight for a free throw percentage of 87.5%, consistent with a team ranked 14th in the nation in free throw percentage at 78.3%.
In the passing department, senior point guard Jalyn Patterson had a season-high 11 assists to go along with 13 points and 7 rebounds. Four of the assists went to senior center Trayvon Reed—who had 23 points on a perfect 9-9 shooting performance—three went to sophomore guard John Jones—20 points on 7-11 shooting—two went to senior forward Devocio Butler, and the remaining two went to forwards Jeremy Combs and Justin Hopkins. Combs dished out three assists of his own, all to center Trayvon Reed, while Hopkins dished out two, one each to John Jones and Reed.
Texas Southern has had a very difficult non-conference schedule thus far, playing seven true road games—including one against #1 Gonzaga—compared to just one home game—a win against NAIA Huston-Tillotson. Despite a 3-5 record, the Tigers have had some competitive games early in the season, including a win against Baylor and two 12-point losses to Iowa State and Arizona State. Two more road games against Georgia and Texas A&M should more than prepare them for their conference slate. Oregon, on the other hand, has dropped out of the rankings, and with a loss to Houston this week currently stands at a 4-3 record. Luckily for them, the Pac-12 is believed to be having a down year, so the Ducks still have time to catch up and chip away at their lofty expectations as a preseason AP top 15 team.
