Oregon men’s basketball senior forward Mike Moser went through an offensive slump in the four games leading up to Saturday’s matchup versus USC. But against the Trojans, Moser scored 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting.
On Tuesday, Moser talked to local media about his struggles in Pac-12 play and what changed against USC. He also discussed Oregon’s NCAA tournament résumé, Oregon’s advantages compared to past schools he played for and if he thinks the Ducks are on a hot streak.
What was the difference between your performance against UCLA last Thursday and the one against USC on Saturday?
Thursday was really frustrating. On Saturday, I kind of just tried to ease my way into the game, get my teammates involved and I feel it kind of worked out better that way.
Did you lose any confidence at the start of Pac-12?
No, I wouldn’t say I lost any confidence. I’ve really been disappointed with how I’ve been playing since the start of the whole month of January. But it’s a new month, so I hopefully I can get it turned around, get it going.
Do you feel like a win over Arizona can make up for some of the games you guys lost, in terms of your NCAA tournament chances?
Certainly. That’s a great résumé win. If we can get that, I think we all understand how important that is, as far as the NCAA tournament goes.
Are you guys paying attention to your résumé?
Yeah, definitely. We know we have some tough losses. I’m not exactly sure where we are with the RPI and all that stuff but we’re just trying to win games. It’ll go up eventually.
Does looking at your NCAA tournament résumé help with the urgency to win?
It does. I feel like with the group we have, kind of being older, we’ve got a few seniors on the team that kind of understand the importance of each win. Kind of not downplay losses but we’ve just gotta keep moving. I feel like the maturity level of this team can handle that.
Oregon head coach Dana Altman mentioned that transfer players like you might appreciate things at Oregon that other players take for granted. What is something about Oregon that you really appreciate that you maybe didn’t have at other places?
So many things. The chef, the way we travel, being able to get on private planes, the crowd that we have here is ridiculous all the time. There are a lot of things.
So the travel situations were a lot different at other places?
A lot of times we wouldn’t fly private, so we’d be cramped up on a Southwest flight. That’s always tough especially for the seven- footers.
In your last three games, you guys crushed Washington State and USC while nearly beating UCLA. Do you almost feel like you guys are on a hot streak now?
I wouldn’t say that. I’d say right now we’re just hungry to get the next win. If we can win two games this weekend, maybe then we can call it a hot streak.
Follow Victor Flores on Twitter @vflores415