When the Blue Devils take to the court in Anaheim this week, they'll be facing a very solid Oregon squad.  There will be no time change for the Ducks who will be plenty alert during an 8;00 or so start while Duke players will have to adjust their body clock.

It wasn't that long ago when a trip to Anaheim to face another PAC 12 team in Arizona, turned out to be disastrous.  Duke was returning Kyrie Irving to the court and had hopes of going to the Elite 8 but they fell apart as the Wildcats simply could not miss in the 2nd half.

The Blue Devils are a thin group and an inexperienced one with concern to the six players who get the bulk of their minutes.  It has been mentioned in an article that the Ducks play just seven players as well, but their group has been around the game longer.  And a look at minutes played shows that they clearly go eight deep -- so take note of that ESPN.

The Quackers are tough.  They are athletic and interchangeable on the defensive end.  In fact, they most impress me with their defense.  If you took a look at their most recent win, they make it tough for teams to get into their offense and seem to be everywhere with their active zone.  And they will switch up their zones late in the game to show a different look which is why they are in the Sweet 16. That means that Duke will have to zip their passes to open men and depend more on  relocating the ball than one on one drives.

Oregon is one of the hottest teams in the nation riding a ten game winning streak.  They are an impressive 30-6 on the season where they took care of business in their conference.  One comes away even more impressed when looking over their wins and losses this season.  Their worst loss may have come to Stanford.  It's safe to say Duke will be looking at that tape and that Krzyzewski may pick Johnny Dawkins brain.

The Ducks have a player Duke recruited as well in smooth operator Tyler Dorsey who is averaging 13.7 ppg.  His play is getting better and better.  Their top two scorers are Dillon Brooks and Elgin Cook and they feature a fourth double figure scorer in Chris Boucher.

As I mentioned earlier, they are deeper than Duke  and three more players in Dwayne Benjamen, Jordan Bell and Casey Benson play more than 20 minutes per game. All of these kids are good free throw shooters but you want to foul Bell at just over 50 percent if the game is on the line.

Oregon is bigger than Duke.  They are all long compared to the Blue Devils roster and that's what makes finding holes in their zone defense especially challenging.  And the Ducks feature no less than six players from California on their roster which makes for some emotional home cooking play to come.

If you are paying attention, the picture should be clear by now, that this will be a tough match up for Duke for the Blue Devils are a clear underdog.  While this site does not advocate wagering, the line has climbed from 2 to 3 in a day in favor of the Ducks.  With so many factors from home town players to being from the west coast being in their favor, expect said numbers to climb even more.

Here is the main reason it will be tough for Duke to beat Oregon. The Ducks have eight players who play big minutes and each of them has stepped up this season.  What this means is that you simply cannot concentrate on shutting down a single player and not have another one rise to the occasion.  Meanwhile, Duke looked vulnerable in their first two games of the tournament and to close out the season.

Oregon will put non stop pressure on Duke trying to exploit their ball handling.  Yale did this and the Ducks have much better athleticism to execute the same strategy.

The Ducks wasted no time in turning their attention to Duke after their win over St. Joseph's and their players were cool and confident. Much like the Arizona game where Duke lost in this same building hoping to go to the Elite 8, this will be an away game for the Blue Devils.

Nobody overlooks Duke and every team seeks the opportunity to take down a college basketball giant.  Oregon is no different and they have players playing in their back yard on their turf.  If I have made them out to be a challenge, it's because they are.

Duke is capable of winning against the odds and we'll talk about that next.  But the Duke fan base should be aware of how huge of a challenge this game will be for a team that has faced adversity all season long.