No. 15 Oregon men’s basketball aims to remain undefeated away from Eugene against surging Minnesota

Oregon is vying to remain perfect away from Matthew Knight Arena Saturday afternoon at Minnesota, where it has never won.

The No. 15 Ducks (16-3, 5-3 Big Ten) have suffered three home losses but are coming off a win over Washington at MKA on Tuesday and are one of just six Division I teams undefeated in true road games this season. The other five have each lost multiple neutral site games, leaving UO as the only team yet to suffer a loss not on its home court this season.

“We know we’ve obviously dropped a couple at home that we needed to win, so it puts a little bit more emphasis on the road,” forward Brandon Angel said. “Wherever we are, we’re all we got and frankly all we need. When we’re on the road and it’s just us, we’re going to come locked in to every game, prepare the same way we would. The big thing on the road is provide our own energy.”

For Oregon to remain unblemished on Saturday (1 p.m., Big Ten Network) at Williams Arena it will need to beat a suddenly surging Minnesota squad that is coming off back-to-back wins against Michigan and at Iowa. Those wins sent the Golden Gophers (10-9, 2-6) surging from No. 137 to No. 104 in NET, making today’s matchup a Quadrant 2 game on Oregon’s resume, at least for now.

“Old building, really good basketball building,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “Those old buildings (are) really noisy and they’re on a roll. Had a big win against Michigan last week and I understand they went to Iowa and won tonight. So we’re going to have a team that’s playing with a lot more confidence than they were a couple of weeks ago and we’re going to have to play awfully well.”

The Ducks have never won in three trips to Minnesota, though the last came in 2001. UO is just 3-6 in the all-time series, with the last meeting in 2002 at Mac Court, a 90-81 Oregon win.

Though the Gophers have also suffered three conference home losses, they’ve fared much better the past week and have one of the conference’s leading scorers in Dawson Garcia (19.1 points, 7.5 rebounds).

Oregon’s success away from home has been fueled by its depth, which was back on display against Washington as well. Five different players have led the Ducks in scoring during their eight games away from Eugene, with Jackson Shelstad having done so three times and TJ Bamba twice.

“I think it speaks to how much we’re together,” Bamba said. “We all bought in and how much we actually like each other.”