No. 15 Oregon's current lineup hasn't done a lot of losing over the years.

The Ducks are 13-2 this season, they have four starters back from last year's Pac-12 champion and Elite Eight team and in Dana Altman's tenure as head coach, not only have losses been rare to come by, they've come especially few and far between in pairs.

But even as the Ducks embark on a two-game road trip against teams they'll be highly-favored against, the Oregon coach shouldn't have much trouble keeping his team focused for Washington and Washington State.

The Ducks have done a lot of winning over the last three years, but not a single Duck on today's roster has won a game on the road in the state just north of the Oregon border.

*Editor's note: The Ducks won two games in Spokane last year in the NCAA Tournament on a neutral floor.

"Now we have to go on the road to the Washington schools where we had two poor performances the year before last," Altman said. "We've got to go and play. We don't have a guy on the team who won at those schools, so we will have our work cut out for us."

The Ducks didn't play at Washington a year ago, meaning that the last time Oregon went north came while Dillon Brooks, Jordan Bell, Casey Benson and Roman Sorkin were freshmen on the 2014-15 roster. Most will remember that year for Oregon's surprising finish -- a team that was picked to finish eighth in the Pac-12 finished second and went on to win a game at the NCAA Tournament.

But on Jan. 18, 2015, that didn't look like it would a remote possibility. Three days prior, the Ducks lost in overtime on the Palouse to a Washington State team that would finish the year 13-18 overall. On the 18th, the Ducks blew a 10-point halftime lead to fall 85-77 to a Huskies team that finished 11th in the Pac-12.

When Oregon returned back to Eugene, the Ducks' were 2-3 in conference play, they had six losses on the season and chances of making the NCAA Tournament seemed slim.

Oregon Ducks men's basketball tops USC Trojans, Dec. 30, 2016 14 Gallery: Oregon Ducks men's basketball tops USC Trojans, Dec. 30, 2016

Then the Ducks began a stretch of basketball that ushered in today's current era of success. Oregon would win 11 of its next 13 games to finish second in regular season play. A year later, the Ducks went 31-7 and made it to the Elite Eight.

Now, nearly two years after bottoming out in Washington, the Ducks return to the state as the No. 15 team in the country and the current team-to-beat in the Pac-12 after defeating UCLA and USC a week ago.

"Right now Oregon is playing as good as anyone in the league," said Washington coach Lorenzo Romar. "We certainly didn't set ourselves up to come into the game with any momentum."

That's a bit of an understatement.

The Huskies, who Oregon faces Wednesday at 6 p.m., had a mess of a nonconference slate. The Huskies lost to Yale, TCU twice, Gonzaga and Nevada. The team's best win came against a Long Beach State squad that is ranked 187th in the country by KenPom.com

Washington's worst loss? It didn't come in nonconference play. The Huskies rang in 2017 with a 79-74 loss, at home, to the Cougars -- ranked 193rd in the country.

The Huskies are the No. 2 scoring team in the Pac-12 at 85.4 points per game and Markelle Fultz and his 22.3 points per game look like another freshman lottery pick for the Huskies.

"He's very gifted," Altman said. "He shoots it really well and plays at a pace that doesn't get sped up too much. He is someone that if the projections are right, we will only have to put up for one year, but he is very, very talented."

But for as much firepower UW has offensively, the Huskies are a mess on defense. UW is ranked 11th in scoring defense in the Pac-12 and KenPom.com ranks the Huskies' defensive efficiency as 228th in the country.

Oregon enters as a 7.5-point favorite on the road.

Highlighted by the Washington trip two years ago and last year's Bay Area slip up, the Ducks have been known for the occasional falter on the road, but they come into this week playing their best ball of the season. Dillon Brooks was named the Pac-12's player of the Week on Wednesday after scoring 23 points and hitting the game-winner against No. 2 UCLA and netting 28 points on 10 shots in Friday's blowout of USC. Chris Boucher is near 100 percent two games since returning from an ankle sprain and the Ducks are playing the efficient style of basketball Altman likes.

In the 84-61 win over the then-No. 22 Trojans, Oregon had 24 assists to just six turnovers.

That's the sort of play that just might net those on Oregon's roster their first win in Evergreen State .

"It was a great homestand and we needed it," Altman said. "We needed to get some things straightened out. Now we go on the road, but most of our team is used to that, so there is no excuse, we should be okay."

-- Tyson Alger

talger@oregonian.com

@tysonalger