University of Oregon men's basketball starting to show up in NCAA bracket predictions
The Ducks have been idle on the court this week, but they’ve been rising in the world of bracketology.
The Oregon men’s basketball team’s road sweep of then-No. 3 UCLA and then-No. 5 Southern California last weekend extended its win streak to five games and put the team in the conversation for a postseason berth for the first time this season.
Joe Lunardi of ESPN and Jerry Palm of CBSsports.com both have the Ducks (11-6, 4-2 Pac-12) as one of the last teams making the NCAA Tournament and playing in one of the First Four games, when the field gets winnowed from 68 teams to 64. Lunardi has Oregon as a No. 12 seed playing Florida, and Palm has the Ducks as a No. 12 seed playing St. Bonaventure.
UO women: Where does ESPN women's bracketologist Charlie Creme have Oregon after two top-10 victories?
Other bracket predictions have Oregon already in the 64-team field, as SI.com and Chris Dobbertean of SBNation’s bloggingthebracket.com have the Ducks as a No. 11 seed.
They remain unranked in the Associated Press and USA TODAY coaches polls, and through Wednesday’s games they were 63rd in the NET rankings, meaning there remains little room for error between now and Selection Sunday on March 13.
Oregon, which is in a three-way tie for third in the conference standings with Colorado and USC, has 14 regular-season games and the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas remaining to position itself for a postseason run — or play itself out of the postseason.
“The guys are feeling good,” coach Dana Altman said Wednesday. “They’re pretty energetic now. They were frustrated early; we all were. As coaches, you try to be really consistent. Win or lose, here’s what we do, this is how we do it, we just gotta keep hammering away if we’re not successful.”
Oregon, which hasn’t played since beating the Trojans last Saturday, had its game against Washington State scheduled for Thursday postponed due to the Cougars going into COVID protocols. Up next is a 7 p.m. game Sunday against Washington in what is the first of three straight at Matthew Knight Arena.
The Ducks were 5-5 in mid-December after back-to-back one-shot losses to Stanford and Arizona State, but their only loss in their past seven games was 78-70 to then-No. 1 Baylor at home in a game Oregon led at halftime.
They’ve won every game since and looked progressively better each outing as Altman has settled into his starting lineup of point guard Will Richardson, guards Jacob Young and De’Vion Harmon, forward Quincy Guerrier and center N’Faly Dante, and with center Franck Kepnang, wing Eric Williams Jr. and guard Rivaldo Soares as the primary bench players.
“When we were really struggling, they never quit,” Altman said. “They never quit working hard, kept looking for answers, just like the coaching staff. … We’re playing better but I told the guys that’s no guarantee that we’ll continue to play better, we gotta make it happen. It was a great week for us and everybody’s got their heads up.”
Follow Chris Hansen on Twitter @chansen_RG or email at chansen@registerguard.com. For more sports coverage, visit registerguard.com. Want more stories like this? Subscribe to get unlimited access and support local journalism.
Up next
Oregon vs. Washington
7 p.m. Sunday at Matthew Knight Arena. TV: FS1. Radio: KUJZ-FM (95.3)
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Ducks' road sweep puts them in the conversation for postseason berth
