The Oregon Ducks basketball team is playing for their livelihood. With 3 games to go in the season, the Ducks are on the bubble of making the NCAA Tournament field of 68 teams. Sweating it out won’t be easy either as each team left on the schedule is playing to end the Ducks’ dreams of March.
2012 has been an enigmatic year for college basketball, as it’s taken a back seat to a strike ridden NBA season. No real superstars have stood out yet and made their team the center of attention in college basketball. Jared Sullinger is the closest thing at Ohio State, but he alone can’t get the game exciting for the masses to witness. This means parity, and nobody can deny the fact that parity in college basketball has never been so even. If small, not even mid-majors, like Virginia Commonwealth, Butler, and George Mason can make the Final Four and beat the North Carolinas and Georgetowns of the world, then college basketball is the textbook definition of parity.
Never more has this been more evident than the Pac-12 season. It’s been the most anti-climactic season I have ever witnessed in the league. No team has stepped up as the clear cut, jaw dropping favorite in the league even though California has played great and is set up to have a good postseason run as they hold the best record in the Pac-12 (22-6, 12-3 in conference). The usual powerhouses, Arizona, UCLA, Washington, Stanford, and Utah, have all had down years and Arizona and UCLA have vastly underachieved.
Oregon (19-8, 10-5) has been one of those teams who have been winning the games they have to win to survive, but regardless, winning the final 3 will not get them off the bubble to get in the tourney. They need to beat Oregon State, Utah and Colorado, and they need to perform well in the Pac-12 tournament for the team to be a sure lock. And unfortunately, the best non-conference win was against a weak Nebraska team. The only positive about the win is Nebraska being a Big Ten team.
The Dana Altman era has now begun for real, and we will see if he can pull off the miracles he did while he was at Creighton. Making the tournament would be a major accomplishment for Altman, who had to deal with a multitude of transfers, releases of scholarships, and de-commitments as he entered Eugene as the head basketball coach replacing the well liked Ernie Kent. Altman has been known to take his teams far in the tournament, and we will see what he does with his bubble team at the last turn.
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