With two games remaining in the regular season, the Oregon women’s basketball team is well-positioned to make a comeback to the Big Dance after missing the NCAA tournament for the first time in two straight seasons under coach Kelly Graves since his first two years in Eugene. In a crowded Big Ten Conference, the Ducks (18-9, 9-7 Big Ten) are comfortably in the centre of the pack, sitting 10th as of Friday morning after securing a berth in the conference tournament.
At No. 39 in the NCAA NET rankings, they currently have three Quadrant 1 wins and three in Quadrant 2 — undefeated at 12-0 in Q3 and Q4 games.
Basically, these Ducks always beat who they are supposed to beat, and have several signature wins along the way in a grueling schedule. That includes victories over No. 36 NET Indiana, No. 33 Minnesota, No. 29 Iowa, No. 20 Michigan State and No. 18 Baylor.
According to ESPN’s Charlie Creme, the Ducks are on the high end of the NCAA tournament bubble, in a favorable spot to secure an at-large bid. Creme has Oregon among the “last four byes” into the tournament in his latest bracketology, along with Mississippi State and fellow Big Ten teams Minnesota and Nebraska — the latter of which Oregon just lost to in an overtime thriller.
Oregon’s remaining two contests include a home game on senior day against NET No. 113 Rutgers, and a second matchup of the season with rival Washington — 49th in NET and one of the “last four in” according to Creme — on the road in Seattle.
Win those two games, and you can pretty much pencil the Ducks into the NCAA tournament, unless they get utterly blown out in their first game of the Big Ten tournament and several other perceived bubble teams climb above them in the NET.
Right now, Creme projects Oregon as a No. 10 seed facing No. 7 seed Florida State. The winner in Creme’s bracket would play No. 2 seed TCU on their home court — a game that would have no shortage of narratives for Oregon, facing former Graves assistant and TCU head coach Mark Campbell along with a former Ducks player embroiled in serious off-court controversy: TCU center Sedona Prince.
Leave a Reply