The Oregon Ducks picked a must-needed win over the Arizona State Sun Devils on Thursday night. The win — along with an Arizona Wildcats loss — moved Oregon back into sole possession of first place in the Pac-12. By moving back into the lead, the Ducks are now in line to be an 11-seed in March Madness according to Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology.
The Ducks move to an 11-seed is up several spots from Tuesday when they were ranked as the last team in. At that point, the Ducks were on a two-game losing streak after picking up losses to Utah and Colorado on the road, which made Thursday’s matchup against Arizona State a must-win.
Right now, Oregon is in place to be an automatic qualifier, since the winner of each conference automatically receives a tournament bid. In the Pac-12, Oregon won’t have many opportunities this season to pick up high-profile wins, so if they fail to win the conference, an at-large bid may be harder to come by.
One of the Ducks’ few chances to pick up a marquee win comes on Saturday against the Arizona Wildcats. Despite a loss to Oregon State earlier this week, the Wildcats are still one of the best teams in the NCAA, and beating them at home would do great things for Oregon’s tournament resume. The Wildcats score 89.4 points per game, so it won’t be easy, but if the Ducks can maintain intensity on defense throughout the game, they can win.
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