Oregon Ducks Pac-12 Tournament Preview

Championship Week is finally here! Well, it’s almost here. Starting Wednesday from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, all the teams from the Pac-12 Conference will face off in the Pac-12 Conference Tournament in order to earn an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. For Washington, they already earned an automatic bid by winning the Pac-12 regular season, but for Cal, Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, UCLA, and Stanford this tournament is the only way they will earn a ticket to the Big Dance.

That is correct. The only way Oregon will make the NCAA Tournament is to win the Pac-12 Conference Tournament. This is because the resume for Oregon is very less than stellar. Their resume is very unspectacular because of the weak strength of the Pac-12. The Pac-12 has no teams in the top 25 rankings. This fact might not help Oregon’s resume, but just because it does not help their resume does not mean it holds them back from winning the conference tournament. In my opinion, this fact actually helps Oregon being able to win the Pac-12 Conference Tournament. Oregon finished third in the Pac-12 standings and this means they will receive a bye the first day of the tournament. This mean the Oregon Ducks will only need to win three games in a row in order to earn an automatic bid to the Big Dance. In their first game, Oregon will most likely either play UCLA and Utah. These are two teams that Oregon can easily roll right over. There is only one team I feel will give Oregon a run for their money at the Pac-12 Conference Tournament.

Washington is that team. Washington is the regular season champion so one has to give them respect, but that is not the only reason I think Oregon needs to watch out for Washington. It is because of the first meeting these two teams had this season. On the road, Oregon lost to Washington by a decent margin. I feel that road games are a huge indicator of how a team can fair in Championship Week and the NCAA Tournament. The one aspect that helps Oregon here is that it will be a “road game” for Washington as well and Washington has not faired to well on the road this season as a whole.

Can Oregon win the Pac-12 Conference Tournament? I believe they can (especially if they play like they did against Utah in the regular season finale). I believe Oregon can play as a team during the Pac-12 Conference Tournament, but they will need a leader. That leader has to be Devoe Joseph. Joseph will need to take high quality shots and help give Oregon the boost it needs to punch its ticket into the Big Dance. This is the time of the season were the big stars and prime-time-players show their stuff and emerge as stars.

My prediction for the Pac-12 Conference Tournament is Oregon and Washington playing for it all in the end with Oregon coming off on top.

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