2012 NIT: Oregon Ducks Basketball

Although the Washington Huskies are the No. 1 seed in the same bracket region, looking forward to beating them, they shouldn’t feel too proud. Why? Uh, they got knocked out of the tournament in their first game- against the freaking Oregon State Beavers. The Ducks, meanwhile, lost to the eventual champions by one point because our best player screwed up. It happens.

I don’t want to say that the Oregon Ducks are underrated, but they did lose to the conference champions and were the closest ones to beating them. Arizona gave them a fight, they always do, but California didn’t exactly make it a game against CU. The only other team besides CU in the Pac-12 in the tourney? Cal. They deserve it with their efficiency numbers and a resume that is better than the Huskies, but I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if Joseph wasn’t so uncharacteristically bad. And it wasn’t like Sim and Singler did any better either, so it makes things even more frustrating for Ducks fans.

The Buffaloes don’t deserve to be a No. 11 seed, but I’m not going to gripe about the position the Oregon Ducks are in. They deserve to be in the NIT and ranked lower than a team they killed. Why? First off, that team they wiped out had 14 conference wins and became the first Big Six conference winner to not make the NCAA Tournament. Yeah, losing to OSU kills your resume.

Both of these teams are in the same boat, because the Huskies most recent losses to the two Oregon teams offsets Oregon’s loss to Colorado and their weaker record. However, the Huskies are more talented than the Oregon Ducks and completely deserve to be the No. 1 seed in the NIT. It’s the least that can be done for a team that won their conference.

Colorado isn’t going to the Sweet 16, Cal will probably get knocked out in either the first round or the play-in game, which means that the NCAA teams are probably not going to achieve anything. Unless if CU goes on a maniacal spree with Andre Roberson and Carlon Brown having a hot streak similar to the ones Dan Uggla goes on or Cal suddenly breaks out of a terrible funk, then there isn’t much to hope for in the Pac-12 when looking at the NCAA Tournament. Both teams are solid, but they aren’t spectacular by any means.