NCAA Tournament: We Meet Again..Oregon vs Wisconsin Preview
The Oregon Ducks will a familiar NCAA Tournament foe on Sunday afternoon on Omaha, Nebraska. The top seeded Wisconsin Badgers will face the Ducks for the second year in a row with an appearance in the Sweet 16 on the line. Both teams have been on a roll this season. The Badgers have lost just three games in 2015. Oregon has won fourteen of their last sixteen games, including their first round game in the NCAA Tournament on Friday against Oklahoma State.
The Wisconsin Badgers have been led by Senior Frank Kaminksy this season who on Friday night had a double-double against Coastal Carolina, his twelfth double-double of the season in a big win. He is averaging over eighteen points and close to ten rebounds per game this season. One area that Oregon has had trouble this season is playing bigger teams. The Badgers are a big team. This season, against Pac-12 foe Arizona, the Ducks were 0-3, including an appearance in the Pac-12 Title game last weekend in Las Vegas. Oregon will have to adjust.
The Badgers and Ducks have one common opponent this season in the Cal Bears. Wisconsin beat Cal in the Non-Conference part of the season and most recently Oregon beat Cal on the road as the regular Pac-12 season came to a close. Oregon beat both Cal and Stanford on the road for the first time since 1976. Wisconsin has lost three games all season, two to ranked teams in Duke and Maryland and have won sixteen of their last seventeen games. Two of their three losses were on the road, but Wisconsin in Omaha is a closer home game than Oregon, unless the Creighton connection proves their worth for Head Coach Dana Altman.
Altman coached at Creighton for seventeen years before heading west to take over at Oregon. Altman has taken three teams with totally different team dynamics into the NCAA Tournament. Two players, Joseph Young and Elgin Cook, played in last season’s loss to the Badgers and will look to turn things around on Sunday for the Oregon Ducks. Young has been a clear leader this season including on Friday against Oklahoma State going on a personal 15-3 run that kept Oregon in the game which they would win in the end.
It’s a Big Ten, Pac-12 Showdown on Sunday afternoon in the NCAA Tournament. Oregon and Wisconsin tipoff at 4:45pm Pacific Time on TruTV with a chance at the Sweet 16 on the line.