Oregon Basketball: Expert says Ducks looked “like a 2 or 3 seed” before loss

How’s everyone feeling about Oregon basketball’s potential seed for the 2021 NCAA Tournament? One expert was bullish on the Ducks before Friday.

OK, let’s just put it out there: Friday’s loss to Oregon State wasn’t pretty. Losing to the Beavers for the second time this season just leaves a bad taste in Ducks fans’ mouths.

Luckily, Oregon probably won’t have to see the Beavers again for the rest of the year barring some NCAA Tournament miracle and a massive upset by Oregon State over Colorado in the Pac-12 title game on Saturday. The Ducks are done with conference play and now get to look forward to Selection Sunday.

The Selection Show seems so far away, though, especially since no one really has a feel for which seed the Ducks will get. There’s been some talk of a No. 5 seed and more of Nos. 6 or 7 seeds.

One experts, however, was extremely bullish on the Ducks before Friday’s loss to Oregon State, saying that they “look like a 2 or 3 seed right now.”

Before losing to Oregon State, Jon Rothstein was right. Oregon was 20-5 and was riding a six-game winning streak and the Ducks just won the Pac-12 regular season title. Chris Duarte, Eugene Omoruyi and Will Richardson were all playing really solid basketball and no one expected a loss to Oregon State. The Ducks definitely looked like a top seed.

Sure, those “2 or 3 seed” hopes have been dashed by the Beavers and it likely would have taken a win on Saturday against Colorado to even be in that conversation, but Oregon has been criminally underrated this season because of the conference in which it plays.

Until anything is official, all we can do is speculate, but the “what almost was” scenario still has to hurt after the Oregon State loss. The Ducks were on the verge of shocking college basketball with a high seed.