Oregon basketball receiving 7th most votes outside of AP Top 25

Oregon basketball is fresh off a thumping of Washington on Sunday night and the Ducks are now receiving the seventh-most votes outside of the AP Top 25.

After a 6-6 start to the season, it felt like Oregon basketball would just be fighting to play spoiler for the remainder of the year, hopeful to even earn an NIT bid in March.

Well, after a sixth straight win, the Ducks have improved to 12-6 on the season and 5-2 in conference play. They’ve gone from “well, there’s always next year” to “maybe this team has what it takes” in a span of a few weeks.

On Sunday night, the Ducks picked up their sixth straight win, thumping rival Washington by 28 points after leading by 35 at halftime. It was the perfect sign of this team being back.

Will Richardson had yet another elite game, scoring 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting, and both Jacob Young and De’Vion Harmon chipped in 12 in the 84-56 blowout of the Huskies.

On Monday afternoon when the new AP rankings came out, no one expected to see Oregon make that top 25 or even receive a decent amount of votes, but the Ducks got the seventh-most votes outside of the AP Top 25 teams. Yes, just weeks after being 6-6, Oregon is considered the No. 32 (unofficially) team in college basketball. The Ducks are a few more wins away from the top 25.

Oregon has two more favorable games in a row as both Colorado and Oregon State come to Eugene for Pac-12 battles. Let’s say the Ducks win those two and improve to 14-6, we could see them in the rankings by February.

Dana Altman is a magician.