The first 32 games of March Madness wrapped up on Friday Night with a game Oregon fans will fondly remember. The 5-seeded Ducks utilized a hefty size advantage and home-court advantage to easily get past the 12-seeded Liberty in a 81-56 beatdown.
The in-state duo of Nate Bittle and Jackson Shelstad combined for 31 points despite neither playing for more than 25 minutes. After jumping to an early 11-point lead 4 minutes into the game, Oregon kept its foot on the pedal until the end. The usually elite 3-point shooting Flames were forced to fire at will in order to make the comeback attempt.
What followed was the team's second-worst shooting day from beyond the arc all season long. Liberty went 8-37 (21.6%) from 3 point range and never got back within a single-digit deficit.
For the Ducks, the win was fairly expected. The last time Oregon made a tournament and failed to get out of the opening round was 2008 and since 2010 no other team in the country has more wins in March than the Ducks.
Now, Oregon focuses attention on an old foe from the Pac-12 days. Arizona comes into the tournament as the 4-seed in the East Region and have an up-and-down month of March so far. The Wildcats lost in their inaugural Big 12 Championship game against Houston and before that had lost two of their final three regular season games.
Despite the losses, Arizona looked mighty dominant in their round one 93-65 blowout win over Akron. The Wildcats put up the second-highest score of the tournament with four players scoring in double figures.
Led by 5th-year senior Caleb Love, Arizona poises a legitimate threat to Oregon's postseason run. The Wildcats have a starting lineup with only veterans and have a bit more size than Liberty had.
While nobody in the starting rotation is taller than 6-foot-8, Arizona has 7-footer Henri Veesaar ready to come off the bench at any given moment.
The two former Pac-12 foe have a long history with a lot of action in recent years. Since the 19-20 season, Oregon is 6-4 against Arizona but only 2-3 over the last two years.
The Ducks will need to play with the same level of urgency on Sunday if they hope to get Dana Altman to his seventh Sweet 16. Shelstad will need to continue channeling his inner Pritchard, and Bittle will have to be the dominant big everyone knows he can be. A win on Sunday would likely pair the Ducks against the top-seeded Duke in what would be Oregon's toughest matchup of the season.