The Oregon Ducks continued to climb the polls after demolishing the Stanford Cardinal in one of their final non-conference games of the season. Led by Kwame Evans Jr., the Ducks defeated the Cardinal by 15 points and just a few days later, rose to the No. 9 spot in the latest AP Top 25 Poll.
Oregon, who improved to 11-1 overall with the win over Stanford, has barely faltered this season – the Ducks' only loss so far coming to the UCLA Bruins on a heartbreaking, three-point buzzer-beater.
With their ascension to the No. 9 team in the nation, the Ducks further separated themselves from the rest of their new conference opponents in the Big Ten. Currently, Oregon is one of five conference members in the Top 25 and leads the pack by nine positions – Michigan State is the next highest-ranked at No. 18 in the country.
The weekly AP rankings are in 👀
— Big Ten Men's Basketball (@B1GMBBall) December 23, 2024
Five #B1GMBBall teams find themselves in the top 25 this week ‼️ pic.twitter.com/19Iqtccxx2
Through their first 12 games of the season, the Ducks already upset the then-No. 20 Texas A&M Aggies and the then-No. 9 Alabama Crimson Tide to capture the first-ever Players Era Festival title.
Led by senior center Nate Bittle, sophomore guard Jackson Shelstad, and a roster full of star-level talent, Oregon has looked dominant throughout its 11 wins. Just a few days before defeating the Cardinal 76-61, Oregon blew past the SFA Lumberjacks 79-61 and has captured six other double-digit wins so far this year.
Ahead of Big Ten play starting on Jan. 2, 2025, against the No. 24 Illinois Fighting Illini, head coach Dana Altman said it's hard to talk about Oregon's newest conference matchups simply because the Ducks haven't played against these teams very often or very recently.
"There is a balance in this league that is very good," Altman said. "We had our traditional rivalries with Washington, USC, UCLA... We haven't played a lot of these schools... We played Iowa, Wisconsin in the NCAA Tournament... We had a series with Michigan."