EUGENE — Oregon kept its faint chances of an NCAA Tournament bid alive by splitting its most important road trip of the season last week in Arizona.
The Ducks (11-7, 2-3 Pac-12) beat Arizona, notching what will hold as one of their best wins of the season, but also missed a chance to further improve their postseason resume by squandering a lead to Arizona State.
“We got to continue to develop our team,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “Offensively, we’re going to have to execute better. I like some of the shots we got (against Arizona State) and I liked how hard we played, we just didn’t finish enough plays. Then again when that pendulum swung there and they got a couple of easy ones, our defense just gave into it pretty bad there.”
Roughly a third of the way into Pac-12 play, Oregon has already played most of the games that will be of greatest significance come Selection Sunday and still has work to do, starting Thursday against Washington (6 p.m., ESPN2), to have any chance of making the Big Dance.
The Ducks (NET No. 68) are 2-4 in Quadrant 1 games, including the two games from last week, and 0-1 in Quadrant 2 games. With losses in both Quadrant 3 and Quadrant 4, which can be a poison pill to NCAA at-large bid chances, Oregon must capitalize on its combined nine remaining Q1 and Q2 games and also avoid any pitfalls in four remaining Q3 and Q4 games.
By comparison, the highest-ranked team in NET with a Q3 loss is Nevada (NET No. 22), which is 8-0 in Q1 and Q2 games, and highest with a Q4 loss is UCF (NET No. 36). The highest-ranked team with multiple losses in Q3 and Q4 is Texas (NET No. 43), which is 4-4 in Q1 games.
This weekend, Oregon can improve its resume in one game and must avoid what would be a disaster in the other.
Washington (14-4, 5-0 Pac-12) is Oregon’s best remaining home opponent. The Huskies (NET No. 37) have a chance to move up to Q1 by the end of the season.
Washington State (8-10, 1-4 Pac-12) is one of Oregon’s worst remaining opponents. The Cougars (NET No. 197) are 0-5 on the road could lose another in Corvallis before visiting the Ducks on Sunday (5 p.m., ESPNU).
One could make the case that Oregon has two must-win games this week to stay viable for the NCAA Tournament, but Sunday’s game is not even remotely arguable.
The Ducks need to adjust after another poor defensive performance proved costly and the return of Kenny Wooten, provided he stays out of foul trouble, should help those efforts.
“Preseason (non-conference) games probably didn’t go the way that we want, but right now we have to take it one step at a time,” senior Paul White said. “With these kind of losses we have to learn from something from them. We cannot go backwards, because that’s how you defeat yourself.”