Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Oregon is proving the selection committee very, very wrong

Oregon

In a year that has been defined early on in part by the success of 12-seeds, Oregon stands out. Oregon stands out because, well, it should not have been a 12-seed.

The Ducks came into this NCAA tournament after winning the Pac-12 tournament and finishing just one game out of first place in the regular season conference standings. They now move on to the Sweet 16 after a 74-57 win over 4-seed Saint Louis at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.

Oregon picked apart a Saint Louis defense that had been the staple of a team that won both the A-10 regular season and tournament championships. The Billikens averaged just over 57 point per game allowed this season, but a Damyean Dotson three gave the Ducks 58 points still with 8:11 left to play.

Part of the seeding can certainly be explained by the fact that freshman point guard Dominic Artis sat out a portion of the Pac-12 schedule with a foot injury. Turnovers exploded for the Ducks during that period, but they weathered the storm and won the tournament title. But what does that mean?

The interesting part of Oregon having drawn a 12-seed, though, is that it might have been beneficial for the Ducks. What higher seed could they have gotten, perhaps where Colorado State was as an 8-seed? That would have meant that Oregon would have had to get through Missouri and a ferocious Louisville pressing defense.

Instead, they got a solid matchup with Oklahoma State, then a Saint Louis team that they could work with by being efficient and hitting shots on the offensive end. It now lands them in the Sweet 16, but the inevitable has been put off long enough. No. 1 Louisville is up next. Get ready for a battle for the right to move on to the Elite Eight. Or, if Oregon can’t control the ball, another impressive showing from the Cardinals.

We’ll have to wait and see.

Daniel Martin is a writer and editor at JohnnyJungle.com, covering St. John’s. You can find him on Twitter:@DanielJMartin_