Two weeks ago, the Ducks were riding high, sitting in third place and fighting for a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Before a 21-point blowout loss to Stanford on Saturday, an NIT berth was beginning to slip away from Oregon.
Now the Pacific-10 Conference Tournament is in jeopardy for the Ducks, who have lost four straight games and six of their last eight.
That alone should cause worry among the 12-11 Ducks as they focus on Southern California and UCLA this week.
“There is a huge sense of urgency,” Oregon forward Jay Anderson said. “We might need to win them to get into the Pac-10 Tournament. We just want to be on a roll when we get into the Pac-10 Tournament.”
To think, Oregon at one point in the season seemed more destined to win the Pac-10 Tournament than to fall completely out of it.
But now the Ducks are tied with USC and UCLA for fifth place in the Pac-10. Washington State is a game behind and Oregon State is two away.
“I expected us to have a lot better season,” Anderson said. “It’s somewhat disappointing, but right now, we can’t worry about that. We need to focus on what we can change or what we can do in the next two games to straighten out our season.”
The season got bent out of shape as it wore on and has come close to breaking during the team’s four-game losing streak.
During that stretch, the Ducks have been dominated. Opposing teams have scored an average of 86 points in Oregon’s last four games. Meanwhile, the Ducks have averaged a shade less than 75.
“Defense has stuck out in my mind throughout the course of the year,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said. “It’s still beyond me why I have not done a good job of getting this team to understand, or buy into or convince them to play defense and just how important it is.”
The Ducks believe that they can make waves in the short Pac-10 Tournament. Oregon would most likely have to win all three games, which includes the championship contest, to earn an invite to the NCAA Tournament.
On a lower level, to get into the NIT, Oregon (7-9 Pac-10) must have at least a .500 overall record. Defeating USC and UCLA would be a step in the right direction.
“If we can get these games and have a little momentum going into the Pac-10 Tournament, it’d be interesting to see how Stanford and Arizona played in the Pac-10 Tournament,” Oregon forward Luke Jackson said. “Arizona’s kind of been known to skip the Pac-10 Tournament and rest their guys. I think it’d be hard for Stanford to go 3-0 as beat up as they are. I think a team with a lot of momentum going into the Pac-10 Tournament could be dangerous, and hopefully that’s us.”

Second-half MVP
If Oregon could start out games by playing the second half first, guard Aaron Brooks might give the Ducks the boost they need.
The Seattle native has scored 41 points and dished out 14 assists while turning the ball over seven times since returning Feb. 19 against Arizona.
The rub?
Thirty-one of those points have come in the second half of games, including a then-season-high 16 against California last week.
To top it off, he’s shared the wealth nine times and has turned the ball over twice in the
second half.
“Aaron’s a good player,” Jackson said. “I think sitting out for so long made him look at different things in his game and maybe understand the game a little bit better. He’s been playing pretty good so maybe he can keep that going.”