If nothing else, the men’s basketball team is at least giving people reason to be optimistic.
After Thursday night’s near-historic loss against Stanford, the Ducks appeared to have lost control of their season as their NCAA Tournament hopes began to dissipate. Even though Oregon was expected to lose the game, the box score made it seem like they had given up before the game ever started.
Certainly, some fans had reason to give up on the season as the “Fire Ernie” posts on message boards resurfaced recently (Funny, those comments appeared around the same time last year when the Ducks were in the midst of another losing streak. Except the difference is that when Oregon lost for the final time in the regular season, they were 20-7).
But just as all hope appeared to be lost on the court at Maples Pavilion, the Ducks came back together against California and gave themselves and their fans reason to believe they’re capable of making it back to the NCAA Tournament.
No, Oregon won’t be a three-seed again like it was last year, but it’s still capable of getting there – if they’re setting school records for threes made, it seems.
I don’t know what to make of this team anymore. We have two polar-opposite performances from the Ducks’ games against Stanford and Cal – which one is more telling? The offensive ineptitude or near-perfect shooting when the Ducks could hoist up any number of threes and at least half of them would be guaranteed to fall in? 18 three-pointers made or 14 field goals total?
I like to think it’s somewhere in between, where the Ducks only have to rely on its three-point shooting abilities on the road while their home-court advantage allows them to dictate the flow of the game, as it has on most occasions this year.
With seven regular season games left, four at home and three on the road, it’s fair to say Oregon can manage another four wins this season while tacking on a win in the Pacific-10 Conference Tournament. That puts them at 19-13 overall and given the balance of the Pac-10 this year, the committee has to let the Ducks somewhere between a seven- or 10-seed. As it stands right now, in the NCAA Web site’s latest mock seeding, Oregon is listed as a No. 9 seed against Clemson in Little Rock, Ark.
What happens after that, well, let’s see if Oregon can make 60 percent of its threes again.

Ducks’ national influence

While men’s basketball continues to be an up-and-down affair, Oregon fans can at least be reminded of the football team’s rise to national prominence as Oregon’s classes become more nationally renowned year after year.
There might not have been as many four-star recruits as there were last year, but as the coaching staff’s recruiting areas continue to expand, expect the Ducks to be in pursuit of the nation’s top athletes on a regular basis.
Although the Terrelle Pryor situation has strained everyone’s last ounces of patience, as he continues to delay his decision partially in favor of visiting Oregon, it only does wonders for the Ducks’ future years in recruiting. If the top athletes are interested, Oregon is doing something right on the recruiting scene. Whatever the reason, be it uniforms, wins or playing style (I’d sign with Oregon just to spend my down time in a day spa), Oregon has become a major player on the national scene.
Four players that signed were from Texas. To me, that was the most telling part of Oregon’s Signing Day madness.
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