Oregon Basketball: Ducks loss to Texas Southern continues Pac-12 struggles

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 16: Paul White #13, Will Richardson #0, and Kenny Wooten #14 of the Oregon Ducks look on during a time out in the first half of the game against Syracuse Orange during the 2k Empire Classic at Madison Square Garden on November 16, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images) /

Oregon Basketball suffered a loss on Monday night at home to a SWAC team. Why the Ducks aren’t the only program out west who’s hurt by this result.

While the ACC/Big Ten Challenge was underway, along with the No. 1 team in the country playing in the Gonzaga Bulldogs, Oregon Basketball was playing late Monday night with not many noticing. It was supposed to be an easy win for them against the 1-4 Texas Southern Tigers from the SWAC.

It looked that way early in the second half, with Oregon having a double-digit lead. But instead of the No. 18 ranked team extending the lead going away, the underdogs cut into said lead before closing out the game themselves for an 89-84 shocker.

Trayvon Reed had a perfect game for the Tigers, making all nine field goal attempts and five free throws for 23 points total. He was helped from reserve guard John Jones, who scored 20 off the bench.

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It took away from a career day from freshman star Bol Bol, who went for 32 points and 11 rebounds. But with two starters going scoreless for the game and Oregon as a team shooting just eight total free throws, the recipe for an upset was there.

This loss drops Oregon to 4-2 on the season and barring a lot of help, with likely drop out of next week’s AP poll. That would give the Pac-12 zero programs in the top-25, which represents a larger problem going forward.

“Feast Week” did not go so well for the power conference out west. UCLA went winless in the Las Vegas Invitational, Arizona lost twice in the Maui, USC missed an opportunity against Texas Tech, while Utah and Colorado lost games to mid-majors. Only the unbeaten Arizona State had success by beating Mississippi State to win the MGM Resorts Main Event Classic. Of course, this is the same Sun Devil program who went 12-0 to start last season before nearly collapsing and missing the NCAA Tournament altogether.

The Ducks won’t be able to count on many quality victories in conference play so they’ll have to handle business in the next month. The most notable games including at Houston this weekend, as well as a game against Baylor and two versus Boise State. There’s no guarantee that any of them will make the Big Dance, leaving Oregon fans to root for Syracuse, who went winless in the 2K Classic themselves.

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Texas Southern now has wins over Oregon and Baylor and will be a heavy favorite to win the SWAC later down the road. But this will be a negative mark on the resume of Oregon. This won’t keep them out of the NCAA Tournament but it’ll impact the Ducks potential ceiling, with the number of huge games looking smaller than originally hoped. The margin of error for this team has tightened now.

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