NCAA Basketball: Oregon and Purdue on wrong side of winners/losers this week
By Adam Childs
No. 1 Loser – Oregon Ducks
Oregon came into this year with a lot of optimism. They brought in Bol Bol and others and they were supposed to help them get back to the top of the Pac-12 and were a trendy final four pick. At the very worst they were supposed to be a favorite for the conference and help them gain back some respect. An early loss to Iowa did not help but they rebounded nicely by beating Syracuse the next night.
Well, this week will have use rethinking Oregon even being a top 25 team (they will drop out when the polls are released on Monday). They went out and lost to Texas Southern on Monday and then followed it up with a loss to Houston on Saturday.
Houston is a good team, but if Oregon wanted to be taken seriously it was a game they needed to win. The Texas Southern loss is inexcusable. Bol is playing well, but it has not been enough. If they keep this up they won’t have to worry about the final four they will be worried if they even make the tournament.
No. 1 Winner – Michigan Wolverines
What Michigan has done to start the year has been about as impressive as any team in the country. They have been everybody they have played by at least 17 points and the most points they have given up in a game is 67. Those wins include the last two national champions and another ranked team (Purdue). They lost three of their top players and yet they are playing better than last year when they finished runner-up.
Some questioned if Michigan was really any good as they had beaten up on lesser opponents and their blowout win at Villanova lost some luster when they lost to Furman later that week.
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All the Wolverines did this week was hold North Carolina 30 points under their scoring average and beat them by 17 and it could have been worse. They followed that up with a 19 point blowout win against Purdue to open their conference schedule. Michigan is not just winning they are winning big. They had the best week and showed they are a top five team.