NCAA Basketball: 5 biggest disappointments during the non-conference
By Adam Childs
Oregon Ducks
The excitement was high in Eugene, Oregon before the season started. They had brought in a good recruiting class led by Bol Bol and had a top 15 ranking in the AP poll. They were dreams of a second final four run for the Ducks in three years. Those dreams have gone away after the less than stellar first half of the season for Oregon.
After an upset loss to Iowa in New York they were able to recover and beat Syracuse the next night. Maybe Iowa was just better than people thought and the Ducks would be fine. It did not teak long, though, to show that maybe Oregon just wasn’t what people thought this year.
They would lose at home to Texas Southern and follow that up with a close loss to Houston. The Cougars are a good team but there was no excuse to lose to Texas Southern. They did bounce back to win four in a row before losing to Baylor last week. Losing to the Bears is not a horrible loss but when you combine that with all of the other losses and it makes for a bad start.
The good news for the Ducks is that the Pac-12 is so bad this year that they could still compete for the championship, but they do not look like a top 15 team better yet a top 25 team right now. They could be the biggest bust this year if it had not been for the next team on this list.