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Bracketology 2020: Duke, Butler, Auburn among this week’s losers

By Andrew Dieckhoff

DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - DECEMBER 31: Vernon Carey Jr. #1 of the Duke Blue Devils reacts after dunking against the Boston College Eagles during the first half of a game at Cameron Indoor Stadium on December 31, 2019 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - DECEMBER 31: Vernon Carey Jr. #1 of the Duke Blue Devils reacts after dunking against the Boston College Eagles during the first half of a game at Cameron Indoor Stadium on December 31, 2019 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /
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LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – MARCH 14: Head coach Wayne Tinkle of the Oregon State Beavers reacts during a quarterfinal game of the Pac-12 basketball tournament against the Colorado Buffaloes at T-Mobile Arena on March 14, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Buffaloes defeated the Beavers 73-58. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – MARCH 14: Head coach Wayne Tinkle of the Oregon State Beavers reacts during a quarterfinal game of the Pac-12 basketball tournament against the Colorado Buffaloes at T-Mobile Arena on March 14, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Buffaloes defeated the Beavers 73-58. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /

Oregon State

If you’ve been a follower of this program for as long as I have, you probably saw this coming. Not one week after beating Arizona at Gill Coliseum, the Beavers fell flat in their road trip to take on Washington and Washington State.

Coming off the big win over the Wildcats last Sunday, Oregon State was a trendy pick to land another blow against a Huskies team struggling to cope with the loss of its point guard, Quade Green. But the Tinkles couldn’t come up with a win that would’ve become the Beavers’ second-best of the season.

Then, on Saturday, Oregon State fell once again to Washington State. The Cougars were playing on their home court—and local legend Klay Thompson was in attendance—but this was a game the Beavers absolutely could not afford to lose. With their best wins coming over Arizona, Oklahoma, and Iowa State, the orange and black don’t have a strong enough resume to be adding losses to Wazzu into the mix.

The oh-fer could eventually end up costing the Beavers what would be just their second NCAA Tournament bid since 1990.

Utah

Another team with upstart tournament aspirations is Utah, but things have deteriorated quickly for the Utes in the early portion of the Pac-12 season. Larry Krystkowiak’s club is sitting in last place in the league after losing both games on their road trip down to the Grand Canyon State.

In total, the Utes have dropped four straight, with losses to Oregon and Colorado preceding last week’s disaster. But the loss to Arizona State will hurt the worst for Utah, as the Sun Devils now own a one-game advantage going forward in league play.

Utah turned some heads with wins over Kentucky, BYU, Minnesota, and Nevada, but recently, they have looked more like the team that lost to Coastal Carolina and Tulane. They will host the Washington schools next week, and anything less than a sweep might leave too big a hole for the Utes to climb out of.

Oregon

Yes, I’m aware the Ducks actually came back to win against Washington. Maybe it should be the Huskies in this position on the Bracketology Losers list, seeing as they did blow a big lead in a huge game on their home court.

But rewind a few days, before Payton Pritchard knocked down his highlight-reel three-pointer from the logo. Back to when Oregon was becoming the first casualty on Washington State’s war on their neighbor state. With the loss, the Ducks coughed up their spot in the Top 10 as quickly as they got it back.

More importantly, losing to Washington State might prevent the Ducks from being able to secure any inside edge on a #1 seed. Still, it’s not out of the question that they could get a nice #2 spot paying in Spokane out in the West region. But in order to grab that valuable placement, they will need to look much stronger than they did last week.

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