NCAA Basketball Power Rankings: Illinois rises, Dayton keeps impressing

Oregon went 2-0 during this past week while defeating USC and UCLA at home. The former of these two matchups, though, was a dogfight as the Ducks were only barely able to escape with a double-OT victory. They were able to thankfully follow that tough win over the Trojans with an easy 21-point dominance of the Bruins.

In my opinion, the Ducks firmly belong among the best teams in the country thanks to their sensational offense. They boast easily one of the best lead guards in the nation with Payton Pritchard and the supporting cast around him is filled with viable scoring threats. Anthony Mathis is perhaps the most well-known but he is actually just the team’s fourth-leading scorer as he has gone ice-cold in conference play.

Chris Duarte, though, is emerging as a superstar. He is averaging 17.1 points per game so far in conference play while also leading the team in rebounding. His impact has been huge over the past few weeks while living up to the hype of being a top JUCO transfer. Will Richardson has also been playing very well and that warranted a movement into the starting lineup over the past three games.

Oregon should currently be regarded as the favorite to win the Pac-12 even with some of its struggles on the defensive end of the floor. Three straight road games approach, though, and how the Ducks perform will have a major impact on the conference standings.