NCAA Basketball Power Rankings: Penn State soaring, LSU falls

Those of you that have been reading my weekly power rankings since the beginning of the season will remember that I was once extremely high on Oregon as a national title contender. I have since soured on this team a bit and that is largely due to its struggles on the defensive end of the floor.

With Payton Pritchard leading the way, the Ducks boast an elite guard capable of carrying them in March as well as several strong supporting cast members around him. There is no question in my mind that this team will always be able to score at a high level.

Will they, though, be able to get enough stops in order to win six straight games and cut down the nets as national champions? I’m not so sure anymore. Oregon’s defense hasn’t seemed to improve much this season and that is still a glaring weakness heading into the final month of the campaign. The Ducks boast just the 67th-best adjusted defensive efficiency rating nationally and that will need to be remedied soon.

Oregon most recently dropped back-to-back road games to Stanford and Oregon State this week to fall close to the edge of my rankings. Those aren’t awful losses by any stretch but they also aren’t great ones. The Ducks need to find a way to get back on track.