Bracketology 2022: Oregon, Marquette, and Auburn among latest winners

Oregon

Last year certainly marked quite the coming-out party for the Pac-12, who saw several teams make surprise runs in the NCAA Tournament. Prior to that showing, it had been Oregon doing most of the work in the postseason for the conference, with their Final Four in 2017 the best showing. Still, the Ducks made the Sweet Sixteen last season and looked like one of the best teams in the conference this season. After struggling to a 6-6 start, this certainly didn’t look the case.

The Ducks managed to get back on track in recent weeks, with this last week’s results giving them potentially the best week a college basketball team has had all season. The Ducks scored not one, but two Top 5 wins on the road, knocking off UCLA 84-81 in overtime on Thursday before delivering a 79-69 win at USC two days later. Will Richardson had 28 points in the game against the Trojans, which was one of Oregon’s finest offensive performances of the season.

This could have easily been a season-saving type of week for the Ducks, who were really floundering less than a month ago. Now, the Ducks are up to 58th in the NET rankings and 50th in KenPom, a major step forward after the two big wins over the LA schools. There’s still a lot of work left for the Ducks, who clearly need to keep winning against the other schools in the Pac-12, but this was the kind of week that they’ll point to if Oregon is on the bubble in March.