Oregon Basketball: 2022-23 season preview and outlook for Ducks
By Joey Loose
Schedule Outlook
The Ducks start things off with a four-game homestand, with three pretty winnable games starting the season. They’ll face upstart squads from UC Irvine and Montana State, but the intrigue comes in a November 20th duel with a very talented Houston squad. This might be Oregon’s most challenging home game of the entire season, and a chance to prove early on that they belong.
Challenges abound in the coming week, as Oregon makes the short journey to Portland for the Phil Knight Invitational. They’ll be greeted by a talented Connecticut team and then get either Alabama or Michigan State in the second round. There’s the potential to play North Carolina or Villanova in their final game of the tournament, meaning this could provide several more chances for Oregon to prove or disprove that they are back.
Before nonconference play resumes, the Ducks get their first two conference games and one of them is a doozy, as they had to UCLA on December 4th. They’ll play four last home games to finish the nonconference schedule, with all of them expected to be victories. However, they will face a challenge from Portland and Utah Valley, two potent mid-majors hoping to prove themselves this year.
Pac-12 play begins in earnest on New Year’s Day with an easy home date with Oregon State. The most challenging stretch might be their road trip to Arizona and Arizona State in early February. They’ll follow that up with home games against USC and UCLA; suffice to say this is an important two-week stretch in their season. The regular season ends with home dates against California and Stanford, with the latter serving as senior day.