NCAA Basketball: Oregon, Miami, Rutgers and Seton Hall headline Sunday Mailbag
By Bryan Mauro
Which team in the preseason top 25 is most likely to miss the NCAA Tournament? – Tristan Freeman (@hoopsnut351)
Most teams have only played two games this season and there is already a team who is the easy answer to this question. Keep in mind that this team may change but as of now on 11/13/2022 the team that is in the preseason top 25 that looks most likely to miss the NCAA tournament is the Oregon Ducks. This is after Oregon just dropped a home game to UC Irvine.
Oregon was a team I had high hopes for this year and heading into the year being ranked in the top 25 everyone else did as well. The Ducks had a good portion of their roster returning from last season. They were healthy and with head coach Dana Altman at the helm they are extremely well coached. Then what is the problem with Oregon, why do they look so bad? One thing is they don’t have any shooters who can make a three-point shot at all. Through two games they are shooting 21% from deep and are getting nothing from two of their five starters.
The Ducks were a team who didn’t live up to expectations last year and in the past handful of years have not lived up to expectations in the regular season only to make a run at the end of the year and find themselves in the tournament. Then in the tournament, they usually win a game or two and find themselves in the second weekend. Over the last couple of seasons, Altman has tried everything with no answers. The transfers he has gotten this year have not panned out over the first few games of the year.
Obviously, a lot can change, and it feels as if Oregon was ranked in the preseason due to their previous history and the benefit of the doubt that Altman can keep the program on the up. N’ Faly Dante has been great this year and looks like he may take off finally, but he has to have helped over two games most of the roster has regressed. Oregon better get it figured out quickly and hopefully they can find some shooters because if the Ducks don’t shoot the ball better they won’t make the NCAA tournament even with the Pac-12 looking like it is for another down year.