12. Oregon (11-1)
These Ducks certainly are coming out much stronger than in past seasons, entering the Big Ten with their best foot forward. They have already dropped a Big Ten conference game against UCLA (which still feels wrong to say), but have marvelous wins at the Players Era Festival boosting their resume. Can these Ducks actually win their new league in their very first season?
We won’t have any answers to that question for a while, but the Ducks looked solid last Sunday in a 79-61 home win over Stephen F. Austin. Brandon Angel had 15 points and 6 rebounds while Nate Bittle added 13 points in a quiet but strong performance. Oregon had another strong effort late Saturday in the San Jose Classic, winning 76-61 against Stanford. This was a balanced attack from the Ducks, with Kwame Evans Jr.’s 13 points off the bench actually leading the charge.
The season has gone according to plan to this point and the Ducks are playing very solid basketball on both ends of the court. It’s clear that conference play will be an interesting challenge against a new host of league rivals, but this team has the talent to win the Big Ten if everything goes their way. Weber State is the last test in nonconference play next weekend, so clearly Oregon has had a satisfactory run through the beginning of the year.