Bracketology 2024: Gonzaga, Kentucky, and Indiana among week's biggest losers

Oregon

Dana Altman’s run with the Ducks has been impressive, though this team missed out on the Big Dance the last two seasons and hasn’t exactly been dominant in recent years. In this final season of the Pac-12, the Ducks are looking to make some sort of an impact on their way out, though tough performances against Santa Clara and Syracuse in nonconference play didn’t inspire confidence. Oregon did start 5-0 in league play, but trouble has started in recent weeks.

Three Quad 1 losses in league play weren’t ideal but were understandable, though this past week was more disheartening. The Ducks headed to southern California to play two struggling teams and couldn’t get a pair of victories. They prevailed 78-69 against USC but lost by eight to UCLA on Saturday night with one of their weaker efforts of the season. They now sit at 7-4 in league play but blew a major opportunity to sweep both USC and UCLA.

The Ducks’s NET is at 57, which isn’t horrible, but they much would have preferred that win over the Bruins. They are 2-4 against Quad 1 foes and have that Quad 3 loss to Santa Clara, meaning there’s work to be done on this resume. An early March road game at Arizona is the stiffest challenge left for a Ducks team that makes the Big Dance if they catch fire again these next few weeks, but can they get back on track against this meek Pac-12?

We’ve looked closely at ten teams we consider losers from this past week, but the book is not closed on any of them. Which of these teams has a chance to bounce back in the days and weeks ahead? Which of these will continue their slides and find themselves on the wrong side of the bubble?