Oregon was supposed to be here before the season. In what was viewed as a wide-open Pac-12, the Ducks were as good a pick as any to win it and be an NCAA Tournament team. Most also figured the Pac-12 would at least be better than a year ago.
Of course, reality told a different story. The Ducks were not as good as advertised, owing in some part to injuries, and the Pac-12 has had an awful year. Some have wondered if the Pac-12 would even be a one-bid conference when it’s all said and done.
So as Oregon will now be in the NCAA Tournament by virtue of winning the Pac-12 Tournament, concluding with a dominating 68-48 win over Washington, the Ducks fulfill what was expected of them, albeit in a rather roundabout fashion. They will go in as bid thieves, so one team that ends up in the NIT will be there because of the Ducks playing to their potential in Las Vegas. And the questions about the Pac-12 remain, too.
Will Washington get in after all? Sure, they won the regular season handily, but they lost their only meeting with Arizona State, who had the best non-conference showing in the Pac-12. Considering they are 10-7 against Quadrants 1 and 2, and have a non-conference SOS better than advertised, it would not shock anyone if they are, especially considering how the bottom of the bubble looks.
Does this mean the Pac-12 will shock many people and be a three-bid league? Arizona State has wins over Kansas, Mississippi State and Utah State, but also four losses in Quadrants 3 and 4 (Utah, Vanderbilt, Princeton and Washington State). As bad as the conference has been, three teams getting in would seem like a major league injustice.
Oregon had as much talent as anyone in the conference and, indeed, as much as many in the country. They had a star-studded recruiting class to go with good holdovers like Pac-12 Tournament MVP Peyton Pritchard, Paul White and Kenny Wooten. They were expected to be here, but not by winning four games in four days as the No. 6 seed. On the bottom line, how they got there doesn’t matter, but it does tell some story of the wide-open Pac-12 even after it looked like the top two teams were clear.
Side Dishes
The conference championship game rundown:
- The day began with Anthony Lamb (28 points, nine rebounds) starring as Vermont took care of UMBC this time around in the America East championship by a 66-49 margin in a game that was never all that competitive in the second half.
- Right after that came NC Central doing what they have done best of late, which is win the MEAC Tournament as they shut down regular season champion Norfolk State in the second half to come from behind and win 50-47. The Central Eagles held Norfolk State to 15 points in the second half to pull this one out and send the Spartans to the NIT.
- Iowa State shot 48 percent from the field and was able to slow Kansas enough to take a 10-point halftime lead, then hold off any real run by the Jayhawks in a 78-66 win with four players scoring in double figures. Four players scored between 12 and 17 points for Villanova.
- Villanova became the first program to win three consecutive Big East Tournament titles as they held off Seton Hall in a tightly contested affair 74-72.
- A would-be bid thief did not prevail in the Mountain West championship game as Utah State held off San Diego State 64-57 to win there behind 24 points from Sam Merrill.
- The SWAC championship game was a dandy in which both teams shot over 52 percent from the field, though neither shot well from the free throw line. Texas Southern had a 42-26 rebounding edge, but threw that away with 24 turnovers, and Prairie View A&M made the last big run of the game and held on from there for a 92-86 win.
- The MAC championship game saw Buffalo get 31 points from Jeremy Harris as they pulled away from Bowling Green 87-73 in a game that made some bubble teams happy.
- In the Big Sky championship game, Eastern Washington ran out to a 12-point lead in the first half, but saw the lead dwindle to six by the break. Montana continued that work in the second half and took the lead halfway through, then held on for a 68-62 win and their second straight title.
- With another big game from Zion Williamson, who took home tournament MVP honors, as well as shutdown defense in the second half, Duke took care of Florida State 73-63 to win the ACC championship game. The Blue Devils look more like a different team with Williamson, and may have laid claim to the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. In the second half, they held Florida State to 25 percent (8-32) from the field.
- The Conference USA championship game was a close one, as could be expected, and as they did previously, Old Dominion pulled out a close one. The Monarchs beat Western Kentucky 62-56 to win their three games in Frisco by a total of nine points. It’s a great story considering the Monarchs have had more than their share of adversity, from head coach Jeff Jones learning he has a recurrence of prostate cancer to getting stuck coming home from the Paradise Jam.
- Another first-time entrant to the NCAA Tournament is Abilene Christian, who opened up an 11-point halftime lead over New Orleans in the Southland Conference championship game and pulled away for a 77-60 win.
- The WAC championship game wasn’t a competitive one in the second half, although Grand Canyon jumped out to a 10-2 lead on New Mexico State. The Aggies slowed the Antelopes greatly, forcing misses on 12 of the last 15 shots to take an 11-point lead into the locker room, then ran away in the second half in an 89-57 win to continue their dominance in the conference and win their 30th game of the season. They set a tournament record with 17 three-pointers and outscored their three opponents by an average of 25 points.
- The final championship game of the night, in the Big West, was similar to the WAC in how the second half went. UC Irvine shot nearly 62 percent from the field and made 10 of their 14 attempts from long range to run away from Cal State Fullerton 92-64.
In conference semifinals:
- The Atlantic 10 Tournament saw two big second half efforts lead the way as St. Bonaventure took over and ran away from a Rhode Island team that appeared to run out of gas, winning 68-51 in the first game, then Saint Louis held Davidson to just 15 second half points to break away from the Wildcats for a 67-44 romp.
- The higher seeds won the semifinals of the Ivy League Tournament, but not without challenges. No. 1 Harvard pulled away from No. 4 Penn 66-58 and No. 2 Yale led by 12 at the half but saw No. 3 Princeton go on a 17-2 run to start the second half to take the lead. Down 69-62 later, Yale went on a 12-3 run and never trailed after that in an 83-77 win.
- The Big Ten semifinals went as expected, with No. 1 Michigan State pulling away from No. 4 Wisconsin 67-55 and No. 3 Michigan blowing out No. 7 Minnesota 76-49.
- The American Athletic Conference semifinals were a pair of nailbiters, with No. 1 Houston holding off No. 4 Memphis 61-58 and No. 2 Cincinnati made a late run to nip No. 6 Wichita State 66-63.
- The SEC semifinals were a pair of dandies. No. 8 Florida shot 60.5 percent from the field, but 19 turnovers did a lot to neutralize that and a 32-17 rebounding edge as No. 5 Auburn won 65-62, then No. 3 Tennessee rallied from being down by eight in the final three minutes to knock off No. 2 Kentucky 82-78.
- In the semifinals of the Sun Belt Tournament, No. 1 Georgia State made a 13-point halftime lead stand up as they beat No. 4 Texas State 59-46, and No. 2 UT Arlington scored the final ten points over the final five minutes to beat No. 3 Georgia Southern 67-58.
The lone bit of coaching news on the day came from Tulane as they moved on from Mike Dunleavy Sr. after three years. The 64-year-old was a college coach for the first time after spending a number of years in the NBA, and his son Baker has a good thing going as the head coach at Quinnipiac.
Tonight’s Menu
Six championship games remain, then we find out what will happen beyond this.
- The Ivy League championship game gets it all going as Harvard takes on Yale in New Haven (noon, ESPN2)
- In Nashville, the SEC championship game has Tennessee taking on Auburn (1 p.m., ESPN)
- The Atlantic 10 championship game has Saint Louis battling St. Bonaventure (1 p.m., CBS)
- The top two seeds in the Sun Belt have reached their championship game as UT Arlington will take on Georgia State (2 p.m., ESPN2)
- The American Athletic Conference championship game should be a dandy as the third meeting of the year between Houston and Cincinnati (3:15 p.m., ESPN)
- The Big Ten championship game will double as a rivalry game as Michigan State battles Michigan (3:30 p.m., CBS)
- Once all that is done, we eagerly await the NCAA Tournament field being revealed on the Selection Show at 6 p.m. on CBS.
