As recently as a few days ago, it seemed like Kelly Graves and the Oregon Ducks had done enough over the final few games of the season to get themselves in a spot to be invited to the NCAA Tournament.
Though the Ducks lost seven straight games in February and dropped 9-of-10 at one point, they closed out the regular season on a strong note, upsetting No. 14 Arizona, blowing out Arizona State, and then beating Washington in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament before falling to the No. 1 seed Stanford Cardinals. The Ducks were on the bubble before all of that took place, but there was some confidence that they could get to the ride side of the fence with those results.
It turns out that might have been a little bit too optimistic, unfortunately for Oregon fans. According to the latest edition of ESPN’s bracketology, the Ducks are still listed as the “first team out” with less than a week to go until Selection Sunday. Oregon is done playing, obviously, but there are still other dominoes to fall across the nation.
At this point, the Ducks’ fate is not in their own hands; they will need to rely on some other teams to lose in order to get into March Madness. Some of the teams ahead of Oregon — West Virginia and Princeton — still have a game left on the schedule, so if either were to lose, it might open the door up for the Ducks.
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