Sweet 16

I'm not at all sure how Oregon survived St. Joseph's, but the Ducks pulled out a win tonight in Spokane to advance to the Sweet 16--the lone Pac-12 team to make it.

Oregon didn't play well, shot poorly, except when it counted the most as time dwindled.

It seemed like Oregon got a lot of good looks at the basket, but nothing fell for most of the game--one of the team's poorest shooting exhibitions of the season.

But the Ducks prevailed, setting up a showdown with the much despised defending national champs, the Duke Blue Devils.

It is often said--and you could go back and document the fact--that a team has to survive a close one, a clunker, early in the tourney in order to get to the final four, so perhaps tonight was Oregon's near disaster.

Perhaps it bodes well.

I think the Ducks will play better in Anaheim and advance.


TS