Arizona at Oregon

The return of the Quack Attack! Ernie Kent's booming voice was not the only thing making noise at Mac Court last night as the Oregon Ducks managed to deliver a convincing performance in the first half and keep their at-large hopes alive after beating the "Wise" Arizona Wildcats.

Arizona was playing with both Wise and Brillo-meyer so they have all the pieces back. And that's what makes Arizona's case for an at-large bid. With Nic Wise, or with Wise/Bayless playing, they have a solid at-large record. It's when those two are out of the line-up that they have as 33% record and that's what some people see when they say that Arizona is not in the tourney.

Of course who's in and out depends on the other teams on the bubble, since you don't put records if they are only that good, but you have to put 31 teams in, regardless of how good or bad their records are. The selection committee and the bracketologists cannot simply punt if they can't find enough "worthy" teams.

This puts Oregon up against Washington State, making it a very intriguing #3 vs #6 matchup on Thursday.

Meanwhile Arizona will have to hold their noses and play the play-in game, against 0-18 Oregon State. Now that's a must-win game for the Meercats. Imagine if they lost that game with their full squad! PRESSURE!

And Kevin O'Neill already has an asterisk next to his name, it's the first time in 23 years Arizona did not have 11 or more wins in the conference season. They only have *gasp* eight conference wins (8-10).

Oh this is going to be a dramatic selection sunday for sure!