Dr. Altmanlove (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and [Hopefully] Win the Pac-12)

Tonight's Civil-War-Not-Civil-War is somehow for the Pac-12 Title, and Dana owes it all to the haters and doubters—of which there are many.

Two big victories early in the week has put the Men in a position to claim another conference title tonight, and the aura of tournament play on the horizon is just icing on the cake.

After all the COVID pauses, all the injuries and weirdness of the year, tonight’s Civil-War-Not-Civil-War in Gill Gymnasium poses as Oregon’s opportunity to claim back-to-back regular season conference titles once again.

When you think of a week where you play Arizona, UCLA, and Oregon State; two of those names float to the top, and one of them does not. 

But even before the Ducks toppled the Cats and Bruins, I posited that the most obvious outcome of this week would have been victories over the two biggest names in Pac-12 basketball, and that the run would meet its natural end would against the woodchipper that is the Beavs.

It just would have been too poetic, right?

Of course, that was the cynical Duck fan in me—which doesn’t usually show through the homerism—and it was also with the memory of that USC shellacking still very fresh in my mind.

But after beating Zona, and then playing our best game of the year against UCLA, that USC game feels like a zillion years ago, and the fate of this year’s Duck team feels very, very different.

Like they always do, the Duckies are putting it all together under Dana Altman in March. This crazy hodgepodge of transfers, young bucks, and yet another Pac-12 Player of the Year, are building momentum. In the last month, they won 3 out of 4 against KenPom Q1/Q2 teams in Colorado (16), UCLA (40), Arizona (45)—just dropping a bad night against Southern Cal (15).

Throw in a victory over Stanford (78) that likely just bumped the Cardinal out of the Last Four In, and that’s a pretty swell final month measuring stick against NCAA Tournament-caliber teams.

The Ducks sit right in the middle of the pack in KenPom, at 36, with that skell Joe Lunardi slating Oregon for a Seven Seed. And prior to this week, CBS’ Andy Katz had us all the way down at a Nine Seed. They clearly both missed my memo last month that the Ducks are a Four Seed. Nothing more, nothing less.

But with a win tonight, and solid showing in Vegas, don’t be surprised to see the talking heads finally admit that Dana has these Boys rolling once again.

And I don’t want to do too much FutureTalk, but honestly a Six or Seven Seed is probably the best place for the Four Seed Ducks to land. A 6/7 slot guarantees that you don’t run into a One Seed until the Elite Eight—at the earliest.

And on top of that, under-seeding this program would be the greatest gift you could ever give them. Go ahead, put us in the wrong spot, make everyone else (read: probably Wisconsin, because it’s always Wisconsin) pay the price.

Also, on a programming note, stay tuned in the coming weeks for the official Ditch Rich March Madness bracket challenge. I’m thinking the winner might get an inaugural Ditch Rich t-shirt or something?

Call it Merch Madness.

Go Ducks.