One of those particular teams is the Duke Blue Devils, who have their work cut out for them against the No. 1 seed in the West Region, the Oregon Ducks.
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12_Number of teams in the Sweet 16 that were ranked in the preseason AP Top 25. “We know we’re going to have to play better than we did tonight, but it’s an opportunity”.
ABOUT OREGON (30-6): The Ducks are extremely efficient at the offensive end with point guard Casey Benson (5.9 points, 4.7-to-1 assists-to-turnovers) spreading the wealth among a quartet of double-digit scorers.
The women’s tournament gets only a sliver of the attention paid to the men’s, but Nurse is a key sophomore contributor on an undefeated UConn team looking to win its school’s fourth straight title and 10th since the turn of the century. In neither matches did the Blue Devils look dominant like some of the great teams from the school’s past, but they gritted it out enough to get the job done. We’re working hard to improve that. We need to play well on the national stage against someone that is very good and has proven themselves. The Bludevils are the Defending National Champions from last season and OR has to be prepared with a solid Perimeter Defense. “I’m real proud of the guys for stepping up and making shots”. “Young, kind of limited in numbers, but they’ve really grown tough together and earned their way here”. They cruised through the tournament’s opening weekend routing UNC-Asheville and then Iowa as they shot 58.6 percent. They came right back and held UConn to 61.
Oregon’s Chris Boucher takes a shot during college basketball practice in Anaheim, Calif., Wednesday, March 23, 2016. OR has shown it can run and score, beating Holy Cross in the opening round, but also find a way to grind out a win against a team like Saint Joseph’s, where the game was played in the 60s.
Tyler Dorsey got on the board for the first time with a three out of the timeout. “I said, ‘You’re a terrific player”. It received a record seven bids this year and all but the Ducks were eliminated before the first week’s games concluded.
“For any coach who gets there, that’s an honor, and you don’t know if you’re ever going to get there again”, Krzyzewski said.
I take back anything deprecating I have said about Walton, although I have enjoyed his Pac-12 telecasts quotes here and here.
But it was undeniably odd – and a statement about how well Altman has the Ducks playing – to see the Blue Devils cast in the role of underdog for Thursday’s matchup, and facing questions about how they might stop Oregon. That’s a big gap and one where OR does not find itself. They went out in their second game despite being seeded No. 1 in 2015 and No. 2 in 2014. With Plumlee heading into Thursday’s game averaging 8.4 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game, Krzyzewski said the senior center is Duke’s most important player. They’re 6-4 ATS over their last 10, and the four games that they didn’t cover were fairly big spreads: -7 against St. Joe’s, -8 against Washington, -18.5 against Washington State and -12 against Oregon State.
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They carry the banner, the pressure, the weight and burden of it all.
