Oregon Earns No. 5 Seed in NCAA Tournament, Will Face Belmont in First Round

The Ducks head to Knoxville, Tenn. for their opening round game against the Ohio Valley Conference regular season and tournament champions.

Billy Spotz | Mar 13, 2022

The Oregon Ducks will travel across the country to Knoxville, Tenn. as a fifth seed in the Wichita region in the NCAA Tournament to face the Belmont Bruins in the first round.

Despite being slated for a four seed most of the season, the Ducks' 80-73 loss to Utah dropped them down to a five seed, meaning they won’t host a first round matchup. Instead, they'll travel to Tennessee to compete in the Wichita region that consists of teams like Louisville, Baylor, Michigan, and Tennessee.

Te-Hina Paopao

To begin their March Madness dance, the Ducks square off against the best team from the Ohio Valley conference. Finishing 22-7, the Bruins dominated the OVC regular season, dropping only two games during conference play.

The Bruins went on to redeem those two losses in their conference tournament, and in dominant fashion no less. After losing to Austin Peay and Tennessee Tech by a combined four points in the regular season, the Bruins made it clear who was top dog in their conference. After a solid 12-point victory in the semifinals over Austin Peay, the Bruins trounced Tech 51-29 en route to their sixth straight NCAA Tournament appearance.

With the Ducks' bracket now set, the team looks to move on from their Las Vegas heartbreak and refocus on postseason play. Kelly Graves and company made it clear during the press conference after the loss that they have to refocus and get healthy, and the two-week break after the Pac-12 Tournament could provide just that.

Endyia Rogers

The team should be mostly healthy rolling into the tournament too, as Maddie Scherr and Nyara Sabally, both of whom faced minor injuries that kept their playing time inconsistent during the Pac-12 tournament, have been given ample recovery time.

In what was a rough regular season, where mainstays like Sedona Prince, Te-Hina Paopao, and Endyia Rogers were all sidelined for extended periods of time, the Ducks still finished the season 20-11 and tied for second in the Pac-12.

While finishing the season 20-11 isn’t what Graves had hoped for, the regular season is behind them, and all that matters now is that first round matchup with Belmont.

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Published Mar 13, 2022

BILLY SPOTZ

Billy is a senior journalism student at the University of Oregon from Albuquerque, New Mexico. He covers recruiting and both men's and women's basketball teams for Ducks Digest. He's also a member of Oregon's DuckTV Sports and Esports divisions, where he has been a reporter, podcast host, and play-by-play caster.