Oregon’s path to a Big Ten tournament championship is set. Now the Ducks just have to navigate what could be a long and challenging week in Indianapolis.
Oregon (23-8) finished with a 12-8 conference record after beating Washington 80-73 in overtime in the regular-season finale Sunday afternoon in Seattle to extend its winning streak to seven games.
Next up is the Big Ten Tournament (Wednesday-Sunday) at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. The Ducks go in as the No. 8 seed and with a first-round bye. They’ll open in the second round with a 9 a.m. game Thursday against No. 9 Indiana (19-12, 10-10), a team they beat last Tuesday in Matthew Knight Arena, 73-64.
If they beat the Hoosiers, the No. 1-overall seed awaits.
Big Ten regular-season champion Michigan State (26-5, 17-3) will face the winner of Oregon-Indiana at 9 a.m. Friday in the quarterfinals. The Spartans are one of four teams to earn a double bye in the tournament along with No. 2 Maryland, No. 3 Michigan and No. 4 UCLA.
The Ducks’ last loss was against the Spartans. After leading by 14 at halftime, Oregon fell off in the second half to lose 86-74 on Feb. 8 in East Lansing.
If Oregon gets past Michigan State, it’ll play at 10 a.m. Saturday in the semifinals against the winner of a quarterfinal game headlined by the Bruins.
The championship game is at 12:30 p.m. Sunday.
All times Pacific (PT)
Wednesday | First round
Thursday | Second round
Friday | Quarterfinals
Saturday | Semifinals
Sunday | Championship
Chris Hansen covers University of Oregon football, men’s basketball, track and field, cross country and softball for The Register-Guard. You can reach him at chansen@registerguard.com and you can follow him on X @chansen_RG
