Oregon set to face off with South Carolina in opening round of NCAA Tournament
The Oregon Ducks are headed to Pittsburgh for the opening round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
The Ducks have been tabbed as the No. 11 seed in the Midwest Region and will face off with No. 6-seeded South Carolina on Thursday at PPG Paints Arena.
Oregon (23-11) reached the big dance by winning Saturday’s Pac-12 title game over Colorado thanks to a dominant performance from N’Faly Dante. The senior center scored 25 points on 12-of-12 shooting to lead the Ducks to a 75-68 win over the Buffs.
In order to get to that point, the Ducks notched a 68-66 win over UCLA in Thursday’s quarterfinal and a 67-59 upset win over Arizona in Friday’s semifinal.
Oregon struggled during the second half of the regular season as it lost four key players — Nate Bittle, Keeshawn Barthelemy, Mookie Cook, and Jesse Zarzuela — to injury or illness. The Ducks went 5-5 throughout their final 10 regular season games.
Dante, Jermaine Couisnard, and Jackson Shelstad carried Oregon to an improbably run through the Pac-12 Tournament, though, to help UO notch its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2020-21.
Couisnard, Oregon’s second-leading scorer at 15.4 points per game, spent the first three years of his career at South Carolina before transferring to UO prior to the start of the 2022-23 season.
