SAN JOSE, Calif. — Call the Oregon Ducks the Rodney Dangerfield of the NCAA Tournament. They get no respect. At least they didn’t when the seedings were announced on Sunday.
Despite winning the Pac-12 Tournament and having the second-best regular-season record in the conference, the Ducks were seeded 12th while conference rivals Arizona and UCLA were sixth seeds in other regions. Ouch!
Whatever respect the Ducks weren’t shown by the selection committee, they earned last night by upsetting fifth-seeded Oklahoma State, 68-55, in a second-round game in the Midwest Region at HP Pavilion.
Oregon (27-8) played like a team with a chip on its shoulder, playing smarter and more aggressively than the Cowboys, who trailed by 11 points at halftime and never mounted a serious threat in the second half.
“We wanted to be aggressive on the boards, we wanted to be aggressive defensively and we wanted to be aggressive offensively,” said Oregon head coach Dana Altman. “I thought our guys did a good job of that. They made plays for each other.”
Whenever Oklahoma State tried to make a run, the Ducks answered with either a key defensive stop, a timely basket or clutch free throws. An example of Oklahoma State’s frustration was freshman guard Marcus Smart, who late in the second half missed a point-blank layup on one possession, then was called for an offensive foul on the next. He then missed a short jumper in the lane.
“We tried to fight back, but we could never get multiple stops,” said OSU coach Travis Ford.
Down 60-48 with five minutes remaining, the Cowboys went into a full-court press to try to change the momentum. But Oregon junior point-guard Johnathan Loyd was terrific, breaking the Cowboys pressure and orchestrating the Ducks offense. Damyean Dotson led Oregon with 17 points, while Arsalan Kazemi had 11 points and 17 rebounds.
“We went up against a good Oregon team that’s playing their best basketball right now,” said Oklahoma State guard Markel Brown.
george.willis@nypost.com