Oregon’s NCAA Tournament dream turned into a ‘disappointing’ nightmare at Texas
The Ducks didn't compete at the level they expected to during a lopsided loss to the Longhorns.
AUSTIN, Texas -- Sunday’s blowout was not how the Oregon Ducks saw their NCAA Tournament run ending. While they knew defeating top-seeded Texas on its home floor would be a challenge, the Ducks expected their determination and resolve, evident all season, to create an upset opportunity. Instead, the eight-seeded Ducks fell 100-58 at Moody Center, wilting beneath the heat generated by Texas’ defense and the 8,981 energized fans, mostly wearing burnt orange.
Simply put, the Ducks didn’t compete—a fact sophomore Ehis Etute said stung more than the margin of defeat. “It’s not how much we lost by, it’s honestly how we lost,” Etute said. “Because I feel like we should have been fighting until the very end and giving our all, no matter what the score looked like.
Today, that’s just not what it looked like from our team. That’s not the feeling I got, myself included. ” The Ducks were installed as 27.
5-point underdogs, even after defeating ninth-seeded Virginia Tech 70-60 in the first round. Oregon, which went 8-10 in the Big Ten—a conference that sent 12 teams to the NCAA tournament—believed it had been tested enough to make Sunday’s game at least interesting. They did so for the first six minutes of the first quarter when the score stood at 15-15.
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