The Oregon Men’s Basketball program improved to 11-1 on the season this past weekend, and with that comes a slight bump in the latest Top 25 Rankings released on Monday morning. After blowing out Stanford 76-61, the Ducks moved into its highest ranking since January of 2020.
Oregon checked in at No. 9 in the polls, a jump of one spot from last week’s Top 10 ranking. This marks Oregon’s second straight week of being inside the Top 10 and the first time they’ve done it since the 2019-20 season. That year the Ducks spent five straight weeks inside the Top 10.
The Ducks have spent a total of 28 weeks ranked inside the Top 10 of the Associated Press in its history.
“Unfortunately, we’ve had a couple of Christmas breaks that precluded a loss. Did not make for a very good break,” said Oregon assistant Mike Mennenga on the school’s postgame radio show after the win over Stanford. “That’s an automatic on the naughty list. No presents from coach Altman. This year, no looking back, we’ve got a lot of gas let in the tank. We look at each other in the mirror and feel like we could get better, and we’re starting to see little things start to happen.”
The Ducks are headlined by a balanced attack on offense that features five players averaging 10 to 13 points per game, led by senior center Nate Bittle’s 13.8 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks per game. Senior guard Keeshawn Barthelemy is averaging a team-high 48 percent on 3-point attempts while sophomore Jackson Shelstad averages a team-high three assists per game.
This week’s Top 10: Tennessee, Auburn, Iowa State, Duke, Alabama, Florida, Kansas, Marquette, Oregon, and Kentucky.
Oregon’s next game will be its final non-conference game of the year when they host Weber State on Sunday, January 29th at Matthew Knight Arena. Tip off is set for 2 PM and the game will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network. Four days later the Ducks will open up its main Big Ten league play schedule with a home slate of games. First Oregon will play No. 24 Illinois on January 2nd at Matthew Knight Arena and then on January 5th the Ducks will host Maryland.
