Oregon locked up a bid to the NCAA Tournament on Saturday in its upset win over Arizona, and six Seniors played their final game at Matthew Knight Arena in the process. We break them down below:

It’s Been An Up And Down Season For Senior Mike Moser, But The Forward Has Averaged 17.7 PPG Over His Last Seven Games To Propel The Ducks Onto The Right Side Of The Bubble. (Michael Shaw/AP)

Hopes were high when Mike Moser announced his intentions to transfer from UNLV to Oregon last summer, and expectations immediately rose for the Ducks. There were talks before of a top-four finish to follow up their Sweet Sixteen appearance, but with the addition of Moser, competing with Arizona for a conference championship seemed achievable. And for the first two months of the season, things were great. The forward dropped 15 points in the first game of the season against Georgetown, and added another 24 in a huge road win in overtime at Mississippi. The Ducks were riding high, but the losses began to accumulate rapidly as Moser’s production waned. He hit a nasty shooting slump and lost all confidence while Oregon dropped six of seven games in the month of January, but as he slowly began to get his stroke back, Dana Altman‘s team finally started to pull out the close games that they had been losing before. They are now a lock for the NCAA Tournament, and it’s no coincidence that Moser has averaged 16.8 PPG since February 8, a stretch where his team has gone 7-1.

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1. Colorado comes into the season losing their four top-scorers from a year ago, so all five Buffalo newcomers are going to have to play huge roles in 2011-12. Leading the newcomers is senior guard Carlon Brown, a transfer from Utah. Brown averaged 12.6 PPG two years ago with the Utes before transferring due to repeated “clashes” with the coaching staff. Also in the CU backcourt will be freshman Spencer Dinwiddie, who will bring a 3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio into Boulder. Dinwiddie is a true point guard in every sense of the word, something that the Buffaloes will surely miss after losing star guard Alec Burks.
2. Washington begins play on Saturday against Georgia State and Clifford Kahn has the season preview. The article focuses on the youth this season on Montlake as 9 out of the 14 players on the roster are either freshmen or sophomoroes. While the five guys that aren’t in that group will certainly make some noise (Abdul Gaddy, Aziz N’Diaye, Brendan Sherrer, Scott Suggs, and Darnell Gant), sophomore Terrence Ross and freshman Tony Wroten, Jr., will be looked at to lead the team on the court.
3. On a night when games like Central Arkansas-Stanford dominate the Pac-12 slate, no opening night Pac-12 game is anticipated more than Oregon-Vanderbilt. If it wasn’t for a certain game between North Carolina and Michigan State earlier in the evening, UO-VU would be the best game of the day. By far. The new-look Ducks, coming into the season with high expectations, will venture into Memorial Gymnasium Friday night to face the N0. 7 Commodores. The game is full of intrigue, but can the Ducks keep it close?  If their exhibition game last week against Grand Canyon is any indication, then no, Oregon will be lucky to be in it at halftime. But if the Ducks can build an early lead on some hot shooting, who kows, maybe we’ll be talking about a huge upset tomorrow morning.
4. Down the road in Corvallis on Saturday, the opponent might not be Vanderbilt, but the game will still be huge. It is the second annual Nike N7 Game, an event meant to bring sport to Native American and Aboriginal youth. Oregon State coach Craig Robinson and center Joe Burton (Who grew up in the Soboba Indian reservation) welcomed the idea, originally formed by Sam McCracken, manager of Nike’s Native American business. “We were looking for a cause to get behind, as a program,’’ Robinson said. “Coaches vs. cancer is everywhere – we didn’t think we’d be able to make an impact. We were very supportive, but we wanted something we could put our imprint on.” The game will tipoff at 1:30 PM PST against Cal State Bakersfield.
5. The battle for the Civapple Axellcup continues into its third week with me clinging on to a one game lead. The pick of the week last weekend belonged to Drew though, who not only correctly picked UCLA to beat Arizona State, but also picked them to win by one point. Low and behold, thanks to missed field goal at the gun, UCLA defeated the Sun Devils, 29-28. This week’s slate is highlighted by two games; Washington-USC and our “predict the score” game, Oregon-Stanford.

Here’s the picks:

Over the next two weeks, we’ll be previewing each of the Pac-12 teams as we head into the season.

Washington State Cougars

Strengths.  The Cougars return four starters from last year’s NIT Final Four team in junior guard Reggie Moore, senior guard Marcus Capers, and senior forward Abe Lodwick. However, the biggest contributions could come from the three incoming guards, Mike Ladd, DaVonte Lacy, and Dexter Kernich-Drew. Those three will be needed at the two guard since both Moore and Capers will be at the point. Coming into the season as a Top 50 shooting guard, Lacy is the star of the group. In their exhibition on Saturday against Lewis-Clark State, Lacy proved his value with a 21-point performance. The frontcourt will be held down by Lodwick (when he returns from a left foot injury), junior power forward Brock Motum, and junior center Steven Bjornstad. With Motum and Bjornstad at 6’10” and 6’11”, respectively, opposing defenses will have trouble matching up in the post.

Lacy has proved early on that he is the go-to guy at shooting guard

Weaknesses.  The Cougars lost two of their three best players from last year in forward DeAngleo Casto and guard Klay Thompson. Those two accounted for 45% of the 2010-11 Wazzu offense. The team will be tested early on with six of their first nine games away from Pullman. For a team that is looking to rreutrn to the NIT, that is a very tough start.

Nonconference Tests.  The Cougars have a relatively easy OOC slate, with only three games that should really challenge them. The first is their regular season opener at Gonzaga. The game will be played at 9:00 PM PST and is the first game of ESPN’s annual 25-Hour Tipoff Marathon. The next challenges will come in the second and third rounds of the 76 Classic down in Anaheim during Thanksgiving weekend. On Nov. 25 they will most likely meet New Mexico in the semifinals, and on Nov. 27 a championship meeting with Villanova looks to be in the cards.

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