Oregon Falls Apart During January, Pac-12 Taking Shape

The Oregon Ducks continue their struggle in the Pac-12, which has reshaped the look of the conference from second place to last place.

Oregon suffered through its worst month of the season following a loss at home to UCLA 70-68 on Thursday. Oregon entered 2014 as an unbeaten team.

The Ducks started their season with a win over Georgetown, then routed overmatched opponents at home and continued to win versus Ole Miss, BYU, Illinois and others.

Joseph Young a transfer from Houston and Mike Moser a transfer from UNLV carried the team through the first half of the season in an up-tempo style offense that scored over 100 points in four games.

As the New Year dawned, the Duck flew to Utah and opened their Pac-12 conference schedule with a win. With the exception of Arizona, ranked No. 1 in the nation, no team looked as strong in the West as Oregon did.

In addition, much of the first half of the season for Oregon was played without Ben Carter and Dominic Artis. With both players back, Oregon stretched its unbeaten record to 14-0 and looked like a legitimate contender for second place in the Pac-12.

However, since that point, the Ducks have lost their wings going 1-6 over their past 7 games. Its first three losses included a loss on the road to Colorado and a pair of losses at home to Cal and Stanford. Those three could be forgivable due to the quality of the competition.

Then two losses to Washington and Oregon State which were not so forgivable. Oregon went 0-5 before it routed the Washington State Cougars

However, Oregon’s January miseries continued when UCLA led by Kyle Anderson defeated the Ducks to end a horrific month and any hope competing in the Pac-12.

UCLA following its win over Oregon is considered the conference’s second best team, or have you forgotten about Arizona?

Arizona State could be considered as a top 2 or 3 in the conference as well as Stanford and Cal. However, UCLA has defeated all of those teams during January.

With Arizona the No. 1 team by far in the conference and currently in the nation, the rest of the conference looks to be shaping up. UCLA is now 16-4 overall and has not experienced a poor loss to date. They have proven to be a step above the group of Arizona State, Stanford and Cal.

The Ducks are headed south and if they do not find a defense and a resurgence on offense, they could be at the bottom of the heap at season’s end.

The rest of the conference schedule is shaping to be a big battle for second place bragging rights as the Arizona Wildcats look like a lock to win the conference after being voted No. 1 for the eighth consecutive week on Monday.

The conference has the talent to send as many as four teams to March Madness if they do not knock each other out of postseason possibilities when they meet head to head in conference play.