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Six Pac-12 teams received NCAA tournament bids in 2014, but such is the falloff this season after No. 7 Arizona and No. 9 Utah that the conference's third-place team is on the bubble for an at-large bid.
Sunday, hosting the Utes, may be Oregon's best remaining chance to prove it belongs.
Utah (21-4, 11-2 Pac-12) will enter Matthew Knight Arena as a 5 1/2-point favorite, riding a five-game conference win streak, and already assured of its best Pac-12 finish in school history.
That's good news for Oregon (19-8, 9-5), in need of a giant to slay.
But giants don't grow to be giants unless ...
Time, Place and [radio waves in] Space • Tipoff is 1 p.m. MT at $200 million-plus MKA, on a woods-themed floor that is one of college basketball's most unique and/or nauseating, depending on whom you ask. The game will air on Fox Sports 1, called by Aaron Goldsmith and Sean Elliott, and on ESPN 700 AM, called by Bill Riley and Jimmy Soto.
Opposing Coach • Dana Altman is in rare company with his 18 straight winning seasons as head coach at Creighton and Oregon: The only coaches with longer streaks are Mike Krzyzewski, Tom Izzo, Roy Williams, Bill Self, Jim Boeheim and Utah State's Stew Morrill. Oregon has a fifth-straight winning record for the first time in the team's 109-year history under Altman's guidance, and he's managed that in 2014-15 after losing 10 players last year.
Telling Stat • Oregon hits a conference-best .747 percent of free throws, and Utah is just 1-4 in games in which opponents shoot a majority of free throws. When the Ducks are fouled, they make teams pay the price — particularly Pac-12 leading scorer Joseph Young, who also leads the conference at the stripe with a .926 mark.
Pregame Quotable • On the strategy to stop Young, who averages 20.0 points, a wry Larry Krystkowiak: "Box-and-one, I think, is how we'll start. So you make sure that gets in the paper. Box-and-one."
Ducks Roster Overview • Young is the bell cow, having averaged 26 points over his last five games and possessing the ability to score from all ranges. Junior forward Elgin Cook (12.6 points, 5.6 rebounds) and senior guard Jalil Abdul-Bassit (starter of eight straight, hitting 44.1 percent of 3-point attempts) are the other rare second-year players on a team that's fielded 11 newcomers since last year's mass exodus. Key among those are freshman big man Jordan Bell, whose 75 blocks are a school record, and forward Dillon Brooks, whose 12.1 points per game are fourth-most among conference freshmen.
Something's Gotta Give • It's the Pac-12's leading offense, at 76.7 points per game, against its leading defense, at 55.6. In five games against the Pac-12's next-most prolific attacks, Utah's opponents have scored an average of 13 points below their usual.
Oregon's Edge • The Ducks have every reason to be highly motivated. Not only would an Oregon win go a long way toward locking up an at-large bid, but it's Senior Day for Young and Abdul-Bassit. Oregon generally fills just under half of MKA, with an average attendance a shade under 6,000, but the schools offering reduced-priced tickets to boost the Sunday afternoon crowd. The team will don new Nike uniforms, in true Oregon style, and the football team will be honored at halftime.
Utah's Edge • As usual, Utah's more well-rounded than its opponent. Utah is the only team ranked in the top 10 nationally in both offensive and defensive points per possession. The over-under of 133 1/2 is a far cry from the 84 points totaled by Utah and Oregon State on Thursday, but Utah has the elite defense to slow Oregon's offense. Oregon's 11th-in-the-Pac scoring defense may be outmatched by one of the nation's most efficient offenses. Utah shoots 49.5 percent from the field, and Oregon is 2-8 when its opponent shoots better than it does.
Watch Out For • Jakob Poeltl, Jeremy Olsen, Dallin Bachynski and Chris Reyes combined to score four points in 59 minutes on Thursday. To say the least, Utah will want better frontcourt production than that moving forward. Krystkowiak said Saturday that their effort was a factor, but that he couldn't blame them totally given that, "We had a lot of guys on the perimeter that decided for whatever reason not to throw it into the post."
— Matthew Piper
Twitter: @matthew_piper