Zone Read PM: Oregon looks to NCAA Tournament, Blazers mull over playoff odds

Originally Posted on Emerald Media via UWIRE

Many college basketball analysts and Duck fans had Oregon slated somewhere between the eight and five seed for the NCAA tournament after winning the Pac-12 and getting their second win of the year over UCLA. Many of these same people were shocked when it was announced that the Ducks were handed a 12 seed. It seemed as though the committee was weighing the last two regular season games, losses to Colorado and Utah, over the three tournament victories.

However, analysts have already noted that Oregon could very well win this game. After all, the 12/5 seed matchup is a famous one. Often times sports fans look straight to the 12-5 games when filling out their bracket and looking for an upset.

Bob Clark of the Register Guard has more on why the Ducks might be fortunate to be a 12 seed.

Winning their first game against Oklahoma State is one thing, but looking down the road, according to the New York Times’ Nate Silver, the Ducks only have a .3 percent chance of making the Final Four.

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After a deflating, last second, one point loss for the Blazers last night against the 76ers, the Blazers find themselves in an undesirable position. Currently they hold the 11th slot in the Western Conference, three and a half games back from the eight seed Los Angeles Lakers. A late push into the playoffs is becoming less and less likely with each game, but they have shown they are likely too competitive to slip to the floor of the NBA. Joe Freeman of the Oregonian explains that if they don’t finish as a bottom 12 team, they will have to ship their first round draft pick to Charlotte.

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Nearly half of the NBA has started using SportVU, a camera system that tracks and records player movement in games. We know that they use this data to deconstruct the game in film sessions, but up until now, that was all we knew. NBA teams were very secretive about what they did with the date. Recently, the Toronto Raptors let Zach Lowe of Grantland in on the value of SportVU

Read more here: http://dailyemerald.com/2013/03/19/zone-read-pmoregon-looks-to-ncaa-tournament-blazers-mull-over-playoff-odds/
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