Oregon’s first taste of March Madness since 2005 is finally hours — not days — away.

The Ducks, seeded No. 10 in the NCAA Tournament, square off against No. 7 Temple in Durham, North Carolina, later this afternoon (3:30 p.m., ESPN2). Oregon departed Eugene on Thursday and has had time to readjust from the cross-country trip.

Far away from home, the Ducks know they’ll have their hands full with Temple, which competes in the same conference as top-ranked UConn.

“They are just tenacious, they never quit on a play,” head coach Kelly Graves told The Register-Guard. “They are very consistent in how they crash the boards. (Tanaya) Atkinson is one of the best offensive rebounders I’ve seen, and we’ve played against some really good ones in (UCLA’s) Monique Billings and (Stanford’s) Erica McCall. … They play really hard and they can make plays on the glass. That’s obviously one of our keys.”

The Ducks, coming off an impressive showing in the Pac-12 Tournament, are hoping to win and advance. They would play the winner of No. 2 Duke and No. 15 Hampton on Monday with a win over the Owls. Ironically, the last time the Ducks were NCAA Tournament participants, in 2005, they were also the No. 10 seed. That year, they upended the No. 7 seed to advance to the second round.

“I’m excited more than anything. I didn’t sleep well the last couple of nights, but not because of stress or anything like that,” Graves said. “I’m just really excited to get going. I know the staff’s put in tireless amount of work. … I think we’re going to be ready.”

The Owls, led by dynamic backcourt play, finished the season 24-7, second in their league (behind UConn).

The Owls have four players who average double-digits scoring. Feyonda Fitzgerald (17.3 points and 7.3 assists), Alliysa Butts (15.1 points) Donnaizha Fountain (14.1 points and 7.5 rebounds) and Tanaya Atkinson (13.0 points and 8.5 rebounds) will challenge the Ducks this afternoon.

“They have a guard that we liken to Jordin Canada (UCLA),” Graves said. “She is phenomenal. We’ve just got slow them up in transition. If they get going, they can turn us over … They’re like jet planes — they’ll take off on us.”

Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu said it’ll be nice to play a non-Pac-12 team after wrapping up conference play.

“They don’t know our personnel, and we don’t know there’s,” Ionescu. “I think we’re just excited to start fresh with a team that we haven’t played against and see where that takes us.”

Graves said he will treat the trip as business as usual.

“Obviously they know what’s at stake,” Graves said. “It’s a bigger deal. But the reality is that it’s still a game, 40 minutes.”

Follow Jonathan Hawthorne on Twitter @Jon_Hawthorne

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