Oregon coach Altman on stunning No. 12 seed
by Nicole Auerbach, USA TODAY Sports
Oregon won the Pac-12 tournament, spent most of the season ranked and beat UCLA twice this season. For all of that, the Ducks were rewarded by the NCAA tournament selection committee with … a 12 seed?!
As Twitter buzzed and people debated the low seed, Oregon coach Dana Altman simply prepared to get some film on Oklahoma State and start preparing for the Ducks’ next game. He didn’t mind the perceived seeding snub.
“No big deal,” Altman told USA TODAY Sports Sunday night. “There are all good teams in the tournament. It didn’t matter. You get between (No.) 6 and 12 (seeds), and I’m not sure it matters. So, no big deal. … You’ve got to go win games, that’s all it boils down to.”
Altman said he wasn’t surprised by the seeding because he “had no idea” what to expect heading into Selection Sunday. He also wouldn’t speculate about his team’s odds on missing the NCAA tournament had it not won the league tournament – an apparent possibility considering its surprisingly low seed.
“I have no idea,” he said, laughing. “Whatever the committee decides, they decide. It’s not an exact science. A lot of teams have tried to figure out over the years what the heck they were thinking, and I don’t even want to try to think about it.”
What’s interesting about Oregon’s seed is that a Pac-12 team it beat twice this season – UCLA – received a No. 6 seed. So did Arizona, another team the Ducks defeated this year and tied for second in the conference regular season – one game behind the Bruins.
But Oregon did lose six league games, though four of them came while point guard Dominic Artis was out with a foot injury. Still, the selection committee clearly didn’t look too kindly upon the Ducks — though their spot in the field of 68 was never in doubt, according to NCAA selection committee chairman Mike Bobinski.
“Absolutely they were in the field,” Bobinski said. “They’d been voted in a couple votes before our last. They ended up at a 12 because of, without going into … [For more on Oregon coach Dana Altman on stunning No. 12 seed: No big deal, click here.]
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