It may not be the NCAA tournament, but the Ducks are still playing basketball, and that's always a good thing.

• The Ducks beat LSU last night 96-76 in the first round of the NIT. As Dave mentioned last night, the offense was phenomenal. Devoe Joseph was the offensive star, scoring 25 and hitting some big shots late to keep LSU at arms length. It's encouraging that the Ducks came out and played well, despite the disappointment of not making the NCAA tournament.
• OregonLive has a video recap of the game, and GoDucks.TV has an interview with Dana Altman.
• One of the players that has really stepped up recently (despite injury) is Tony Woods. He's scored 14 in two straight games, which is his career high. After struggling offensively for much of the season, Wood's emergence is huge moving into next season.
• In conference basketball news, the Pac-12 is officially moving the men's basketball tournament to Las Vegas. And UCLA will be keeping Ben Howland around for another season.
• The basketball team wasn't the only one to face SEC competition yesterday. the Oregon softball team hosted No. 1 Alabama yesterday at Howe Field. Unfortunately, after keeping it close for most of the game, Alabama exploded for 4 runs in the sixth inning to get a 5-1 win. Alabama's rally was led by Marist graduate Kayla Braud. The loss snaps No. 14 Oregon's 9-game winning streak, and they now sit at 18-4 with conference play started at OSU on Saturday.

Oregon will host Iowa in the second round of the NIT at 2pm on Sunday. I think that the screen grab on Black Heart Gold Pants' victory thread is a very good omen. GO DUCKS!