Six of the opponents participated in the 2011 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship, while another five took part in the postseason National Invitation Tournament. In addition to the Pac-12 Conference schools on the schedule, UO will battle teams from 11 different conferences: SEC, Big Sky, Ohio Valley, Big Ten, Conference-USA, West Coast, WAC, ACC, SWAC, MEAC and Southland.
Full schedule after the jump but the non-conference highlights are as follows: an extremely tough opener on the road against Vanderbilt, with the two other non-conference road games at Nebraska and at BYU. Home games of note include Virginia, UTEP, Fresno State, and Portland State. Of note in the Pac-12 schedule is that our game at Washington State is during winter break, and therefore being played in Spokane instead of Pullman. Also, we only play the Arizona and Los Angeles schools once, playing the LA schools at home and traveling to Arizona.
I have very mixed feelings on this schedule. Oregon was having trouble getting opponents, which is somewhat understandable--its a team talented enough to beat you, but not projected by many (at least before the midsummer transfers) as being a game you could lose without hurting your RPI. It put Oregon in a tough position as far as scheduling. On the other hand, Matthew Knight Arena was supposed to allow us to schedule some elite home games, but there is not an elite non-conference game on the schedule. All that said, while non of the names are sexy, there are some solid teams, quality enough that you could start to build a tournament resume with it even if you drop a game or two (depending on which games, of course).
I also have mixed feelings on the conference schedule. Obviously, playing the LA and Arizona schools only once each is akin to Utah missing Oregon and Stanford in football. It won't be great for our RPI, but it gives Oregon a huge advantage in the conference standings, and its a factor that, if the roster should come together, makes the Ducks a darkhorse conference title contender, or at least a contender for a top four finish.
Nov. 2 ... Grand Canyon State (EXH)
Nov. 6 ... Lewis and Clark (EXH)
Nov. 11 ... at Vanderbilt
Nov. 17 ... Eastern Washington
Nov. 20 ... SE Missouri State
Nov. 23 ... at Nebraska
Nov. 29 ... UTEP
Dec. 3 ... vs. BYU #
Dec. 10 ... Fresno State
Dec. 12 ... Portland State
Dec. 18 ... Virginia
Dec. 20 ... North Carolina Central $
Dec. 21 ... Prairie View A&M $
Dec. 22 ... Stephen F. Austin $
Dec. 29 ... at Washington State * %
Dec. 31 ... at Washington *
Jan. 5 ... Stanford *
Jan. 8 ... California *
Jan. 12 ... at Arizona State *
Jan. 14 ... at Arizona *
Jan. 19 ... USC *
Jan. 21 ... UCLA *
Jan. 29 ... Oregon State *
Feb. 2 ... at Utah *
Feb. 4 ... at Colorado *
Feb. 9 ... Washington *
Feb. 11 ... Washington State *
Feb. 16 ... at California *
Feb. 19 ... at Stanford *
Feb. 26 ... at Oregon State *
March 1 ... Colorado *
March 3 ... Utah *
March 7-10 ... Pac-12 Tournament