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Oregon makes it first back-to-back appearance in the NCAA Tournament as they take on the No. 10 seed BYU Cougars in Milwaukee at 12:10 PT on TruTv. The game marks a rare regular season rematch in the NCAA's second round, as the Ducks topped the Cougars 100-96 in overtime on December 21 at Matthew Knight Arena.
If you like offense, you'll like these two teams both rank in the top 11 in the country in scoring, with BYU averaging 84.2 ppg while Oregon scores 81.8 ppg. It's also worth noting that neither squad plays a lick of defense. Much like the first affair between the two teams, it should be up and down with a lot of scoring--and may come down to who has the ball last.
BYU will face adversity in this contest as they lost their starting point guard, Kyle Collinsworth, with a torn ACL in the WCC title game. Collinsworth averaged 14 points and 8 rebounds a game, and the Cougars will have to replace him in the NCAA Tournament without a warm up game to get ready. That said, there is still plenty of firepower on the BYU squad, starting with guard Tyler Haws. The 6'5" guard averaged 23.4 points per game this season, and has as good a midrange game as you'll see in the country. He went for 32 against Oregon in December.
A major key to the game for Oregon will be on the boards. The Cougars are a very good rebounding team, whereas Oregon is not. The Ducks were outrebounded by 11 in the previous matchup, and only 18 BYU turnovers allowed Oregon to match the Cougars on possessions.
The winner of this matchup will face the winner of Wisconsin and American in the third round.
This is your open thread. GO DUCKS!