it's a historic night for each, making their Big Ten hoops debuts. On the floor, however, we refer to "Reasonable doubt," not in the legal sense, but le in hoops, too...such as relating to USC, and how good the Trojans might be. Evidence from last week at Palm Springs suggests not very, after losing by a combined 46 points vs. Saint Mary's and New Mexico. (The Lobos' 83-73 win margin deceives, as UNM was up 20 with just over five minutes to play when Richard Pitino began to make substitutions, and the Trojans made a belated rally). Eric Musselman's merry band of transfers are not meshing the way the Mus had hoped, perhaps because so many of the portal adds have a similar skill set. Not much differentiation between the weaponry.
Meanwhile, the Ducks have been impressing, just winning the Players Era Tourney in Las Vegas, beating teams like Texas A&M, San Diego State, and Alabama in the process. Dana Altman's troops are getting big production from 7-foot Nate Bittle (15 ppg), finally healthy after missing most of last season, while ex-Colorado G Keeshawn Barthelemy (scored 22 vs. Bama, 16 vs SDSU) has turned into an explosive sixth man. Play Oregon