The Texas Southern Tigers and the Oregon Ducks meet in college basketball action from the Matthew Knight Arena on Tuesday night.
The Texas Southern Tigers come into the 2021-22 season looking to replicate the success of 2020-21, finishing the year 17-9 overall, including 11-3 in SWAC conference play, finishing 3rd. As the 3-seed, the Tigers took down Alcorn State, Jackson State and Prairie View A&M on their way to winning the SWAC conference tournament title and the SWAC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers took down Mount St. Mary’s in the first four and as a 16-seed, the Tigers would fall to Michigan, ending their season. The Tigers have to go forward without 2020-21 leading scorer Michael Weathers, as he transferred to SMU, but the next three scorers are all back, including Galen Alexander (9.5 PPG, 4.7 RPG), Joirdon Karl Nicholas (10.9 PPG, 6.8 RPG) and John Walker III (12.2 PPG, 5.5 RPG). Despite losing Weathers, the Tigers were still voted as the preseason favorite to win the SWAC and ranked #1 in the conference heading into this season.
The Oregon Ducks will be looking to take the next step after a successful 2020-21 season that saw the Ducks finish 21-7 overall, including 14-4 in Pac-12 conference play to finish as the regular season champions in the conference. As the top seed in the Pac-12 tournament, Oregon took down Arizona State in the quarterfinals before losing in the semifinals to eventual champion and rival Oregon State. The Ducks were given a #7 seed and had the rare bye in the first round of the NCAA tournament as VCU was disqualified following a positive COVID test. The Ducks then beat Iowa before falling to USC in the Sweet Sixteen. The Ducks lost a bunch of top-tier talent from last year’s team, including Eugene Omoruyi, Chris Duarte, LJ Figueroa and Amauri Hardy but the Ducks knew what they were getting into, bringing in senior and grad transfers. Dana Altman hit the portal hard again, bringing in De’Vion Harmon (12.9 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 2 APG) and Quincy Guerrier (13.7 PPG, 8.4 RPG) from Syracuse as well as Jacob Young (14.1 PPG, 3.4 APG) from Rutgers. The Ducks also have the services of Will Richardson again (11.3 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 3.9 APG) and Eric Williams (10 PPG, 6 RPG) while also hoping for a clean bill of health from N’Faly Dante who tore his ACL early last season. UCLA is getting the spotlight in the Pac-12, but don’t forget about Oregon, who has a talent-laden roster filled with experienced players and high-ranked recruits.
Texas Southern is 6-0 ATS in their last 6 games overall and 5-0 ATS in their last 5 road games while the under is 6-0 in their last 6 Tuesday games. Oregon is 3-7 ATS in their last 10 Tuesday games while the over is 37-18-1 in their last 56 games overall.
I can understand not wanting to lay big numbers in the opening game of a season, especially with Oregon bringing in so many new faces. However, this is Dana Altman’s M.O. and he knows what he’s doing with all of his new players. Texas Southern will do well in the SWAC, but against a top-tier team like Oregon, I think they’re in trouble. Give me the Ducks and lay the points.