The Oregon men are gradually moving up the rankings as they continue winning, and my question is..."how much better can they be?"  Dana Altman believes there a ton more upside, so perhaps a top-ten is possible with this team?

The Women slipped from No. 8 to No. 11 and will probably slip further if/when they lose to No. 1 ranked Stanford on Friday.  Yet I believe by the end of the season--they will be in the top ten again.  Pretty powerful conference with Stanford at No. 1, Arizona at No. 7, UCLA at No. 9 and Oregon at No. 11.  Whew!

Thoughts?
 

16 minutes ago, Charles Fischer said:

The Women slipped from No. 8 to No. 11 and will probably slip further if/when they lose to No. 1 ranked Stanford on Friday.  Yet I believe by the end of the season--they will be in the top ten again. 

This is exactly right. The Lady Ducks could lose some battles, but at the end will be just fine. UCLA played great, probably as good as they can. Oregon was off its game, missing key players, and still almost won!
The men too are missing players, notably PG, Will Richardson, but they are playing great basketball now, and will only get better. 

I think if the Ducks lose to Stanford by less than 10, I don't see a reason to drop them.  Maybe, have Arkansas move ahead of them because they do play #8 Texas A&M, but if Texas A&M loses to a team ranked below them, I'd keep the Ducks ahead of them if they play a good game, but lose to Stanford.  Ducks have more than enough talent to beat Stanford, so I don't think it is a given they lose to them.

Losses can be more important than wins to a young team. This women's basketball team has a whole lot of youth and a loss can help build up their grit and determination to take on a beat a team like Stanford. Incredibly valuable in the long run.

36 minutes ago, Tandaian said:

Ducks have more than enough talent to beat Stanford, so I don't think it is a given they lose to them.

They definitely have the talent, just like they did against UCLA. But, the Ducks need all that talent to execute properly, for the entire game. The Ducks currently have a 3 game winning streak over the Cardinal; in the last 9 games, the Ducks have a 5-4 lead. During that span, Oregon is 2-1 @ Stanford, and 1-2 @ Oregon. In the conference tournament, Oregon leads 2-1.