Here are some facts.

Five Pac-12 teams received invites to the Big Dance. Two of them — UCLA and Arizona — got six seed, Colorado got a 10 seed and Cal a 12.

Bringing up the rear, somehow, is the team that led the conference until the final day of the season and won the conference tournament. The selection committee gave Oregon a 12 seed (technically one slot lower than fellow 12 seed Cal) despite the fact that the Ducks were the team to beat in the Pac-12 all season.

Sure, Oregon was swept by Cal and Colorado and the Ducks were no doubt hurt by stumbling down the stretch. The word on the street was that the selection committee would be willing to overlook some of the losses the Ducks without Dominic Artis, but Oregon’s o-fer on the last weekend of the season must have been a devastating blow to their resume. Admittedly, Oregon didn’t have the world’s strongest out-of-conference schedule but a 12 seed still seems almost shocking.

If the Ducks are a 12 seed even after winning their conference tournament, it’s worth asking if the Ducks would have gotten a bid at all without winning the conference title. And that’s a ludicrous question.

Consider that Oregon beat six-seed UCLA twice without the benefit of home court advantage and that the Ducks also beat UNLV — a fifth seed — on the road and Arizona at home. Despite this 4-0 record against a group of five and six seeds and three wins in the Pac-12 tournament, the selection committee seems stuck on the Ducks’ losses.

But any seed is better than no seed at all, and Oregon is saying all of the right things. Dana Altman says the Ducks don’t care who they play in the first round. E.J. Singler insists that Oregon doesn’t feel disrespected by the low seed.

“We know how good we are,” Singler said. “That’s all that matters. People will have different opinions.”

The Ducks will open against Oklahoma State, and as downright confusing as it seems that Oregon got such a low seed, there are some positives.

If Oregon had a slightly higher seed, the team might not be playing so close to home — Oregon opens in San Jose — and the Ducks would be set up to potentially play the number one overall seed in the second round. The brackets still work out so that Oregon would play the Louisville Cardinals if both teams advanced past the Sweet Sixteen and at this point in the year there are no easy games.

“At this point there’s not many bad teams,” Altman said.

There wasn’t supposed to be any drama for Oregon on Selection Sunday. The Ducks won the Pac-12 tournament, so they earned an automatic bid to the Big Dance. All that remained was the question of where Oregon would be seeded. The selection committee decided Oregon was worthy of just a 12 seed while giving UCLA and Arizona  six seeds despite the fact that Oregon beat UCLA twice and UCLA beat Arizona three times.

The Ducks will open against Oklahoma State, and despite what many are calling an unfavorable seeding, the Ducks say they don’t care who they play in the NCAA tournament as long as they’re on the dance floor.

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The Ducks first round match up will be a meeting of some of the better underclassmen guards in the nation as Oregon’s backcourt of Dominic Artis and Damyean Dotson meet Big-12 Player of the Year Marcus Smart. The Cowboys picked up an at-large bid after falling to Kansas State in the Big-12 tournament semis.

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If your silly science professors insist that humans can’t fly, counter with this.

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Finally, because it’s Finals Week and you’re probably stuck at the library, here are 34 Saint Bernards going for a walk in the snow.

Oregon punched its ticket to the Big Dance Saturday night and learned the first round opponent today when the 2013 NCAA Tournament bracket was officially unveiled. The Ducks are the 12 seed in the Midwest Regional and will open against the fifth seeded Oklahoma State in San Jose.

It’s the first NCAA Tournament appearance for Oregon since 2008, but it’s the third-straight postseason appearance in the Dana Altman era after a CBI championship in 2011 and an NIT bid last season. A win in the first round would pit the Ducks against either New Mexico State or St. Louis in the second round for a trip to the Sweet 16 — a feat Altman has yet to accomplish in his career.

UCLA, a team that Oregon beat twice — once in Los Angeles and again in the Pac-12 Tournament championship — was announced as a six seed. The Bruins will take on 11 seed Minnesota in the first round.

Everybody talked about the homecoming for UCLA superstar Shabazz Muhammad. But it was another Vegas native, Oregon’s Johnathan Loyd, who stole the show playing in his hometown and led his team to a win in the Pac-12 Tournament final.

He was the subject of much criticism when he was forced to take over for Dominic Artis, but he seemed to come into his own in the last few games of the season and in the Ducks first two Pac-12 tourney games.

The eventual tournament MVP was a big part of the offensive success in the first half — once they overcame a sluggish start, that is — and hit clutch shot after clutch shot, including a late layup that added an exclamation mark to the championship clinching win. He finished with 19 points on 8-of-14 shooting — all while coming off the bench.

He also had a pair of huge three pointers in the first half. After a sloppy, turnover-filled start saw the Ducks down 12-4 early on, he followed up two straight makes from Carlos Emory, with a three pointer of his own to cut the UCLA lead to one and force Ben Howland to take a timeout. Less than two minutes later with Oregon down just one, Loyd came up with a steal that set up Emory for a dunk — but he missed. Oregon retained possession, though, and Loyd buried another three to get the lead.

UCLA would answer right back and tie it, but another of his jumpers pushed the Ducks ahead to 20-18, which they wouldn’t relinquish for the rest of the night.

The win gives Oregon — already previously projected to receive an invite — an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007. It’s the third-straight postseason appearance in just three years of the Dana Altman era after a CBI title in 2011 and a deep run into the NIT in 2012.

More importantly, the Ducks’ three wins in Sin City should go a long way toward making the selection committee forget about their tripping across the finish line of the regular season.

Oregon’s conference title is also a poetic end to a storybook season: When the Ducks stunned the Wildcats early in the season, a straight-faced E.J. Singler said after the game, “It’s not a high point — we got a lot of season left, and we got some goals we want to accomplish.”

When asked to elaborate, Singler stated the goal plainly: “Win the Pac-12.”

That extra day of rest the Ducks had by virtue of earning a first round bye looked to have made a big difference on Friday night. Utah played its third game in as many days, and Oregon pounced, taking advantage of the exhausted team en route to the 64-45 victory in the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals.

Oregon held Utah to just 15 points in the first 10 minutes and dominated on the glass, keeping them to just 10 total rebounds in the first half — and zero offensive boards. It was the best first half of the season for Oregon defensively, and it included scoring droughts of five, three and two minutes for Utah.

“I thought we played really well in the first half defensively,” Oregon head coach Dana Altman said. “We didn’t want to give up easy baskets.”

The Ducks also played a remarkably clean first half and kept the Utes away from the free throw line for the first twenty minutes — or maybe it was just the referees swallowing their whistles as Oregon, too, did not attempt a free throw in the first half.

The Ducks stumbled early on in the second half and allowed the Utes to get back into the game. But once they were within eight points, Oregon went on another run and won the game in blowout fashion.

“We had some bad turnovers in the second half,” E.J. Singler said. “But down the stretch, our guys were really tough and fought, and we just got the job done.”

For the game, Oregon held Utah to less than 30 percent on 15-of-51 shooting. Most noticeably, Utah’s leading scorer, Jarred DuBois — the same DuBois who’s buzzer-beating three sent the Utes to overtime Thursday night — was held scoreless on eight field goal attempts.

Oregon also forced 17 Utah turnovers on the night, eight coming by steals.

In overtime games, experienced players need to step up — or so go the cliches.

In the Ducks’ 80-77, extra-session win over Washington — their third of the year over the archrivals to the north — that player was Arsalan Kazemi, who took over single-handedly, scoring 11 of his 14 points after the end of the second half.

The flip side to that math, however, is that he notched only three points in the first 40 minutes of play, leading to much more time on the bench for him and an increased workload for Ben Carter. Kazemi’s three-point outing came after less-than-stellar nights against Colorado and Utah, too, but Oregon head coach Dana Altman said he hadn’t lost faith in him.

“While I was sitting on the bench,” Kazemi said, “I was just hoping, hoping he would put me back in the game.”

Altman did go with him in overtime — and it paid off.

“I thought he played his tail off,” Altman said. “Took the ball to the basket, made some free throws, got us some big boards. I thought overtime was the best five minute period, no doubt.”

Kazemi didn’t just score nine points in overtime — he scored nine-straight points for the Ducks, setting them up on a 9-2 run that allowed the team to take control of the game. Included in the run was a fast-break dunk where he took a behind-the-back pass from Johnathan Loyd. It was a reminder of how good the Ducks have looked at times this season, but these types of points were a rarity for Oregon on the night.

The win sets Oregon up to play Utah Friday at 8:30 p.m. after the latter upset Cal earlier on Thursday.

In their final tune-up before Pac-12 play begins this weekend, Oregon came alive offensively for a 10-4 win against Texas State to sweep the two game series.

Oregon trailed early after the Bobcats scored three runs off Cole Wiper in the second inning, chasing the freshman from the mound after just two innings of work, but the Ducks would waste little time in mounting the comeback.

“Cole’s just not missing many barrels right now,” George Horton said. “He’s going to have to continue to get better and maybe get some movement on his pitches.”

The Ducks made it 3-2 after three innings with a few fortuitous events in the third. First, Connor Hofmann scored on a balk by Jeremy Hallonquist, then Scott Heineman came home on the next pitch as Hallonquist bounced it passed his catcher.

An inning later the Ducks scored four times to take control of the game on a pair of two-RBI hits from J.J. Altobelli and Aaron Payne. Once again it was a case of Texas State helping out the Ducks with a pair of errors, and only two of the Ducks’ four runs in the frame were earned runs.

“It’s always nice to come up with a big hit and score some runs,” Altobelli said.

The Bobcats brought in another arm in the sixth inning but still couldn’t keep the Ducks from plating two runs, this time on an RBI from Ryon Healy and Brett Thomas.

Oregon too used a staff effort on the mound, with six pitchers throwing at least a frame for George Horton. Cole Wiper got the start and was hit relatively hard, giving up six hits and surrendering three runs in six outs of work. Jordan Spencer turned in two innings of his own and Sam Johnson, Derek Smith, Jared Priestley and Clayton Crum pitched in an inning each before Darrell Hunter tossed the ninth, giving Ducks closer Jimmie Sherfy the night off.

The bullpen was strong, holding Texas State to just one run on three hits and limiting the damage of four walks by bullpen pitchers. The pitching-by-committee approach also allowed Horton to give innings to three pitchers — Sam Johnson, Derek Smith and Jared Priestley — who made their season debuts on Wednesday.

“Some of them looked like it was their first outing,” Horton said. “But you’ve got to start somewhere.”

Oregon starts Pac-12 play at USC this weekend, which means a change in weather.

“Even though a lot of the kids are from Southern California,” Horton said, “we’re north westerners and Oregonians and depending on how hot it is, we’ve melted there before.”

Dana Altman has been named the John Wooden Coach of the Year by the Pac-12 Conference, the University of Oregon athletic department tweeted today:

Dana Altman named John Wooden Coach of the Year by the Pac-12 Conference #GoDucks #UnitedWeBall

— UO Men’s Basketball (@OregonMBB) March 11, 2013

Altman’s Ducks were projected to finish in the middle of the Pac-12 race but became one of the storylines of the Pac-12 season, jumping out to a 7-0 start to conference play before Dominic Artis went down. Oregon finished second in the conference and earned a first-round bye in the Pac-12 Tournament.

It’s the fifth different conference Coach of the Year award for Altman, who has been recognized in four conferences.

E.J. Singler was also named First Team All-Pac-12, Damyean Dotson was on the Pac-12 All-Freshmen Team and Arsalan Kazemi was named to the Pac-12 All-Defensive Team.

Oregon batted around in the eighth inning despite recording just one hit in the frame to notch a come-from-behind win over Vanderbilt, wining 7-5.

“We found a way to win,” head coach George Horton said.

Both teams loaded the bases before recording an out in the first inning, but both were held to just one run.

Oregon’s first inning was particularly characteristic of Horton’s coaching approach, with Scott Heineman, Aaron Payne and Ryon Healy all reaching on bunts to begin the frame before Brett Thomas hit a sacrifice fly to level the score at one. Thomas would get another RBI in the third inning, this time by singling in Healy after the first basemen doubled to the deepest part of the park.

After dropping the first two games of the series in a frustrating fashion, Oregon’s hitters felt relieved to get back into the swing of things on Sunday.

“We had a good talk with the players today and the coaches to kind of put that to rest” Brett Thomas said.

Thomas said the Ducks are focusing on playing more as a team intent on setting each other up instead of trying to do everything individually.

“We’re just trying to get the next Duck up,” Thomas said.

Oregon would again fall behind in the middle innings as Vanderbilt scored twice in the fifth and once in the sixth on a home run from Mike Yastrzemski — grandson of Carl Yastrzemski — that may well have traveled farther than 400 feet.

The Ducks would send ten men to the plate in the bottom half of the eighth inning though and plate five runs to take a 7-5 lead. Oregon leveled the score without the benefit of a hit turning walks, hit batsmen and errors into three runs before a bases loaded hit from Scott Heineman singled home the two winning runs. Vanderbilt used five pitchers in the inning as Oregon eked out the five-spot.

“That’s the epitome of Duck baseball,” Brett Thomas said, “and we love that.”

Jimmie Sherfy then slammed the door in the ninth to earn the win on the mound after he was inserted in the 8th inning in relief of freshman Cole Irvin, who threw 7.2 innings and struck out five.

“I thought he pitched okay,” Horton said. “When I went out to him after (Vanderbilt hit two straight doubles) I thought it was a case of him executing two pitches that I called wrong.”

Horton did say he felt Irvin may have thrown a few too many pitches in the strike zone once he got ahead in counts, but added that throwing too many strikes is obviously better than throwing too few.

Oregon returns to PK Park on Tuesday to begin a two-game set with Texas State. Jeff Gold will get the start on the bump for the Ducks.

Another year, another national title.

Head coach Robert Johnson and the women of Oregon captured their fourth consecutive NCAA indoor track and field title on Saturday, just barely edging Kansas and LSU in the final event of the evening.

Oregon was neck-and-neck with Kansas in the points race entering the 4×400 meter relay despite not having won an event on the day, and the Ducks ran a school record time of 3:30.22 to win their heat and put the pressure on Kansas to run an equally blistering time in their heat, and the Jayhawks finished third in heat two, locking up the title for the Duck women.

More to come.