Oregon baseball is in for another season with high expectations after Perfect Game ranked the Ducks No. 15 in their preseason top 25 poll.

Vanderbilt, the defending national champion, was a near-unanimous pick at the top of the poll, while UCLA is the highest ranked Pac-12 team at No. 5. Arizona State was placed at No. 20 and Stanford snuck into the rankings at No. 22.

Oregon’s out of conference schedule is headlined with a three game road series against No. 18 UC Santa Barbara at the end of February.

The Ducks starts their season on February 13 on the road against Hawaii.

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Oregon was overwhelmed from the get-go in a 80-62 loss to the No. 7 Arizona Wildcats on Thursday night at Matthew Knight Arena.

The Ducks (11-4, 1-1) were out-rebounded 40-27 and were held to a 39.3 percent clip from the field against a team with a significant height and talent advantage.

However, Oregon did have its chances to stay in the ball game. The Ducks trailed by just five points at halftime, but Arizona (14-1, 2-0) quickly extended its lead to double-digits after a handful of bad Oregon possessions to start the second half.

“We got out of whack,” head coach Dana Altman said. “We could never get that run going that we’d hoped for, that’s where they’re an experienced team and they really hurt us.”

Point guard T.J. McConnell found easy baskets against the Duck defense, scoring 21 points on 9-14 from the field, but Arizona’s biggest advantage came in the paint.

Center Kaleb Tarcewski shot 5-7 from the field for 11 points and brought down 10 boards, while freshman standout Stanley Johnson pitched in 14 and forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson added 13 to round out the Wildcat offense. Hollis-Jefferson and Johnson also reeled in nine and seven rebounds respectively.

The Wildcats’ length made its biggest impact on the defensive end of the floor. The Pac-12’s leading scorer Joseph Young was held to just a 4-15 shooting night for 12 points, well below his season average of 20.1 points per game.

As a team, Oregon was held to 4-20 from three point range and only converted 20 field goals throughout.

“We had some good looks, it just didn’t fall tonight,” freshman guard Casey Benson said. “But mainly we kind of beat ourselves in some areas. We just have to clean up the rebounding and when shots aren’t going we need to rely on our defense and defensive rebounding.”

Arizona added 24 points from the free throw line and picked up a noticeable edge in the foul count. Elgin Cook scored six points off of impressive dribble drives, but was held to 11 minutes because of foul trouble.

“We didn’t help ourselves,” Altman said. “You can’t do that against a good team.”

Every time Oregon made some headway into Arizona’s lead, the Wildcats responded with a well-executed possession for an easy basket, or turned the Ducks over. Arizona shot 48 percent from the field for the night and picked up seven steals to keep the lead in tact.

Jordan Bell, who was pitted against Brandon Ashley and Tarczewski for most of the game, picked up his 51st block of the season against the Wildcats, tying the Oregon single season record for blocked shots.

The Ducks will have to regroup quickly and prepare to Arizona State on Saturday afternoon at Matthew Knight Arena.

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After a month long break, No. 1 Oregon men’s golf will send Thomas Lim, Brandon McIver and Aaron Wise to the fourth annual Patriot All-America tournament at The Wigwam golf course in Litchfield Park, Arizona Dec. 29-31.

The 54-hole tournament features several top-100 collegiate golfers from the United States as well as a handful of international participants.

In cooperation with the Folds of Honor Foundation, each golfer will represent a fallen military service member. Lim will represent Sergeant 1st Class Richard J. Henkes, II. McIver will represent Captain Thomas Gramith and Wise will represent Sergeant Nicholas R. Sowinski.

Lim finished third in last year’s tournament, while McIver and Wise will be making their first appearances in the event.

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Martenne Bettendorf was named to the Third Team All-America team by the American Volleyball Coaches Association on Wednesday.

The junior outside hitter led Oregon in kills per set (3.52) and finished third on the team in blocks (0.73 per set). Bettendorf was also featured on the All-Pac-12 team, as well as the AVCA All-Pacific North Region team.

Bettendorf is just the eighth All-American in school history and marks the fourth consecutive year a Duck has been named to the AVCA All-America team.

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– Marcus Mariota had a memorable weekend, bringing home a plethora of awards including the Heisman trophy, becoming the first Duck to ever win the trophy. Check out the Emerald’s feature piece on Mariota here.

– After dropping its Sweet 16 matchup to North Carolina, Oregon volleyball’s season has come to a close. The Emerald’s Kenny Jacoby recapped the up-and-down season and previewed the immensely talented 2015 team.

– Oregon men’s basketball picked up a big out-of-conference road win against No. 25 Illinois in Chicago.

– Oregon women’s basketball survived a power outage at Matthew Knight Arena and defeated NAU 59-47.

– Oregon freshman running back Royce Freeman was named an ESPN freshman All-American. Freeman was also named a first team Scout All-American while fellow freshman Charles Nelson was named a second team freshman All-American returner.

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The Oregon men’s basketball team used some of its depth to overcome another slow start and defeat Concordia 94-63 on Wednesday night at Matthew Knight Arena.

Five Ducks finished in double-figures and the team shot 52.5 percent (42-80) on the night in the lopsided matchup, but a sloppy start gave Oregon (5-2) head coach Dana Altman plenty of things to worry about.

“Teams that focus in on what they’re about to face and know that they’ve got challenges ahead show maturity, then they realize that they’ve got to make steps every time out,” Altman said. “We’ve got to play a lot better; offensively we have to get a lot better, defensively we’ve got to tie a lot of things up. I was hoping to get some of that accomplished tonight and I don’t feel like we did.”

Most of Altman’s concerns stemmed from high turnover numbers (16) and multiple dysfunctional offensive possessions, as Oregon shot just 1-16 from three point range in the first half.

“I don’t think we were playing as a team at first,” Ahmaad Rorie said. “We were forcing up threes when we should have really just been getting to the rack and play inside-out. If we would have been doing that, we would have been a lot more successful.”

While Oregon shot just 5-26 from three against Concordia, it did shoot 37-54 (68 percent) from two point range as the team readjusted to that inside-out mantra.

Joseph Young contributed to the poor tally, going 0-5 from deep, but still found a way to lead the Ducks offensively with 20 points on 10-18 shooting.

Jordan Bell continued to show his improvement with a solid night on both ends of the court. The freshman forward had 10 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks, providing a glimpse into the versatile Bell’s bright future.

Bell’s front-court cohort Dillon Brooks picked up his second double-double of his career with 14 points and 11 rebounds. The play of both Bell and Brooks will be integral to Oregon’s success down the road in Pac-12 play.

Dwayne Benjamin made his return to the court after nursing an ankle injury over the past two games and contributed 11 points with 6 rebounds.

“I thought he was a little rusty with a few of his turnovers,” Altman said. “But I thought he did some good things.”

Elgin Cook, who went 9-10 from the field, ended up being Oregon’s most efficient player and finished second in scoring with 19 points and eight rebounds.

Up next, Oregon hosts Ole Miss on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Matthew Knight Arena, a team that is itching to revenge its overtime loss to the Ducks at home last season.

“They’re doing some different things defensively with the 1-3-1 zone,” Altman said. “We’ll need two good days to get ready for them, there’s no doubt about that.”

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TCU moved into the top four and jumped Florida State in the penultimate College Football Playoff Rankings.

Alabama and Oregon kept the top two spots, while TCU replaced Mississippi State following the Bulldogs’ loss to Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl. The Horned Frogs also jumped past undefeated Florida State in the process.

The Seminoles have limped through the bulk of their relatively weak ACC schedule and have needed several second half comebacks to keep their 28-game winning streak alive, giving the committee a reason to demote them in the rankings.

Ohio State moved up to No. 5, while Baylor sits right behind them at No. 6. The Bears defeated TCU earlier in the season, but dropped to unranked West Virginia a few weeks later, marking the committee’s thought process for ranking TCU ahead of Baylor.

Ole Miss was the biggest mover in this week’s rankings, having moved from No. 19 to No. 12, while UCLA represented the biggest drop after falling from No. 8 to No. 15. No. 24 LSU and No. 25 USC both reentered the poll, replacing Minnesota and Marshall.

Each of the top four teams play their final games of the season this weekend. No. 2 Oregon plays No. 7 Arizona in the Pac-12 championship on Friday, then No. 1 Alabama faces No. 16 Missouri in the SEC championship, No. 4 Florida State faces No. 11 Georgia Tech in the ACC championship and TCU hosts 2-9 Iowa State on Saturday.

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– After Arizona emerged as the Pac-12 south champion, Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich spoke with the media about having to break the team’s two-year skid against the Wildcats with a playoff bid and a conference championship on the line.

– Oregon’s dominant Civil War victory proved that the team is hitting its stride at the right time.

– Marcus Mariota and Erick Dargan earned team MVP honors at Oregon football’s annual banquet.

– Jordan Bell’s six blocks propelled Oregon men’s basketball to a bounce-back win over Portland State on Sunday.

– Oregon volleyball earned a national seed for the upcoming NCAA Tournament and will host the first and second rounds at Matthew Knight Arena.

– Oregon women’s basketball dropped the finale of the South Point Shootout to American.

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Ryon Healy is back at the University of Oregon to finish his degree in applied business and economics. The former Oregon first baseman was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the third round of the 2013 MLB June Amateur Draft and has worked his way up to Oakland’s high-A team in Stockton, where he posted a .285/.318/.428 clip in the 2014 season.

The Emerald got a chance to catch up with the former Duck and talk about his time back on campus and his experiences in the minor league system.

Did the A’s push you to come back to school, or was this something that you already had planned?

They give you an option when you sign to go on the scholarship program. They’ll actually pay for the rest of your schooling. It’s on the preference of the player — when they want to do it, how soon — so my preference was that I wanted to get it done because I only had two quarters left and I wanted to get it done as quickly as possible. After this term I’ll actually be graduated and won’t have to worry about it down the road.

What are the biggest differences between Pac-12 and professional baseball?

One thing I notice is how often we play. I wouldn’t say the talent level is a lot better than what we see in the Pac-12 because it’s one of the best conferences in the country, but I’d say there’s a consistent level of competition. I mean, you’re facing everybody’s best guys from all over the country every given day.

The competitive edge is a lot surer. Everyone is very similar in talent levels. I feel like the preparation to get yourself ready to play on a daily basis is the most challenging. In professional baseball you could play 29 games in a month, so being able to wake up every day, get your mind right, is probably the most important aspect.

Does it feel more like a job? Or are you still going out there to play baseball for fun?

It’s a little give and take in both of those categories. It’s definitely a job because I need to show up for work every day ready to go no matter how my body feels. You need to find a way to grind it out. Sometimes the excitement factor isn’t there — the adrenaline isn’t there as often as it is in college — but that’s where the maturity of it comes in too, where you need to be ready to play no matter how you feel mentally or physically.

Do you have any minor league travel horror stories?

Luckily — knock on wood — I haven’t had any, but I’ve had teammates that have. We show up to a random city and we go into a hotel room and there’s only one bed, so guys are having to share beds. When you have grown men sharing beds it makes for a terrible atmosphere, but luckily I wasn’t one of those guys. I don’t think there’s been anything terrible yet, but once again, knock on wood, I don’t want to jinx it.

Have the A’s given you any sort of timeline for your future in the organization?

The A’s are going to do what’s best for them. As long as I perform the way that I know I’m capable of, you’ve just got to hope for the best and hope for as soon as possible. Until then I’m going to enjoy every minute of what I’m doing and do what I can: control what I can control.

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