Oregon
Oregon is a Paper Tiger? Not Hardly
A lot of conclusions could be drawn from Oregon’s big win over Iowa on Saturday. Calling them a “paper tiger” is not one of them.
There is a bizarre opinion among some members of the national media and opposing fanbases that the Ducks haven’t played anyone. Apparently, September 27th was so long ago that it has completely left their memories.
Oregon has faced three ranked opponents so far this season. They have come away with two wins and a close loss to the #2 ranked Indiana Hoosiers at Autzen. They have faced injuries, torrential downpours, and nationally recognized hostile crowds… but I guess that’s not enough.
Oregon is a Paper Tiger?
They are if you believe Will Brackus of CBS Sports. He wrote, “Oregon will be exposed when it has to match up against one of the 12 best teams in the nation.” This is an interesting opinion. Was Oregon “exposed” against Indiana?
Offensively the Ducks certainly struggled in that game. Defensively they held the Hoosiers to 111 rushing yards and 215 passing yards. This is a team that’s currently averaging 232 yards on the ground and 255 yards for the air. They are 6th in the nation with 487 total yards of offense per game. Exposed?
Brackus continued, “The Ducks don’t have the best résumé thus far. Their admittedly gritty win on the road against No. 20 Iowa Saturday was their first triumph against a ranked team all season.”
I guess in an alternate universe the Ducks faced the #3 ranked Nittany Lions in a white-out at Beaver Stadium. They pulled off a massive win, in overtime, over a top 5 team on the road. They did it in an environment that everyone said was arguably the toughest in college football. That means nothing now, apparently.
His final statement was, “Oregon has done nothing to show that it will compete well on a national stage.”
This Team has Shown Nothing?
We could debate if you think the Ducks haven’t shown enough to prove they’re a true contender this season. To think that they have done nothing to show that they would compete well on a national stage is ludicrous.
Right now the Ducks are the 13th best offense, averaging 471 yards per game. Their passing has fallen off a bit because of weather and injuries to key positions. Their run game, however, is 6th in the nation averaging 240 yards per game.
Against the Iowa Hawkeyes, they put up 261 yards on the ground, averaging 7.3 yards per carry. This was the most total yardage that Iowa has given up since 2022. More impressively, it was the most yards per carry since 2014.
The Hawkeyes entered the game as the 3rd best defense in the nation in total yards allowed per game. They were 5th in passing yards allowed and 4th in total yards allowed. They had the 10th best run defense as well. This team was no pushover and it was on the road in the rain.
The Ducks are a physical, run first offense right now. They’re grinding out opponents and imposing their will in the trenches. This is not the Oregon Ducks of 15 years ago. The rest of college football has not woken up to that fact yet.
The Ducks have an Elite Defense
Even if you’re not ready to concede that Oregon has a solid offense, their defense is truly elite.
The Ducks are currently ranked 3rd in overall yards per game. They are #1 in passing defense, allowing only 126 yards through the air. Oregon is also 6th in points allowed per game at 14. They absolutely have a defense that could win a national championship right now.
PFF grades them as the 15th best defense but gives them the 4th best coverage grade in the nation (92.1). They are just barely behind Ohio State (92.2) and Alabama (92.3) on the season. The Ducks have been a no-fly zone for most of the season. They had a couple lapses against Iowa but overall teams have had a very difficult time throwing the ball.
This is not going to be an easy out for any team… regardless of their ranking.
AP Voters Still Doubt Them
Despite beating one of the best defenses in the country, Oregon fell in the AP poll on Sunday. It was clearly much more impressive that Ole Miss defeated The Citadel Bulldogs 49-0 at home. Those late season FCS opponents are always a good litmus test for how legitimate a team is in the rankings.
Oregon dropped to 7th in the AP, but at this juncture this ranking is completely irrelevant. The only ranking that matters are the playoff rankings and we won’t know those for a couple days. Funny enough, the coaches poll kept the Ducks at 6th.
With #7 BYU losing to #8 Texas Tech, and Oregon defeating the #20 ranked Hawkeyes, it’s likely that the Ducks will move up into the top 8. This is a good spot, as it would secure Oregon a home playoff game as long as they win out.
One thing to keep an eye on is USC for the rest of the season. The Ducks play the Trojans at home in a couple weeks whicch will most likely will be the final ranked team on their schedule. Washington dropped to Wisconsin at home on Saturday and will assuredly fall out of the rankings.
March Madness is underway and college basketball’s big dance continues with No. 8 seed Oregon taking on No. 9 seed Virginia Tech in a First Round matchup on Friday, March 20. Here’s everything you need to know to tune in for the clash between the Hokies and Ducks.
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What time is Virginia Tech vs Oregon First Round game?
No. 8 Oregon vs No. 9 Virginia Tech tips off at 1:30 PM (EST) on Friday, March 20 from Moody Center (Austin, Texas).
What channel is Virginia Tech vs Oregon First Round game?
No. 8 Oregon vs No. 9 Virginia Tech is airing live on ESPN2.
How to stream Virginia Tech vs Oregon First Round game
No. 8 Oregon vs No. 9 Virginia Tech is available to stream on Fubo.
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Sports Seriously
AUSTIN — Save your gripes about NCAA referees. Oregon women’s basketball guard Katie Fiso contended with much more hostile officiating conditions in her driveway.
Fiso grew up playing one-on-one against her twin brother in games so competitive that punches were sometimes thrown. As referee, their dad swallowed his whistle.
The family motto? “You don’t see no blood, there’s no foul,” Fiso said with a grin.
As Fiso stood outside Oregon’s locker room on Thursday and reminisced on those driveway battles, she admitted she never thought she’d be here: Putting together a breakout sophomore season and leading the No. 8 seed Ducks into a first-round NCAA Tournament game against No. 9 seed Virginia Tech on Friday.
It’s a bittersweet moment for Fiso, whose eyes fill with tears when she thinks of two people who aren’t here to witness it. Last winter, in the middle of Fiso’s freshman season at Oregon, her dad and her grandfather died within two weeks of each other.
Their memories will inspire Fiso when she takes the court for the Ducks this week.
“Basketball has always been an outlet for me, kind of like (to) get away from all this reality. When I step off the court, it’s like I step into the reality and realize he’s not here no more,” Fiso said. “I have a lot of passion for this game because I love it so much, so that’s where I get my love from. I do it for my dad, I do it for my grandpa, I do it for all these people, I do it for my family. So it’s very intentional when I’m on the court. I don’t take any moment for granted.”
Her father, Joseph Fiso was the one who taught Katie and her five siblings the value of hard work and grittiness on the basketball court. He woke them up at 6 a.m. every Saturday to go to the YMCA, where Katie played against boys much older than her and learned to stand her ground.
“I would always get pushed around, I would always get crowded so hard and my dad was like, ‘Hey, go harder at her!’” Fiso recalled. “Like, I would be in here getting D’d up by these old men. But I didn’t realize that it actually was helping me over time, in the long run.”
On Dec. 4, 2025, Joseph was in Eugene to attend Katie’s game. The morning of Oregon’s matchup against Washington State, Joseph Fiso died in his sleep at the hotel.
Grief threatened to swallow Katie whole. Basketball was a reminder of everything she and her dad shared.
Almost immediately after she found out about his death, Fiso got back in the gym to shoot hoops and clear her mind. She bawled her eyes out. Being on the court was at once painful and a relief, but Fiso learned to use the sport to tap into her emotions instead of to escape from them.
“I was definitely second-guessing myself and my worth,” Fiso said. “My mind was all over the place. Trying to be in the game and also dealing with life stuff was definitely difficult. So I took it upon myself over the summer to work on myself and not keep all those feelings inside, actually feel them. So that’s when I tapped in a lot to my faith and it gave me that confidence, that my worth is not in this basketball because it’s so fleeting and up and down, but it’s in someone who is always gonna love me and say ‘It’s OK, you’re always perfect in my eyes.’”
After playing 9.7 minutes per game and averaging 3.1 points off the bench for Oregon as a freshman, Fiso is now a full-time starter who leads Oregon in average minutes (32), points (15.3) and assists (6.3).
She’s playing with new confidence that accentuates the Ducks’ depth and allows her to feel free on the court. When she makes a mistake, she brushes it off and realizes that it doesn’t determine who she is as a basketball player.
“It’s a blessing to be here in this spot,” Fiso said. “Not a lot of people get this opportunity to be at this stage and play at this high level, so I’m thankful. I feel like all those days I was playing with my brothers and playing with my siblings, it helped me prepare for moments like this.”
Oregon coach Kelly Graves has known Fiso since her older brother was a practice player for Graves’ Gonzaga team. Graves followed Fiso’s career at Garfield High School in Seattle, where she won three state championships – a fourth was in reach before the pandemic prematurely ended the season – and was voted Washington state’s Gatorade Player of the Year.
Graves already knew Fiso’s potential when she arrived in Eugene, but he didn’t fully see it emerge until a breakout game at the end of her freshman season. In the 2025 NCAA Tournament, Fiso shot 4-of-6 from the field and scored eight points in 19 minutes in Oregon’s first-round win against Vanderbilt.
From there, Fiso only continued to build.
“I think once she realized, ‘Hey, this is kind of my team,’ you saw how she embraced that role,” Graves said. “Even though she’s just a sophomore, she’s the one that’s leading the group. She’s leading the huddles, leading practice, and that’ s not easy for someone her age, but she’s got it in her.”
Fiso is one of several Oregon players who adjusted to new roles this season. Sophomore forward Ehis Etute, the nation’s No. 2 offensive rebounder, and junior guard Ari Long both stepped into the starting lineup after coming off the bench last season. So did junior guard Sofia Bell, who spent last season getting her rhythm back after an injury curtailed her freshman season. Senior forward Mia Long, a transfer from Fresno State, is new to the program but provides a veteran presence.
“Our players have done a pretty good job of not just accepting their roles necessarily, because they can evolve and change, but executing them,” Graves said. “These are homegrown kids that again, didn’t play much. You look at Katie and Ehis, they had very small roles last year. Ari, a supportive role. Sofia Bell to some degree. And that’s four of our five starters so I’m proud of that. They have developed, they have gotten better, they figured out what they need to do to get playing time and they’re making the most of it.”
Fiso deftly balances her scoring responsibilities with slinging dart passes to her teammates. She ranked second nationally with seven points-assists double-doubles this season, the most by a Duck since Sabrina Ionescu in 2019-20.
“I would say I’m more of a finesse, get downhill type of girl, but I’m also a playmaker,” Fiso said. “I got a little swag in my game.”
Graves said Fiso shares intangibles with two of the prolific point guards he’s coached, Ionescu and Courtney Vandersloot.
“She’s got that same mentality and I think that’s why you’re seeing her succeed now,” Graves said. “But she’s still a work in progress. She’s got a long ways to go and she’s going to continue to get better and better, but she’s going to have a great pro future, I think.”
ESTACADA Ore. (KPTV) – According to Governor Tina Kotek, 100% of Oregon school districts have adopted a cell phone ban. On Wednesday, Kotek visited Estacada High School (EHS) to see her policy in action.
“Research tells us that constant cell phone use distracts from learning and can create mental health issues,” Kotek said. “For our students to thrive, we have to make every hour of class time as high-value as possible. Getting rid of distractions like cell phones is one way we can prioritize student success and transform our education system to get better results.”
Last summer, Kotek issued Executive Order 2509, which bans Oregon public school students from using their cell phones at school. The policy officially went into effect on Jan. 1.
According to Superintendent Ryan Carpenter, the Estacada School District has approximately 2,100 students, with 51% under the poverty line and 18% qualify for special education services. Carpenter said the majority of school districts in Oregon have these same statistics, making EHS a great spot for Kotek to see her policy in action.
Kotek visited two classrooms at EHS and received feedback from students about the cell phone ban. While some students said the ban has made it harder to research certain assignments in class or to coordinate after-school plans, overall, students said they’ve noticed positive impacts.
“At first, I wasn’t the biggest fan, but as the semester has gone on, I’ve found a lot more positivity in it,” said Sophia Morales-Meraz, a sophomore at EHS. “I find myself reaching less for my phone, having stronger connections and talking more to my classmates, and spending more time just really enjoying the moment.”
“I’m definitely more engaged in lessons with my teachers because I’m able to focus on what they’re saying…” said Cooper Skroch, a junior at EHS. “My attention span has gotten a lot better now that I don’t have to use my phone during the day.”
EHS teachers said they have noticed improvements, too. In addition to seeing more engagement from their students, language arts teacher Jeff Mellema said the policy has brought joy back to his career.
“I got into this profession because I like the one-on-one with kids, I like interacting with students,” Mellema said. “I like helping them along the process of their learning and this policy’s made that part easier.”
Without cell phones in schools, Carpenter said parents raised concerns about contacting their child in case of an emergency. But Kotek said school staff are prepared to bridge that communication gap and connect students with their parents, if needed.
Carpenter said the cell phone ban has not only resulted in higher attendance and graduation rates, but it’s also established a stronger sense of community at EHS.
“A lot of great things are happening,” Carpenter said. “We’re experiencing barriers in every child’s life and to remove cell phones is just one barrier to help us continue to get kids to be successful.”
After receiving feedback from students, Kotek told FOX 12 that she does not plan to make any changes to the policy moving forward.
Copyright 2026 KPTV-KPDX. All rights reserved.
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