University of Connecticut Athletics
UConn MBB To Meet Oregon In First Round Of PKI
7/25/2022 12:16:00 PM | Men's Basketball
UConn Athletic Communications / July 25, 2022
The UConn men's basketball team will meet Oregon in the opening round of the 2022 Phil Knight Invitational, according to the tournament bracket, released on Monday by ESPN Events.
The Huskies and the Ducks will square off on Thursday, Nov. 24 (8 p.m. ET, ESPN2) at the Moda Center (Portland, Ore.) in the first game of the evening doubleheader of the eight-team tournament. Alabama will meet Michigan State in the second game of the evening doubleheader (10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).
The tournament will begin with an afternoon doubleheader on Thursday, as North Carolina will take on Portland (1 p.m. ET, ESPN) and Iowa State will meet Villanova (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2).
The eight teams have a combined 212 NCAA Tournament appearances, 45 Final Fours, and 16 NCAA titles (four by UConn). Six of the eight teams reached the NCAA Tournament last season.
The winners of the UConn-Oregon clash and the Alabama-Michigan State contest will meet in the tourney semifinal on Friday, Nov. 25 (10 p.m. ET, ESPN2 or ESPNU) at Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The losers of the opening-round games will meet on Saturday, Nov. 26 (12:30 a.m. ET, ESPN or ESPN2) at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
The tournament will conclude with four games, including the championship final, on Sunday, Nov. 27, at either the Moda Center, Veterans Memorial Coliseum, or the Chiles Center (on the University of Portland campus).
In a completely separate bracket, the Phil Knight Legacy tournament, will occur on the same days, featuring Duke, Florida, Gonzaga, Oregon State, Portland State, Purdue, West Virginia, and Xavier.
The UConn-Oregon clash is a rematch of the first-round game of the Phil Knight Invitational held as part of PK80 in Portland in November, 2017, won by the Huskies, 71-63.
UConn is 1-1 all-time against Oregon, bowing to the Ducks, 79-69, in the 2016 Maui Invitational in Hawaii.
UConn posted a 23-10 season, 13-6 in the BIG EAST, in 2021-22, reaching the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season.
Oregon went 20-15 overall and 11-9 in the Pac-12 last year, winning at Utah State in the first round of the NIT before bowing at Texas A&M in the second round. Â
