EUGENE -- The Sweet 16 used to be a foreign place for Oregon women's basketball. It took 13 NCAA Tournament appearances for the Ducks to reach there last season for the first time.
Yet just one year later, much about UO's second consecutive round of 16 berth feels familiar.
In Spokane, the city where UO coach Kelly Graves spent 14 years building Gonzaga into a mid-major power, the Ducks will take on an 11th-seeded Central Michigan team whose upset-laden path through the first two rounds mirrors UO's own a year ago.
The Chippewas' tournament run carries all of hallmarks of the Ducks' surprising run last spring, when the 10th-seeded Ducks became a power conference version of "Cinderella" by beating higher-seeded No.