EUGENE, Ore. -- The Oregon Ducks hope recent experience in the NCAA Tournament will give them an edge.

Ninth-seeded Oregon faces No. 8 seed Mississippi State on Friday in the South Regional in North Little Rock, Ark.

Last season, Oregon made it to the round of eight in the tournament, falling to eventual national champion Florida. The Ducks returned four starters from that team. The exception, senior Aaron Brooks, was drafted by the Houston Rockets.

"That's huge for us," forward Maarty Leunen said about last season. "We know what it takes, what it feels like to make a deep run."

The Ducks (18-13) took a collective sigh of relief when they made the tournament, which was thrown into question when Oregon was bounced from the Pac-10 tournament by No. 21 Washington State in the quarterfinals.

They started 8-1 this season, but losses to Nebraska and upstart Oakland (Mich.) at home in December started a downturn.

The Ducks won their final three games of the regular season to raise their conference record to 9-9. No Pac-10 team had been invited to the NCAA tournament before with less than 10 league wins.

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Oregon is making its 10th appearance in the tournament, where the team is 12-8. The Ducks won the first NCAA tournament in 1939 by defeating Ohio State, 46-33.

Five of the team's tournament appearances have come under coach Ernie Kent.

"We've got a great opportunity. We're in, so hopefully we can make another magical run," Leunen said.

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Leunen averages 15.2 points and 9.2 rebounds for the Ducks, while Malik Hairston leads the team in scoring with 16.1 points per game.

Mississippi State (22-10) was upset 64-60 by Georgia in the semifinals of the SEC tournament in Atlanta. The game was played before an estimated crowd of 1,000 at Georgia Tech's Alexander Memorial Coliseum, where the final two days of the tournament were moved after a tornado ripped through the Georgia Dome during the quarterfinals.

"That game was definitely a wake-up call for us," point guard Jamont Gordon said. "It showed us that we can't just go into a game thinking we are going to win. We have to bring our game, too."

Mississippi State is making its first return to the tournament since 2005. That's not that long ago, but the Bulldogs are so young only senior Charles Rhodes was on the team then.

Gordon averages 17.3 points and 6.3 rebounds while Rhodes is averaging 16.9 points and 7.7 rebounds. The Bulldogs' lineup includes Jarvis Varnado, the nation's top shot blocker with an average of 4.6 a game, and Ben Hansbrough, the younger brother of North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough.