MIGHTY DUCKS
Oregon clips KKansas, reaches first Final Four in 78 years
Oregon coach Dana Altman is doused with confetti after his Ducks upset top-seeded Kansas in the West Region final of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday in Kansas City, Mo. The Ducks now head to next week’s Final Four for the first time since winning the inaugural tournament title in 1939.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The celebration started before tipoff, before the Sprint Center even opened Saturday night. The drinking and dancing and chanting had begun, and in a few hours, the streets would be packed again, bringing a month’s worth of business to the local bars.
No one knew how quickly the parking lot would empty. No Kansas fan knew how quiet the ride home would be.
Despite playing in front of what felt like its entire home state, Kansas fell one win short of the Final Four again — and Oregon broke one of college basketball’s longest droughts.
Counted out before the NCAA Tournament began because of an injury to big man Chris Boucher, and counted out again in a road game against the topseeded Jayhawks, the thirdseeded Ducks delivered an inspiring wire-to-wire performance to secure its first Final Four berth since 1939, upsetting Kansas, 74-60, in the Midwest Regional final.
Led by Tyler Dorsey’s remark- ably clutch shooting and Jordan Bell’s defensive brilliance, Oregon (33-5) is returning to the Final Four for the first time since winning the first NCAA Tournament, and will next face the winner of No. 1 North Carolina-No. 2 Kentucky.
Kansas (31-5), which won its previous three games by an average of 30 points, lost in the Elite Eight for the second straight year, and for the fourth time as a No. 1 seed under Bill Self.
Kansas’ home court edge was startling. The crowd looked like the earth, stripped of all land but Iceland — a speck of green surrounded by an overwhelming blue mass — and the sounds were even more intimidating. But Bell flexed both biceps, put a finger to his lips and turned Midwest Mardi Gras into a funeral party.
Bell (11 points, 13 rebounds, eight blocks), who has somehow made the potentially crushing absence of Boucher insignificant, was the best player on the floor in a game that included the likely National Player of the Year (Frank Mason), chasing down every ball as if death would be the penalty for defeat. He intimidated any opponent with the courage to even come through the lane, and his seemingly unsustainable amount of energy became contagious, recognized as the only way to topple a top seed.
If Kansas was a race car, Bell was a brick wall.
After averaging 96 points in their first three tournament games, the Jayhawks struggled to find holes against a Ducks defense that was quick in their recoveries, and quicker to create problems Kansas never saw coming.
Mason III (21 points) scored 17 of Kansas’ first 31 points, and in the biggest game of the senior’s career, his teammates disappeared, growing tighter than the stunned crowd. Mason tied the score on multiple occasions, but a much-needed response by Oregon was always seconds away. The Ducks shot 60 percent from the field in the first half — including 7-of-12 on 3-pointers — and went to halftime with a 44-33 lead after Dorsey’s second consecutive 3-pointer banked in just before the buzzer.
With less than 15 minutes left, the Ducks led 55-37. The seeds had been swapped, the swagger monopolized by the tourist. Dillon Brooks was laughing, taunting a crowd more helpless than the Jayhawks, whose desperation grew with each missed shot. Kansas, which was the fourthbest shooting team from distance in the country this season, made just 5 of 25 3-pointers.
Oregon had to work for every point, attempting only three free throws in the first 37 minutes, but the Ducks allowed Kansas to claw back when it began draining as much time as possible, with too much remaining on the clock. The Jayhawks trimmed the deficit to 66-60 with less than three minutes remaining, but Dorsey lucked into an offensive rebound, and hit another clutch 3-pointer with 1:49 left to stretch the lead to nine.