TOAST IN TEXAS
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ANAHEIM, CALIF.— Oregon head coach Dana Altman says that if anyone has a problem with Dillon Brooks’ lategame shooting choices or celebrations, they should come to him.
Altman spoke up for his leading scorer Friday after Brooks’ celebration of his last-minute three-pointer and a post-game conversation with Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski drew almost more attention than the topseeded Ducks advancing to the Elite Eight.
With Oregon up 79-68 in the final eight seconds of the NCAA West Region semifinal on Thursday, Brooks, a sophomore from Mississauga, took a long three-pointer with the shot clock expiring. He made it and apparently celebrated a little too hard for the Blue Devils’ liking, even attempting to goad Duke guard Grayson Allen into a celebration with him.
It became a controversy overnight, and the Ducks are failing to understand why.
“At the end of the game, there was a difference in the shot clock and the game clock,” Altman said. “I told Dillon to shoot it. So if anybody’s got a problem with it, it should be directed at me. He was acting on my orders. I told him to shoot it. I didn’t think he’d make it. It was a 30-footer, but there was a five-, six-second difference there.”
The cameras caught a post-game exchange between Krzyzewski, who appeared to say something to Brooks about the celebration.
“He just told me that I’m too good of a player to be showing out at the end,” Brooks said in the locker room following the game. “And he’s right. I’ve got to respect Duke.”
But Krzyzewski disputed Brooks’ account of the post-game message, appearing angry when it was brought up in the post-game press conference. “I didn’t say that,” Krzyzewski said. “You can say whatever you want. Dillon Brooks is a hell of a player. I said, ‘You’re a terrific player.’ And you can take whatever he said and go with it, all right?”
Brooks expressed remorse Friday when he realized how much attention had been given to the inconsequential basket.
“Me and Coach K, that conversation should have stayed with us,” Brooks said. “But overall, me and Coach K are both professionals and I have to move on from this situation and focus on Oklahoma.”
Brooks doesn’t make any attempt to hide his fiery persona on the court. He acknowledges his brash play occasionally is detrimental, but has learned to harness it into productive play for the most part.
Yet Brooks doesn’t plan to tone himself down in the West final against Oklahoma. He said he’ll bring the same energy he’s brought all year.
“It’s been a hassle all of my life to figure out how to channel it and find ways to put it to great use,” Brooks said. “I feel like I’ve found a way and I have to bring it every day. I can’t pull it back because I’ve tried that already and it hasn’t worked to any good extent. I’ve just got to keep playing with emotion and live or die by it.” VIRGINIA 84, IOWA STATE 71: Anthony Gill finished with a seasonhigh 23 points and Mike Tobey came off the bench to score 18 as top-seeded Virginia beat Iowa State in the Midwest Region semi Friday night.
“He just told me that I’m too good of a player to be showing out at the end.” OREGON’S DILLON BROOKS ON DUKE COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI
The Cavaliers (29-7) withstood a second-half push by the fourth-seeded Cyclones (23-12) after grabbing a big lead in the early going and advanced to their first regional final since 1995.
Georges Niang had another big game for Iowa State, finishing with 30 points after scoring 28 against both Iona and Arkansas-Little Rock in the first two rounds. But an upand-down first season under coach Steve Prohm ended on a losing note. NOTRE DAME 61, WISCONSIN 56: Demetrius Jackson stripped the ball and scored the go-ahead layup with 14.7 seconds left as Notre Dame advanced to the brink of its first Final Four in 38 years with a victory over Wisconsin in the East Region semifinal.
Jackson sealed the win with a pair of free throws to send the Irish (2411) into a regional final for the second straight season.
Notre Dame lost to Kentucky a year ago. This year, the Irish will get a shot at top-seeded North Carolina or Indiana on Sunday.
Vitto Brown’s three-pointer with 26 seconds left put the Badgers (2213) up 56-53 and kept Wisconsin’s shot at a third straight Final Four alive.