Ducks soar to Sweet 16 on wings of Canadians
There are a number of teams still playing in the NCAA basketball tournament that are based closer to the border than Oregon.
Syracuse, Villanova, Gonzaga and Wisconsin come to mind.
Still, the Ducks should be considered Canada’s team for the NCAA’s Sweet 16, which begins on Thursday night.
Oregon makes a point of recruiting Canadian talent and the No. 1 seed in the West Region is led by a pair of Canucks — Mississauga, Ont.’s Dillon Brooks, who scored 25 points in a huge win on Sunday, and Montreal’s Chris Boucher. There could have been two more as well. Brampton, Ont., native Dylan Ennis was also supposed to be a key player after transferring from Villanova, but injuries played havoc with his season and he has been left to watch from the sidelines. Meanwhile, Jamal Murray of Orangeville, Ont., a potential top-five NBA pick, agonized between Oregon and Kentucky before opting to join the Wildcats for his lone NCAA campaign.
The Ducks play No. 4 Duke — last year’s tournament champion — on Thursday night in Anaheim.
Perhaps that’s a good omen, since the NHL’s Ducks compete there, too.
To advance to the Elite Eight on the weekend and perhaps beyond for the first time since Oregon won the first NCAA title way back in 1939, Brooks and Boucher will surely be keys.
Brooks has stepped up as a scorer at crucial moments many times during his second season in Eugene, while also posting big assist and rebounding totals. He will need to show something defensively as well against Duke’s excellent scorers.
Boucher will be asked to regain his scoring touch (he had 20 in an easy win over Holy Cross in the tournament opener, but just two on Sunday against St. Joseph’s), while also shutting the door at the other end. Boucher was second in the NCAA in blocks per game this season, sending away an average of 3.12 shots. Remarkable stuff for a kid who didn’t pick up a basketball until all that long ago.
Boucher didn’t have the grades to finish high school in Montreal and was more of a soccer and hockey player until growing nearly a foot between the ages of 16 and 20.
From there, Boucher caught the eyes of the right people in Montreal and ended up at a place called Alma Academy in Alma, Que., before heading to New Mexico Junior College.
The next year, at Northwest College in Wyoming, Boucher was so impressive, he was named junior college player of the year in the U.S. That caught Oregon’s attention and the rest is history.
“I think he’s outstanding, I think he’s taking the nation by storm, I don’t think anyone knew who he was whatsoever,” Tony McIntyre said in a recent phone interview with Postmedia.
McIntyre is Ennis’ father, so he knows Oregon basketball inside and out, and is the co-founder of the Toronto area CIA Bounce AAU powerhouse.
“I think he’s the first player in PAC-12 history to (post) over 100 blocks and 30 threes. He can shoot threes, I think he’s unique,” McIntyre said.
“I think this is his fourth year playing basketball, maybe his fifth at the most and I think he’s going to be an NBA player, to be honest, (nearly) leading the nation in blocks and doing everything that he has to do, in terms of learning the game still.”
It really is nearly unheard of. Because Boucher started off as a guard, he has some guard skills and was used to taking — and making — three-pointers. Now with his added height, length and athleticism, he has become a fearsome defender. Others have become stars after massive growth spurts — Anthony Davis and Scottie Pippen spring immediately to mind — but Boucher’s background as a three-point shooter is a new wrinkle.
And like Brooks, a major reason why Oregon is both a good story and a team worthy of Canada getting behind.
Around the rim
Dominique Wilkins and Jamaal Wilkes headline the 2016 class of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. Wilkins was a sensation at Georgia before becoming the Human Highlight Reel in the NBA. Mark Aguirre, the DePaul standout who also went on to star in the NBA, Bob Boozer, Doug Collins and Lionel Simmons also made the cut ... Arizona head coach Sean Miller announced Tuesday that he has no interest in taking the job at Pittsburgh, his alma mater. Former Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon left the team to return to his alma mater, TCU ... Point guard Kris Dunn is leaving Providence to enter the NBA. Dunn, expected to be a top-10 pick in June, will hire an agent, meaning he won’t be able to return to school. He was the Big East player of the year and its top defensive player ... ESPN’s projections now have Virginia winning the tournament after rising eight per cent in the odds since the tournament started to stand at 21 per cent. Kansas is next at 18 per cent, Villanova and North Carolina are at 12 per cent, and Oklahoma is at nine per cent.