Ducks in Final Four after 78- year wait
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Thirdseeded Oregon lost one of its best players to an injury just before the NCAA tournament, had to survive two nail- biters to reach the Midwest Regional final, then faced a top- seeded Kansas team that had romped to the brink of the Final Four. Guess who rose to the occasion? With swagger, verve and prolific shooting, the team everybody wanted to count out rolled to a 74- 60 victory Saturday against the Jayhawks to earn its first trip to the national semifinals in 78 years.
‘‘ You feel so good for so many people,’’ said Oregon coach Dana Altman, who is headed to his first Final Four after 13 trips to the NCAA tournament. ‘‘ It’s a team effort. You feel good for a lot of people.’’
Indeed, a whole lot of people had a hand in it.
Tyler Dorsey made six threepointers and scored 27 points, Dillon Brooks added 17 points and Jordan Bell finished with 11 points, 13 rebounds and eight blocks in a virtuoso performance for the Ducks ( 33- 5), who seized the lead with 16 minutes left in the first half and didn’t trail the rest of the way.
Now they’ll face the winner of the game Sunday between North Carolina and Kentucky in the Final Four in Glendale, Arizona. It will be their first trip to the national semifinals since 1939, when the Tall Firs won it all.
‘‘ The seven years we’ve been at Oregon, we’ve had great guys to work with,’’ Altman said. ‘‘ But I also feel good for all the other players, the ex- players, who have built Oregon basketball. Like we said, 1939 is a long drought, but we owe all the ex- players.’’
Frank Mason III scored 21 points in his final game for Kansas ( 31- 5), but the offensive fireworks and steady poise that had carried the Jayhawks all season fizzled just 40 minutes from campus on a night in which very little went right.
Star freshman Josh Jackson was mired in early foul trouble and was limited to 10 points. Sharpshooting guard Devonte Graham never got on track and finished 0- for- 6 from three- point range. And the swagger Kansas showed in humiliating Purdue in the Sweet 16 simply evapo- rated for a team that had rolled to the Elite Eight by winning its three games by an average of 30 points.
‘‘ I’m disappointed for them more than I am for me,’’ said Jayhawks coach Bill Self, who fell to 2- 7 in Elite Eight games, including four defeats as a No. 1 seed. ‘‘ But the one thing that happened today — and it’s hard to admit — the best team did win.’’
The Ducks knew everything was stacked against them, but the point only was driven home when their bus passed the Power and Light District in downtown Kansas City on the way to the arena. Thousands of fans in red and blue were rally- ing hours before the tipoff, turning it into a de facto road game.
But the hot shooting of Dorsey and Brooks quickly deflated the sold- out Sprint Center and sent a warning to Kansas that it was in for a fight.
‘‘ You’ve got to give them credit,’’ Graham said. ‘‘ They hit some big shots.’’