DUCKS PARTY LIKE IT’S 1939
Oregon fends off top-seeded Kansas for first Final Four since the first one
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Oregon’s Jordan Bell is a mild-mannered forward from Long Beach Poly who has a curious effect on opponents on the basketball court. Eyes widen. Limbs stiffen. The body does things the brain does not want.
With nine minutes left in Oregon’s program-quaking, 74-60, win over No. 1 seeded Kansas that sent the Ducks to the Final Four on Saturday, Bell elicited only one palpable emotion: abject fear.
Oregon was up 13 but looked
shaky on offense. A heavy pro-Kansas crowd was latching to any signs of life when Landen Lucas, the Jayhawks’ 6-foot-10, 250pound forward, raced alone toward the basket. He soared. Bell appeared from behind like a boogeyman. He rejected the layup, hard, his hand somewhere near the square on the backboard.
The ricochet found Kansas’ Devonte’ Graham, who geared up for another try. He dashed into the lane. His eyes landed on Bell. His floater never even reached the rim, even though Graham was only a couple of feet away.
At the next break, Kansas’ stone-faced point guard, Frank Mason III, looked up at the replay. Mason’s expression didn’t change the entire game. But seeing the block again, his eyebrows twitched.
Bell and his fellow Southern Californian, Maranatha High’s Tyler Dorsey, brutalized the tournament’s hottest team in the Midwest Regional final. Bell scored 11 points and had 13 rebounds. He blocked a game-changing eight shots. There were few Kansas possessions that were not affected by Bell’s strong right hand — or just his presence.
“I’m scared of him when I go to practice, man,” guard Dylan Ennis said.
“He was a dominating figure,” Coach Dana Altman said.
When Bell arrived at Oregon, he said he promised to send Coach Dana Altman to the Final Four. Oregon fell a game short last season. After that game, Bell found Altman.
“I said, ‘Coach, I got you next year, for sure,’ ” he said.
The last time the Ducks reached the Final Four was also the first Final Four, in 1939. Oregon ended up winning the whole thing, which probably impressed Dr. James Naismith, the inventor of basketball. He attended the game.
For the Pac-12 Conference, the drought was shorter but more embarrassing. No conference team had reached the Final Four since UCLA in 2008. This season, it produced three top-tier teams but the many coaches and players felt mostly ignored by the rest of the country.
“They can keep talking, and we’re going to try to keep winning and silence them,” Dorsey, confetti stuck to his neck, said after cutting down the nets. “But we’re not really worried about no respect. I guess they probably respect us now.”
For Kansas, it was another agonizing end in the regional final. The Jayhawks had obliterated their first three opponents by a credulity-straining average of 30 points.
But Oregon owned the game from the start. Were it not for Mason, it might have been a runaway. He scored all 15 Kansas points over one six-minute span in the first half.
But Dorsey made two three-pointers in the final minute of the first half, including a bank shot at the buzzer, to give Oregon a 4433 halftime lead.
Dorsey had been a rare miss for Kansas in recruiting — to which UCLA and USC could relate.
“We wanted Tyler, bad,” Kansas Coach Bill Self said.
Dorsey had been just good until the postseason began. Since, he has been a star. After ending the regular season with one point against Oregon State, he has accumulated seven 20-point games in a row.
Dorsey finished with 27 points on nine-of-13 shooting. That helped Oregon take an 18-point lead five minutes into the second half.
But then Oregon’s offense short-circuited. Kansas was charging. The lead was down to six with less than two minutes left. A missed Oregon shot came right to Kansas. Josh Jackson leaped. So did Mason. They missed it.
The ball found Bell. He passed to Dorsey. The threepointer went in, and the Ducks’ party could begin.