DUCKS CAN SHOW THEY BELONG
Oregon finally breaks through, makes Final Four
The 1939 NCAA national championship banner hangs alone at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Ore. It offers a glimpse into the past, showing that the Oregon men’s basketball team has been here before.
The banner also serves as a reminder of how difficult it is to reach the top.
The “Webfoots,” as they were called in 1939, beat Ohio State 46-33 in the national title game in Evanston, Ill., to win the first NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
It has taken Oregon 78 years to return to the NCAA Final Four, but the Ducks are two wins away from ending college basketball’s longest title drought.
Oregon will face North Carolina, which won five NCAA championships in the time it took the Ducks to make it back to the national semifinals, on Saturday at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.
This will not be the first meeting between Oregon coach Dana Altman and North Carolina coach Roy Williams.
More than two decades ago, Altman and Williams were rivals in Kansas. Altman spent four seasons as Kansas State’s head coach from 1990 to 1994, and Williams was the coach at Kansas from 1988 to 2003.
“His consistency, year in, year out, he’s been there and done that for a long time at Kansas, now at North Carolina, outstanding teams year in and year out,” Altman said Monday about Williams. “The consistency with how hard his teams play game in, game out. Not only are they consistent from year to year, but game in and game out they just perform.
“Obviously, relationships with his players, relationships with other coaches, he’s very wellrespected in the coaching ranks. He’s done an outstanding job for a long time, and as a coach I admire that.”
The Ducks beat No. 1 seed Kansas 74-60 to earn their spot in the Final Four, which was a breakthrough moment for an Oregon program that was playing in the Elite Eight for the fourth time in 16 seasons.
For years under coach Ernie Kent, the Ducks brought in talent — such as future NBA players Fred Jones, Luke Ridnour, Luke Jackson and Aaron Brooks — that they turned into Elite Eight runs in 2002 and 2007.
But Kent wasn’t able to keep the program at a consistently high level, so Oregon made a switch and brought in Altman in 2010, and the program has been on the rise ever since.
During Altman’s first season, the Ducks moved from cozy McArthur Court, built in 1926 and affectionately called Mac Court, to the state-of-the-art Matthew Knight Arena.
It was a new beginning for the Ducks, who are in the NCAA tournament for a program-record fifth consecutive season and have won back-to-back Pac-12 championships.
Oregon, the first Pac-12 team to reach the Final Four since UCLA in 2008, has a 33-5 overall record as it prepares to face North Carolina.
“It means everything. Twenty years of playing basketball, this is the top shelf of my emotions,” Oregon senior guard Dylan Ennis told The (Eugene) Register-Guard after beating Kansas. “The highlight of my career.”
In the NCAA tournament, the Ducks have wins against Iona, Rhode Island, Michigan and Kansas.
Although expectations were high all season for Oregon, the Ducks suffered a major setback during the Pac-12 tournament when they lost center Chris Boucher, the team’s third-leading scorer and second-leading rebounder, for the season with a knee injury.
“Injuries are part of basketball and part of any sport,” Altman said on Selection Sunday. “You’ve just got to move on.”
Junior forward Dillon Brooks, the Pac-12 player of the year, is Oregon’s passionate leader, but two other players have stepped up in the NCAA tournament to help fill the void left by Boucher’s injury — junior forward Jordan Bell and sophomore guard Tyler Dorsey.
Bell, the Pac-12 defensive player of the year, filled the stat sheet in the Elite Eight win against Kansas with 11 points, 13 rebounds, four assists and eight blocks.
Dorsey has picked up his game this postseason, scoring at least 20 points in seven consecutive games since the start of the Pac-12 tournament.
“I think all of the guys have picked it up a little bit, just knowing that Chris isn’t there,” Altman said Monday. “We’ve relied so much on Chris and Jordan to block shots and rebound. With Chris out of the lineup, obviously Jordan has picked up his numbers dramatically.”
The Ducks head to Arizona to play in the same venue where, six years ago, the Chip Kelly-coached Oregon football team narrowly missed winning the Bowl Championship Series national title. Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton and Auburn beat the Ducks 22-19 on a last-second field goal.
Oregon’s basketball team is hoping for a better result in Arizona.
“I’m really happy for them, but we’re not done,” Altman told The
Register-Guard after beating Kansas. “We would sure like to go and make a great showing for ourselves in Phoenix.”