All season long, the Oregon players talked about making some noise at the Big Dance.
They knew this was a special year. The chemistry was right on. The talent was there. The Pacific-10 Conference wins were being recorded one after another.
All that was left for them to do was step up in the national spotlight in the month of March, play their game … and, of course, win.
The opportunity to do such was there for them. On a silver platter nonetheless.
The Ducks simply had to make one defensive stop when it mattered most and a NCAA Tournament win would have been theirs for the first time since 1960.
But alas, Seton Hall’s Shaheen Holloway drove the length of the court and completed the game-winning bucket in the final seconds of overtime. Oregon’s season abruptly came to a halt.
“We’ve been on both sides of those shots before,” senior point guard Darius Wright said. “It’s not a good feeling. Your stomach kind of sinks just like when you’re on a roller coaster.”
Almost two weeks have passed since that fateful drive to the hoop, but the memory figures to linger for quite some time.
Head coach Ernie Kent knows how much a win in the NCAAs would have meant to his program, but he doesn’t want the devastating defeat to diminish what his team achieved.
Which was the most wins since 1945 (22), the most Pac-10 wins ever (13) and the first time since the mid-70s that the Ducks have reached the postseason in back-to-back seasons.
“It’s been a big year for Oregon basketball, and I’m extremely, extremely proud of my guys,” Kent said. “We’ve got to stop and reflect back at what this team has been able to accomplish, and not dwell on what got away from us against Seton Hall.”
Oregon faces a tough challenge in getting back to the Tournament. Not only does it lose three valuable seniors in Wright, A.D. Smith and Alex Scales, but it faces competition from a league where the majority of the teams return intact.
Pac-10 co-champion Arizona will field practically an identical roster, unless somebody decides to leave early and test their game on the NBA level.
The other Pac-10 champion, Stanford, does lose the inside presence of Mark “Mad Dog” Madsen and the outside shooting of David Moseley. But everybody else returns and will be set to avenge their premature exit in the NCAA Tournament at the hands of North Carolina.
California and Southern California both will bring back all of their young talent and should contend in the upper-half of the division. And although Arizona State will miss sharpshooter Eddie House, the Sun Devils most likely will improve with their returning players.
All of this doesn’t phase Kent. He knows what he has in his own returnees, and expects that their brief NCAA appearance will only further their resolve to get back to the “promised land.”
“This is why we’re in it,” Kent said. “To compete in the atmosphere of center stage. We can really get a lot of mileage out of our experience to get this team back to the Big Dance.”
One of the key components of doing so will come down to who decides to take on the leadership roles left by Scales, Smith and Wright.
“There’s a void there now that’s going to have to be rebuilt,” Kent said. “I’m not going to appoint that leadership, it’s going to have to develop. We don’t know who’s going to emerge through the spring and summer with the ability to lead like those three guys.”
Likely candidates include inconsistent sophomore guard Freddie Jones, low-scoring forward Flo Hartenstein and exuberant junior Bryan Bracey.
But perhaps the most vital area where Oregon need production is with its recruiting class. Kent has brought in four prep standouts, headlined by McDonald’s All-American Luke Ridnour from Blaine, Wash.
Ridnour, who was named Washington boys player of the year, recently led his Blaine High School team to back-to-back 2A state titles and finished his career with a total of 2,371 points (third best all-time in Washington). He will be on national display tonight at 5 p.m. on ESPN in the prestigious McDonald’s All-American game.
Kent also recruited sought-after local talent in 6-7 forward Luke Jackson of Creswell High. Jackson recently was awarded with his second straight Oregon 3A player of the year award, while leading his school to the state championship. His prep point total of 2,095 ranks fourth all-time in the state of Oregon.
James Davis, a 5-10 guard from Vancouver, Wash., and 6-9 forward Jay Anderson from Faribault, Minn., round out the class.
“This past season might go down as one of the best teams in Oregon history,” Kent said. “Yet at the same time, I think the program is still working on where we all want to be.”