GLENDALE, Ariz. — Heartbreaking.
There’s no other way to describe Oregon’s 77-76 loss to North Carolina on Saturday night. Four straight missed free throws, two missed offensive rebounds and one devastating finish. What more can be said?
“We had a good year but we didn’t reach our goal,” Jordan Bell said as he fought back tears in the Oregon locker room.
This team had all the pieces a championship team needs. Savvy guards, big men who could play on both ends, scorers who get a bucket when needed and lockdown defense. The only piece the Ducks were missing on Saturday night was Boucher. And against a team like North Carolina, that was all it took.
“It would’ve been great to have him,” Dylan Ennis said. “Chris changes the game, especially on the defensive end. But we didn’t have him.”
For how special this season was and all the Ducks achieved with and without Boucher, their season ended in a game in which they needed him most. North Carolina’s big men attacked the glass all night and wore out Bell to the point where he simply failed to box out on two straight free throw attempts with the game on the line.
“I lost us the game,” Bell said in the locker room postgame.
It wasn’t all his fault, though. Oregon turned the ball over 12 times in the first half and shot a measly 32 percent from the field in the second. Dillon Brooks and Tyler Dorsey never got into a rhythm offensively. The Ducks had only seven assists to 15 turnovers in the game.
Having Boucher would have given Bell some much-needed aid on the glass and the Ducks some much-needed reinforcement.
If Boucher had played, Oregon would have won this game. His ability to stretch the floor would have pulled one of North Carolina’s big men out to the perimeter which would have given Oregon’s guards more room to drive. His help on weak-side rebounding would have been vital against the unrelenting Tar Heels, who grabbed 17 offensive boards in the game. His shot blocking ability would have put some extra doubt in the heads of UNC’s guards and forwards whenever they took the ball to the hoop.
The impact that Boucher has on a game could have been the difference if he had played on Saturday night. Instead, his Oregon career ended on the sidelines.
“It hurt more for him not to be out there than us,” Casey Benson said of his injured teammate. “It would be terrible to not be able to play in games like these.”
The Ducks found ways to win without Boucher all March. Their convincing win over Kansas without him proved that they were as good as anyone in the country.
But whatever magic they had found once he went down, ran out on Saturday night.
Until the Ducks do eventually climb the summit and break their 78-year drought, people will remember this 2016-17 team for what could have been. Specifically, what could have been if Chris Boucher had been healthy and present for this historic run.
“We made history,” Dillon Brooks said about this season. “This is the best team the Oregon Ducks ever had. We went the furthest and this team is going to go down in history and be remembered for a long time.”
Brooks is right. This is the best team that Oregon has ever fielded and it could remain that way for a long time. But the Boucher injury will always remain a gut-wrenching what-if.
Follow Gus Morris on Twitter @JustGusMorris