Two kids with vastly different stories found themselves on the same ladder on Saturday night, cutting down the nets at Matthew Knight Arena to signify the third regular-season Pac-12 title for the Ducks in five years.
But Shakur Juiston and Anthony Mathis didn’t have five years. They had one, and they both took a shot on the Ducks to fulfill their lifelong college basketball dreams — they wanted to play in the NCAA Tournament. With championship hats on their heads and emotion in their voices, it was clear that Oregon was the right decision.
“It’s just amazing to be a part of something like this,” Mathis said. “The winning culture that Coach Altman and Payton [Pritchard] have created here, it’s super amazing.”
Mathis traveled from West Linn, Oregon all the way to Albuquerque, New Mexico only to end up right back in Oregon, 100 miles south of where he grew up. He lived with the Pritchard family and was right by Payton’s side when they dominated the Oregon high school basketball scene as teenagers. At New Mexico, he established himself as an elite shooter on a small scale. But for his final season, he wanted something bigger.
He wanted to come back home, he wanted to play with his hometown friend, and he wanted to play on the biggest stage college basketball has to offer. His decision to play for the Ducks gave him all of that. The Pac-12 regular-season title just happened to come along the way. So did the senior-night applause from the Matthew Knight Arena crowd, in which the Pritchard family escorted him to center court.
“I know [Mathis] has got my back,” Pritchard said. “Truly brothers to me. Always will be. I wouldn’t want to win championships with anybody else by my side.”
After Mathis finished his speech at center court, he passed the mic to Shakur Juiston. But Juiston didn’t have the program of his dreams in his backyard. He came from Newark, New Jersey, left home at the age of 18 to play junior college ball in Hutchinson, Kansas, then found a home for two years in Las Vegas at UNLV. Every one of those stops gave him something.
But none of them gave him a chance to play in the Tournament. Oregon did, even if he didn’t know it when he made the decision to spend his last year in Eugene.
“I didn’t know none of these people,” Juiston said. “I didn’t know anything about Oregon. I played two years in the Mountain West and Anthony killed us in almost all those games. For us to transfer to the same school…it was just like fate.”
“For us to win a championship? Couldn’t write a better story,” he added.
It really is amazing what college basketball can do. Two kids from two coasts came together in one small city in the middle of the Pacific Northwest with the same dream. Now that dream is realized for both of them. They’re both going to play in the NCAA Tournament for the first time, and they’re going to do it together.
Oregon was the place that made it happen.
“They appreciate Oregon,” Altman said. “Our guys got it pretty good. They eat pretty good, they travel pretty good, they play a pretty good schedule, the university’s wonderful to them…Guys coming in from New Mexico, Vegas, this is a pretty good spot to come.”
