CORVALLIS — Oh, there was excitement at Gill Coliseum on Saturday night.
Those big-air dogs at halftime were incredible! And did you see that one dog do that backflip? Oh, my!
There was suspense at Gill Coliseum on Saturday night.
Would the Ducks break the school three-point record? Would Luke Ridnour set the Pac-10 free-throw record? What in the world could be in those delicious polish dogs?
OK, so maybe Saturday’s game wasn’t thrilling. From Luke Jackson’s thunderous opening dunk to when scrub-a-licious Tyler York finally checked in with a minute left, all doubt left Gill Coliseum and took a walk outside in the rain. Oh, there were vague threatening runs by the Beavers in the second half, and there were vaguely disturbing cold stretches from the Ducks, but really the game wasn’t close enough to warrant any kind of second glance.
But that’s exactly what the Ducks needed at this exact moment of their season. A blowout. A yawner. A turn-to-the-bass-fishing, wake-me-when-it’s-over romp.
Because the Ducks put the pieces together on Saturday, and when the Ducks put the pieces together, opposing teams can hardly figure out the puzzle.
“This game has pushed us toward peaking,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said Saturday night. “This team has not peaked yet, but we certainly made a giant step in that direction with this game.”
OK, you say that Saturday’s win was over a bottom-feeding Beaver squad that has done less damage to the Ducks recently than Goliath did to David.
But I’ve covered three Civil Wars at Gill Coliseum, and for the first time Saturday, the atmosphere at Gill was as electric as Oregon’s alternate jerseys. It was a sold-out crowd with a sold-out mentality, that here was a chance for the Beavers to finally win a Civil War, a rivalry that’s more civil than … well, you’ve heard that one before. Let’s just say that “lopsided” doesn’t do it justice.
And that’s why a loss Saturday would have devastated Oregon’s season. The Ducks just simply don’t lose to the Beavers, and a loss in Corvallis would have validated Oregon’s fall from grace. Even a close win would have set off fire alarms all over Eugene.
But it wasn’t a loss, it wasn’t a close win. It was a car that just got a tune-up, with all the pistons firing and belts running and valves valving.
It was everybody doing everything. And they dominated like Tiger Woods wearing red on a Sunday.
“Not taking anything from Rid and Luke Jackson, it’s just that we have so many weapons,” Kent said. “We’re getting back to how we were playing at the beginning of the year. We’re sharing the ball, trusting in our teammates, the ball is moving.”
And, perhaps most importantly, this was a road win. The Ducks have struggled in their green road jerseys this season, and Gill Coliseum was an environment poised to unleash a sound-storm on Oregon. But it didn’t, because the Ducks wouldn’t let it.
“In order to get to the (NCAA) tournament, you’ve got to win on the road,” Ridnour said. “We’ve got to build on this. We’ve got two more tough games next week, so we’ve got to build on this and try to carry it over.”
Well, one tough game, at least. Thursday’s game at Washington State is as gimme-a-game as exists in the Pacific-10 Conference. So Oregon will be 8-5 in conference play when it heads to Seattle on Saturday to face Washington.
Maybe that game will be a little more exciting. The Ducks probably hope not.