After a three-year NCAA Tournament appearance drought, the Oregon men’s basketball team is ready to prove that this group of players is capable of finally living up to the hype.
During that drought, Oregon was expected to at least compete for a berth but mediocre seasons kept the team from reaching March Madness.
The Ducks (26-7 overall, 11-7 Pacific-10 Conference) are eager to pick up from where they left off in the Pacific-10 Conference Tournament where they won convincingly in all three games.
That type of performance should scare opponents when the Ducks travel to Spokane, Wash. as a No. 3 seed and face No. 14 Miami (OH) (18-14, 10-6 Mid-American Conference) in the Midwest Region.
“It starts the final chapter of our book,” Oregon coach Ernie Kent said. “What a great honor for these guys to be a No. 3 seed. I think it speaks volumes about where this team is and how important the conference tournament is.”
Kent said being a No. 3 seed and playing close to home is a best-case scenario for a team that struggled towards the end of the season before winning six straight.
Now the Ducks have to win another six to come home with a national title.
“It’s a good matchup for us, too, and a good start to what hopefully is a good run,” Kent said. “It’s a fitting tribute to hard work and what hard work gets you.”
Kent said he and the coaching staff challenged the players so they would finally experience the essence of college basketball and that the extra work would get them to push themselves throughout next season.
“For those guys to understand what drives us, and why we pushed them so hard – it was very important for them to get a taste of March Madness,” Kent said. “They’re going to enjoy the ride but we’re going to work hard and try and see how long we can stay in this thing.”
And with the way the Ducks are playing defense, junior Malik Hairston believes the team is capable of making a run deep into the tournament.
“The sky’s the limit for us right now,” Hairston said. “Finally we’re back to playing defense they way we began (the season) – even better. When you make defense fun, that’s when it’s most effective.”
Kent said he was aware of the Redhawks’ previous teams, but nothing specifically about this year’s. He told reporters that the coaching staff would have a scouting report hours after the matchup was announced.
“In their history, they’re always a very well-coached team,” Kent said. “They play fast…every team at this level that gets into that field, all of them, we didn’t feel like there was any easy route but at the same time, that’s a good feel for us – that’s a good matchup.”
But no matter how confident the Ducks are about playing Miami (OH), they still feel the need to not look past the first-round opponent. That’s the mindset the team had throughout the season and they don’t plan on changing that now. Still, Oregon believes it has the capability of making the Final Four.
“It can definitely happen,” senior Aaron Brooks said. “But we’re not going to look ahead. We got Miami of Ohio first and I think our focus is going to be on that.”
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