SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Don’t let this day end.
Don’t let Wake Forest and Oregon walk off the floor, change in their locker rooms and exit Arco Arena.
Bring them all back.
Bring back the teams, the fans, the bands and the cheerleaders.
Heck, even bring back all the media.
But, if March 16, 2002, must come to an end, then at least do me one favor.
See that gigantic box in the basement of Arco Arena? It’s right there in the corner, looking as if it could probably hold at least two refrigerators.
See it?
Yep, that’s the one. Let’s put that thing to use.
Let’s cram as many of Saturday’s moments as we can into that box, utilizing every inch. When we’re done, we can use the rolls of tape sitting right next to the box to close it shut and take it with us.
Because Oregon’s 92-87 victory over Wake Forest in the second round of the NCAA Tournament deserves to be kept. It deserves to be stored in our ever-expanding attic that holds all those memorable Ducks sporting events.
We won’t need to go through the contents of the box right away, especially with Friday’s Sweet 16 appearance to look forward to.
But at some point, this box should be looked through and cherished.
The contents inside can be enjoyed separately or together as one, as they’re all a part of one splendid day of March Madness.
Inside the box, we’ll find the grandeur of back-and-forth NCAA Tournament basketball.
We’ll find the Demon Deacons scoring 14 straight points to take a 36-25 lead with 7:39 to play in the first half.
We’ll find Oregon’s Luke Ridnour respond to that run by pulling up and swishing through back-to-back three-pointers.
We’ll find future NFL quarterback Joey Harrington constantly hopping up and down from his seat in the stands, throwing his hands up in frustration at the officials, or thunderously applauding a basket by his alma mater.
We’ll find Luke Jackson convert a floater in the lane to cut the Ducks’ deficit to 48-46 at halftime.
We’ll find Wake Forest jumping out to a 56-48 lead after Craig Dawson nailed two treys. And then find the Ducks close to 67-66 after Ridnour amazingly drilled two more back-to-back trifectas.
We’ll find the tragic emotion of Dawson, Wake Forest’s clutch senior, gripping his left shoulder in agony after separating it and simply walking off the floor with still 7:45 to play and his team leading, 78-73.
We’ll find Freddie Jones sky through the lane, rebound a Jackson missed three-pointer and slam it down to tie it up at 78 and send a bolt of energy through the arena.
We’ll find the Ducks scoring nine straight points, capped by a Jones steal and fast break layin, to take their first lead since a 25-24 advantage.

We’ll find Oregon leading by just two with less than a minute remaining.
We’ll find some of the players on both benches leaning forward, then back, then forward, then back, all the while clutching white towels over some faces, not wanting to witness a potential loss.
We’ll find retired Navy Admiral John Dick, Oregon’s leading scorer in its 1939 NCAA Championship victory, clapping to the school’s fight song and yelling his approval from his fourth-row aisle seat.
We’ll find Oregon hitting 7-of-8 free throws in the last 33.1 seconds to clinch a berth in the Sweet 16 and ignite a mini-celebration.
We’ll find the Demon Deacons coming to grips with the sudden end to their season, best exemplified by those solitary tears streaming down some of their faces.
We’ll find a final box score that shows Ridnour, Jackson and Jones scoring 81 of the Ducks’ 92 points, leading Wake Forest head coach Skip Prosser to say that “those three guys could have played for the Kings,” which, of course, is the NBA team that usually runs up and down the Arco Arena floor.
We’ll find the ESPN camera crew follow Oregon into its jubilant locker room — the same camera crew that has been with the Ducks everywhere all week, including the moment Friday where they taped Anthony Lever taking his Business 317 final exam before practice. (“As if I wasn’t nervous enough already,” Lever said.)
We’ll find Oregon head coach Ernie Kent breathe a deep sigh of satisfaction after the game and say, “I want to go home and watch the game. What a great, entertaining game.”
We’ll find a jam-packed Oregon locker room with cameras and scribes everywhere. And find Robert Johnson attempting to join the media frenzy by grabbing an ESPN microphone and jokingly stick it in Lever’s face.
We’ll find Chris Christoffersen raising his arms at the sight of himself on TV raising his arms. And find him then saying with a hearty chuckle, “Who’s that big dork?”
We’ll find Brian Helquist sitting, staring and smiling at the images of his team beating Wake Forest in highlights on CBS and find him still pinching himself, unable to believe that he is a part of the Big Dance that he has dreamt about since childhood.
We’ll find Jones making the statement that, “The Sweet 16 was one of our goals, but we’re not at all satisfied. We’re trying to make the Final Four.”
And we’ll find Oregon students in places such as Sacramento, Eugene, Maine and London all brought together through a common bond of Ducks fever that began with the football team’s unprecedented fall and has continued with the basketball team’s historic winter.
The chapters that have filled this storybook 2001-02 Oregon athletics season have indeed been memorable and may get even more so as the madness of March continues.
But no matter how this story finally ends, we’ll always have the collection of images and sounds stashed away in this box to help preserve the drama of one special Saturday in Sacramento.
A day where some windows of opportunity were slammed shut and others were flung wide open.