MADISON, Wis. – Sunday’s game was supposed to be a track meet, and Kansas won it with the high jump.
Top-seeded Kansas toppled No. 2 Oregon 104-86 in front of 16,310 fans at the Kohl Center to advance to the Final Four and end the Ducks’ season. The Jayhawks outrebounded the Ducks 63-34 in the contest.
For the Oregon players, the shock of the season’s end was enormous.
“I’m disappointed that this team is over,” Oregon point guard Luke
Ridnour said as he fought tears in the locker room following the game. “I’m going to miss being around them.”
The Ducks, who said they had long held a goal of going to the Final Four in Atlanta, fell one win short of the program’s second-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament’s final weekend.
But the Oregon players ended the season with a hint of the exciting play that defined the team for much of the 2001-02 campaign.
The Ducks were led by senior Freddie Jones, who had only four points in
Oregon’s Sweet 16 win over Texas, but posted 32 against Kansas to lead the Ducks. Many of Jones’ points came in fast-break plays that wowed the partially-neutral crowd.
Jones led a 15-4 Duck run in the first half that got Oregon back into the game after Kansas had led 36-26.
But Kansas answered with a 6-2 run to take a 48-42 halftime lead.
The end of the first half “was a big turning point for this team, because it let me know that we were a little ragged,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said.
In the second half, Kansas used its big rebounding advantage to put
distance between the two teams. Oregon used small runs to get within four points and five points on separate occasions – the latter coming with 8:05 left – but Kansas never let the momentum completely shift to the Ducks’ side of the floor.
“We were going to do everything we needed to do to win, but Kansas never quit either,” Ridnour said.
Oregon couldn’t sustain its energy from that second run, and with 8:06
left, the Ducks went on a four-minute drought. The 10-0 Kansas run ended any thoughts of an Oregon upset.
The final result was that the Ducks, which had never trailed by more than 13 points at any time in any game this season, lost by 21. Oregon’s largest margin of loss before Sunday’s game was nine points, to Southern California in the Pacific-10 Conference Tournament.
“We’re not satisfied with how far we came because we wanted to get to the Final Four and compete for the whole thing,” Jones said.
The Ducks were simply outmatched for most of Sunday’s game. Kansas big
men Nick Collison, who led the Jayhawks with 25 points and also had 15
rebounds, and Drew Gooden, who scored 18 points and grabbed 20 boards, killed Oregon on the glass and driving to the hoop.
“They were relentless today on the boards,” Kent said. “They’ve got two
NBA prospects in the paint.”
Twenty-six of the Jayhawks’ 63 rebounds came on the offensive end, where Kansas converted for 31 second-chance points. Oregon had only 12
second-chance points.
“They’re a very good ball club all around,” Ridnour said.
For Kansas coach Roy Williams, the significance of the win was enormous.
Williams has failed to win a national championship in 14 seasons at Kansas, despite having NCAA Tournament teams in all but one of those years, and despite being a No. 1 or No. 2 seed in eight of those trips.
“I do expect more out of this team,” Williams said. “At the same time, no coach can be any more satisfied with his team than I am with the group I have right now.”
Kansas will play Maryland in the Final Four on
Saturday, and Ridnour, who made the All-Midwest Regional Team along with Jones, said he won’t hesitate to turn on the television.
“I’m definitely going to watch it,” Ridnour said. “That’s motivation for next year.”
Email sports reporter Peter Hockaday at [email protected].