Just like last year, the Ducks stepped off the bus at the Casanova Center and were greeted by a crowd of screaming fans.
Just like last year, the Ducks returned as heroes from Los Angeles. Just like last year, the Ducks won the Pacific-10 Conference crown.
Sure, there was one major difference. Last year, the Oregon men’s basketball team won the Pac-10 regular season championship with two close wins at UCLA and USC at the end of the season. This year, the Ducks beat those two teams again, in the Pac-10 Tournament.
Oregon’s ride through the 2003 Pac-10 Tournament ended Saturday as the Ducks (23-9, 10-8 Pac-10) beat USC (13-17, 6-12), 74-66, to win the Pac-10 Tournament title in front of a national television audience and 17,485 fans at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Oregon, most likely headed to the NCAA Tournament before the game started, erased any doubt by securing the Pac-10’s automatic bid with the win.
“To get these three wins means a lot, going into the tournament,” Oregon’s Luke Ridnour told KUGN-AM after the game. “Hopefully, we can build on this.”
Ridnour was named MVP of the Pac-10 Tournament after scoring a team-high 18 points in the title game. Luke Jackson added 17 points, and four Ducks scored in double figures. Ridnour, Jackson and James Davis were named to the six-member All-Tournament team after the game.

Oregon, a No. 5 seed, became the lowest-seeded team to ever win the Pac-10 Tournament. Previously, no team ranked lower than No. 2 in the eight-team tournament had won the title.
Ridnour said the team was the theme for the Ducks in Los Angeles.
“After playing two tough games (Thursday and Friday), our team really responded,” Ridnour said. “We played smart, real hard. We did get tired at the end of the game, but we were able to fight through that. That right there will get you ready to play in the NCAA Tournament.”
The Ducks, who beat Arizona State and UCLA by one point each to get to the title game, opened Saturday’s contest with eight straight points and led 14-4 at the 15:46 mark. But USC responded with a 15-0 run to make the game close.
“All of (the tournament games) were battles, this one was no different,” Johnson said. “We wanted to leave everything on the court, and that’s what we did.”
The teams remained deadlocked until Oregon opened the second half with a 10-2 run to take a 47-37 lead with 17:01 left in the game. The Ducks pushed the lead to as many as 15 points with 8:37 left, but USC employed a full-court press that flustered Oregon’s normally sure-handed guards. The tactic was reminiscent of what Oregon did to UCLA on Friday, as the Trojans forced the Ducks into turnovers and bad shots. USC capitalized, and fought its way to within four points, at 70-66. But the Ducks dominated the final two and a half minutes, the Trojans missed several shots, and Oregon came out with the win.
“We knew were going to get it done,” Ridnour said. “They did make a run at us and we got tired, but we were able to get some key stops.”
After three games in three nights, the Ducks were all tired for Saturday’s game.
“My legs felt like weights at the beginning of the second half,” Johnson said. “I was like, ‘Legs, don’t do this to me now. We got 20 minutes to go.’”
Oregon got to the title game with late-game heroics Thursday and Friday. Against eighth-seeded UCLA on Friday, Jackson hit a three-pointer with 17 seconds left to propel the Ducks to a 75-74 win. In Thursday’s game against Arizona State, Ridnour hit a running lay-up with 3.3 seconds left to lift Oregon to the 83-82 win.
The title was the first for the Ducks.