“They be sleeping on us.”
Those were the words Jordan Bell said to a reporter on national television right after No. 3 seeded Oregon upset No. 1 Kansas 74-60, booking the Ducks’ first trip to the Final Four in 78 years.
Bell was iconic in Oregon’s biggest victory since 1939 when the “Webfoots” won the national championship in the first ever Final Four. He finished the game with a near triple-double — 11 points, 13 rebounds and a career-high eight blocks.
Bell began the game with a decisive block of Kansas’ Josh Jackson, and never stopped protecting the paint from there. His dominance protecting the rim was proven when Deontae Graham drove the lane and saw Bell waiting for him. Graham pulled up from three-feet and promptly air-balled the shot as Bell grabbed the rebound and started the fast break for the Ducks.
Tyler Dorsey — Oregon’s best player since the Pac-12 Tournament — finished the game with 27 points, his seventh game in a row of scoring at least 20.
Bell was named the Midwest region’s MVP while Dorsey and Dillon Brooks were named to the all-Midwest Region team.
The biggest sequence of the game featured Bell and Dorsey doing what they do best. Kansas was in the midst of a 9-2 run and had cut the Ducks’ double-digit lead to 66-60 with 2:20 to play. With the shot clock winding down and Oregon in a slump offensively, Dorsey heaved a shot at that rim to beat the shot clock.
As the ball bounced off the backboard and rim, Bell grabbed the offensive rebound — his seventh of the game — and found Dorsey. This time, Dorsey hit a pull-up 3-pointer as the shot clock expired to put the game on ice.
More important than Dorsey’s scoring and Bell’s rebounding was Oregon’s approach on the defensive side of the ball. Kansas entered the game averaging 96 points in the first three tournament games. The Ducks held the Jayhawks to 21-of-60 shooting (35 percent) and more importantly, 5-for-25 (20 percent) from beyond the arc.
With Bell protecting the paint, it left Oregon’s perimeter players free to gamble in passing lanes and overpressure there Jayhawks, forcing them into multiple bad shots and possessions. Although Kansas committed just eight turnovers, the Jayhawks rarely had a shot where it wasn’t contested.
The game began as a back-and-forth affair with neither team able to take full control. Jackson — a potential top-3 pick in the upcoming NBA Draft — picked up two early fouls and was forced to the bench early on.
As Oregon began to pull away in the first half, Kansas went on a mini run to cut the Ducks’ lead to 36-33 with 1:29 to play in the half, thus salvaging a rough first 20 minutes for the Jayhawks. Not to be denied, Oregon went on an 8-0 run to end the half, including back-to-back three’s by Dorsey for the 44-33 lead at the break.
The second half saw the Ducks stave off any and all of Kansas’ runs.
The Ducks took their largest lead of the game, 55-37, after a Dillon Brooks 3-pointer five minutes into the second half. As Kansas tried to fight its way back into the game, it was either a Dorsey or Brooks 3-pointer, a Dylan Ennis layup or a Bell block and rebound that kept the Jayhawks at bay and Oregon in the lead.
Oregon will face off with the winner of Sunday’s North Carolina-Kentucky game on Saturday, April 1 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Follow Ryan Kostecka on Twitter @Ryan_Kostecka