Backs against the wall, Oregon Ducks know a chance to be 'legendary' is on the line against Kansas
Oregon coach Dana Altman opened up his press conference on Friday with the understatement of the Elite Eight's media session.
"The atmosphere was a little bit pro KU last night," Altman said. "I imagine it will be the same tomorrow."
Ya think?
When the No. 3 seed Ducks meet the No. 1 seed Jayhawks with a spot in the Final Four on the line, the Ducks won't just be facing one of the best and most consistent teams in the country, they'll be up against a Sprint Center crowd that is sure to be 98 percent full of Kansas fans.
It was like that during Kansas' 98-66 win over Purdue on Thursday, and the scenario is likely to repeat itself. The Ducks might get a 1 percent slice of the pie, and the other 1 percent might go to arena staff.
In short, the Ducks will be up against it on Saturday if they want to advance to the team's first Final Four since winning the initial NCAA Tournament in 1939.
Dillon Brooks doesn't seem to mind.
"We were written off against Michigan and Rhode Island," said the junior, making note of running into the Michigan "team of destiny" talk and a Rhode Island team that was said to be a terrible matchup. "It doesn't matter who it was or what it is, we just came out here and played with each other. It's an us versus them mentality."
Let's begin with the crowd noise. It will be loud in Kansas' favor on Saturday. The Jayhawks play their home games just 40 miles west of here, and just about every bar, store and restaurant surrounding the Sprint Center this week has been packed with fans in blue. It was so loud during parts of Kansas' Thursday win that the crowd noise reverberated through the bottom levels of the arena and into the locker rooms.
"It's a home game for them," said Tyler Dorsey, who scored 20 points and the game-winning basket for Oregon in the Ducks' Sweet 16 win over Michigan. "It's going to be all blue ... It's definitely going to be a road game for us."
Some good news: While each of Oregon's five losses this season came away from Matthew Knight Arena, the Ducks have actually thrived in some of the Pac-12's loudest venues over the past two seasons.
The Ducks won at Utah this year and swept the Bay Area schools. And the pivotal win of this two-year stretch came last season when the Ducks ended Arizona's 49-game winning streak at the McKale Center in front of of 14,644 Arizona fans.
"We didn't let the fans affect us at Utah, the Pac-12 tournament, the noise doesn't really affect us," said junior Jordan Bell. "We're more mature now. We're not freshmen. We're used to that kind of noise. I think now everybody here is old enough, even some of the freshmen have played in big places, I don't think the fans affect any of us."
If the crowd isn't an issue, then the actual Jayhawks basketball team will be. Kansas won the Big 12 Conference regular season title, was ranked No. 1 for a good portion of the season and enters Saturday's game with a 31-4 record. The Jayhawks have scored 90 or more points in all three of their tournament games so far and are led by the dynamic combo of Frank Mason III (20.9 ppg, 5.2 apg, 4.2 rpg) and Josh Jackson (16.5 ppg, 7.2 rpg).
"It's a hard game because there is so much emphasis on the road to the Final Four," said Kansas coach Bill Self, who won a national title at Kansas in 2008. "... If you get beat in this game, you come just that close to getting to the goal. The goal is to win a national championship, but certainly all the hoopla around it is the Final Four."
Kansas enters the game as a seven-point favorite, KenPom.com projects them as a five-point winner and most around the country seem to figure that Oregon's run through the tournament is in its final moments.
And while Saturday's matchup isn't ideal for Oregon, its march back to the Elite Eight hasn't exactly come under ideal circumstances. Brooks missed the first two games of the year with a broken foot and was on a minutes restriction for the first half of the season. Dorsey had his ups and downs as a sophomore, Dylan Ennis took time to adjust after missing all of last year and Oregon has managed to win its last three tournament games without Chris Boucher, who tore his ACL in the Pac-12 tournament.
Backs against the wall? Sure, Brooks said. But the prospect of advancing to the Final Four is the motivation he thinks the team needs to survive one more time here in March.
"It would mean that this team is one of the legendary teams in Oregon history," Brooks said. "I feel like guys recognize that and want to be remembered 20 years later when we have kids, so we can tell them that I was one of the Final Four teams and I'm an Oregon legend."
Oregon coach Dana Altman opened up his press conference on Friday with the understatement of the Elite Eight's media session.
"The atmosphere was a little bit pro KU last night," Altman said. "I imagine it will be the same tomorrow."
Ya think?
When the No. 3 seed Ducks meet the No. 1 seed Jayhawks with a spot in the Final Four on the line, the Ducks won't just be facing one of the best and most consistent teams in the country, they'll be up against a Sprint Center crowd that is sure to be 98 percent full of Kansas fans.
It was like that during Kansas' 98-66 win over Purdue on Thursday, and the scenario is likely to repeat itself. The Ducks might get a 1 percent slice of the pie, and the other 1 percent might go to arena staff.
In short, the Ducks will be up against it on Saturday if they want to advance to the team's first Final Four since winning the initial NCAA Tournament in 1939.
Dillon Brooks doesn't seem to mind.
"We were written off against Michigan and Rhode Island," said the junior, making note of running into the Michigan "team of destiny" talk and a Rhode Island team that was said to be a terrible matchup. "It doesn't matter who it was or what it is, we just came out here and played with each other. It's an us versus them mentality."
Let's begin with the crowd noise. It will be loud in Kansas' favor on Saturday. The Jayhawks play their home games just 40 miles west of here, and just about every bar, store and restaurant surrounding the Sprint Center this week has been packed with fans in blue. It was so loud during parts of Kansas' Thursday win that the crowd noise reverberated through the bottom levels of the arena and into the locker rooms.
"It's a home game for them," said Tyler Dorsey, who scored 20 points and the game-winning basket for Oregon in the Ducks' Sweet 16 win over Michigan. "It's going to be all blue ... It's definitely going to be a road game for us."
Some good news: While each of Oregon's five losses this season came away from Matthew Knight Arena, the Ducks have actually thrived in some of the Pac-12's loudest venues over the past two seasons.
The Ducks won at Utah this year and swept the Bay Area schools. And the pivotal win of this two-year stretch came last season when the Ducks ended Arizona's 49-game winning streak at the McKale Center in front of of 14,644 Arizona fans.
"We didn't let the fans affect us at Utah, the Pac-12 tournament, the noise doesn't really affect us," said junior Jordan Bell. "We're more mature now. We're not freshmen. We're used to that kind of noise. I think now everybody here is old enough, even some of the freshmen have played in big places, I don't think the fans affect any of us."
If the crowd isn't an issue, then the actual Jayhawks basketball team will be. Kansas won the Big 12 Conference regular season title, was ranked No. 1 for a good portion of the season and enters Saturday's game with a 31-4 record. The Jayhawks have scored 90 or more points in all three of their tournament games so far and are led by the dynamic combo of Frank Mason III (20.9 ppg, 5.2 apg, 4.2 rpg) and Josh Jackson (16.5 ppg, 7.2 rpg).
"It's a hard game because there is so much emphasis on the road to the Final Four," said Kansas coach Bill Self, who won a national title at Kansas in 2008. "... If you get beat in this game, you come just that close to getting to the goal. The goal is to win a national championship, but certainly all the hoopla around it is the Final Four."
Kansas enters the game as a seven-point favorite, KenPom.com projects them as a five-point winner and most around the country seem to figure that Oregon's run through the tournament is in its final moments.
And while Saturday's matchup isn't ideal for Oregon, its march back to the Elite Eight hasn't exactly come under ideal circumstances. Brooks missed the first two games of the year with a broken foot and was on a minutes restriction for the first half of the season. Dorsey had his ups and downs as a sophomore, Dylan Ennis took time to adjust after missing all of last year and Oregon has managed to win its last three tournament games without Chris Boucher, who tore his ACL in the Pac-12 tournament.
Backs against the wall? Sure, Brooks said. But the prospect of advancing to the Final Four is the motivation he thinks the team needs to survive one more time here in March.
"It would mean that this team is one of the legendary teams in Oregon history," Brooks said. "I feel like guys recognize that and want to be remembered 20 years later when we have kids, so we can tell them that I was one of the Final Four teams and I'm an Oregon legend."
