Ready To Swing Away In The Elite Eight

KANSAS CITY — Three years ago, Oregon's NCAA Tournament run ended when the Ducks played a second-round game against Wisconsin in, of all places, Milwaukee.

Last season, the Ducks fought their way into the Elite Eight, before coming up a game short of the Final Four when Wooden Award player of the year winner Buddy Hield exploded for 37 points to lead Oklahoma to victory.

Either one of those challenges — facing a tournament team essentially playing at home, or a national player of the year candidate — is significant. On Saturday, playing again for a spot in the Final Four, Oregon is presented with both.

The Ducks (32-5) meet Midwest Region top seed Kansas (31-4) and player of the year candidate Frank Mason III in the Elite Eight on Saturday (5:49 p.m. PT, TBS). And they expect all but a few hundred of the Sprint Center's 18,961 seats to be filled by fans in the Jayhawks' blue and red.

"It's a challenge," UO coach Dana Altman said. "But our guys have won on the road before, and in some tough venues."

It was just last season that Oregon ended Arizona's 49-game home winning streak. The Ducks also have recent wins over the Wildcats in the Pac-12 Tournament, which is typically packed with Arizona fans, and nearly upset UCLA on the road this season.

As a team that has scratched and clawed to stay alive in the wake of Chris Boucher's knee injury, the Ducks are looking forward to another chance to do so Saturday.

"We'll stay together," junior Casey Benson vowed. "Obviously the crowd's gonna be ready to go, but we've played big road games. That's essentially what this is."

Kansas enjoyed the benefits of its raucous home crowd in Thursday's Sweet Sixteen win over Purdue. Up seven at halftime, the Jayhawks outscored the Boilermakers by 25 points in the second half, the crowd fueling the team and vice versa. As Kansas' point total climbed, so too did the decibel level.

In the NCAA Tournament, Kansas has an average margin of victory of 33.3 points; Oregon's is less than seven. The Jayhawks lost their opening game of the Big 12 Tournament after winning the regular-season title, but otherwise have only one other loss in regulation this season, at fellow Sweet Sixteen participant West Virginia on Jan. 24.

"We know the challenge, and we know how much is on the line," Oregon junior Dillon Brooks said. "We're going to come out here and not look at them as 'Kansas,' but look at them like they're regular guys. We're going to go out there, play our game, defend the ball and see where the chips fall."

Brooks, named Friday to the National Association of Basketball Coaches' all-America second team, will face another national player of the year candidate in Mason. The 5-foot-11 senior guard averages 20.9 points and 5.2 assists per game, and makes 48.2 percent of his three-pointers — for a team that leads the nation in three-point shooting at 41.1 percent collectively.

"We have plenty of respect for them," UO junior Jordan Bell said, "but I think we can beat them. I think we match up better with them than we did Purdue. We've just got to keep our foot on the gas; like UCLA, they can make quick spurts, hit threes and make layups. If we get the lead, keep our foot on the gas. Game's close, same thing. In the end I have faith in my guys."

The Ducks held a private practice Friday afternoon in the Sprint Center, and among the issues addressed was how to function given the crowd noise.

"We're not gonna hear nothin'!" Altman yelled. "You gotta read the sign and go."

Along with verbal calls, Altman uses hand signals to indicate play calls offensively. That will be of particular benefit Saturday.

"Tomorrow we're obviously going to have to use them a lot," Benson said. "At the end of the day, though, it's about trying to keep the crowd out of it as much as possible. So we've got to play well."

Brooks said players will also emphasize communicating among themselves, rather than each relying individually on getting calls from the bench.

"Telling each other what the plays are, all that," he said. "It's going to be a hostile environment, and we won't be able to hear the coaches. We know, and we're going to be ready for it."

Oregon's practice session Friday ended as usual with free-throw shooting.

For one player, senior Dylan Ennis, it also began at the charity stripe. As soon as Oregon's window of practice time opened, and players took the court to begin shooting around, Ennis immediately put up free throws at each end.

In Thursday's one-point win over Michigan, he twice missed the front end of one-and-one chances in the second half.

"I just want to make sure I'm going up there, same routine, get my rhythm back," Ennis said. "But I'm not going to think about that for the rest of the tournament. I'm still going to attack the basket, trying to get fouled. But knocking them down will be very important right now."

University of Oregon Athletics

Players Mentioned

Jordan Bell

Casey Benson

Chris Boucher

Dillon Brooks

Dylan Ennis

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