Ducks Preparing For Big Stage
03/27/17 | Men's Basketball, @GoDucksMoseley
Oregon leaves Wednesday for the Final Four, in which the Ducks will face North Carolina in cavernous University of Phoenix Stadium.
Dana Altman is no stranger to the Final Four – just not to the extent to which he'll experience college basketball's premier event this weekend.
A regular attendee of the annual coaches' convention held on the season's final weekend, Altman will be a participant for the first time Saturday. His Ducks (33-5), champions of the Midwest Region, will meet South Region champ North Carolina in University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., as the second game of a Final Four doubleheader that begins with Gonzaga and South Carolina at 3 p.m. PT on CBS.
To get an idea of what to expect, Altman spoke Sunday night with his friend and mentor Lon Kruger, who took Oklahoma to the Final Four last season, after beating Oregon in the Elite Eight. Altman also consulted Monday morning with Mike Montgomery, who coached Stanford to the Final Four in 1998.
"Just trying to get some thoughts on what to avoid, and what to embrace," Altman said Monday afternoon. "Because it is a new experience, for our coaching staff and our players. We want to try and help our players as much as possible, make them as comfortable as possible. Hopefully it'll be similar to the last two weekends."
Oregon opened the tournament as the No. 3 seed in the Midwest, and advanced past Iona in the opening round. The Ducks needed go-ahead shots in the waning moments from Tyler Dorsey to beat both Rhode Island and Michigan, then upset top-seeded Kansas with a sterling defensive effort led by Jordan Bell in Kansas City on Saturday.
North Carolina is looking to atone for its loss at the buzzer to Villanova in last year's championship game. The Tar Heels advanced through the South Regional as the top seed, and beat No. 2 seed Kentucky in the regional final on Sunday.
The Tar Heels are making their 48th NCAA Tournament appearance and 20th trip to the Final Four. They return three starters from last year's national runner-up squad, including guard Joel Berry II, wing Justin Jackson and post Kennedy Meeks. North Carolina's 120 all-time tournament wins, second to Kentucky's 124, give the Heels a decided edge in tournament experience.
"People can play it up if you choose to," UNC coach Roy Williams said Monday. "But once you get here, you've still got to play the game. It helps me and it helps some of our guys to know about some of the hoopla they're getting into. But each coach is good enough to get their guys ready."
To make sure he is, Altman consulted with some friends in the business who have played in the Final Four. Still, he believes North Carolina's recent Final Four experience provides an advantage.
"I think it does," Altman said. "Their players are experienced; they went to the final game last year. Coach Williams has been there, done that. This is a new experience for our players, our coaching staff."
Among the adjustments the Ducks will have to make is playing in cavernous University of Phoenix Stadium, where the UO football team played for the BCS championship following the 2010 season.
The stadium will seat 76,000 for the Final Four. Oregon has the option of practicing there Thursday, in a closed session, and will Friday in a session open to the public and which begins at 1 p.m.
"Open arena, guys are going to have to make that adjustment," Altman said.
Williams on Monday recalled playing in Detroit's Ford Field for the 2009 NCAA title. The Tar Heels shot 45.9 percent and beat Michigan State for the national championship, the most recent of the five in the program's history.
"I truly believe it's different" playing in a football stadium, Williams said. "But to me it's only different the first couple of times you get there. By having your practices in there, and your shootaround the day of the game, I really think that helps."
North Carolina plans to arrive in the Phoenix area a day earlier than the Ducks, for the sake of an injury situation.
Berry, the UNC point guard who averages 14.6 points and 3.6 assists per game, injured his right ankle in the Tar Heels' tournament opener against Texas Southern. He hurt his left ankle early in Sunday's win over Kentucky, but returned to the game.
In case Berry experiences any swelling on the flight to Phoenix, the Tar Heels will travel Tuesday, allowing him extra time to recover. The Ducks plan to leave Eugene on Wednesday afternoon.
The three-point shot may be the great equalizer in the NCAA Tournament, but both Oregon and North Carolina have benefited from big games by big men to reach the Final Four.
Oregon junior Jordan Bell leads the NCAA this postseason with 50 total rebounds, and North Carolina's Meeks is second with 45. Bell is the first player to have 12 or more rebounds in five straight NCAA Tournament games – going back to last season's Elite Eight loss to the Sooners – since Hakeem Olajuwon of Houston in 1985.
"I do think you have to have guys who can make some three-point shots," Williams said. "But I've seen very few teams win the NCAA Championship just shooting threes. Everybody's got to have an inside guy for balance."
According to the analytics site KenPom.com, North Carolina is the best rebounding team in the country on the offensive end, securing 41.9 percent of its chances at that end. Allowing second-chance points has been a bugaboo at times for the Ducks, although not in recent weeks, despite the loss of senior post Chris Boucher to a knee injury.
"I think all the guys have picked it up a little bit, just knowing Chris isn't there," Altman said. "We relied so much on Chris and Jordan to block shots and rebound. When Chris was out of the lineup, obviously Jordan's picked up his numbers dramatically, and our guards have done a better job."
At halftime against Kansas, Altman challenged Dorsey and Dylan Ennis to crash the boards after they combined for zero in the opening half. They teamed up for seven in the second half, all on the Jayhawks' end and including five by Dorsey.
"I think our guys are more conscious of it because Chris wasn't with us," Altman said. "But we will have our work cut out for us Saturday. … Their offensive rebounding numbers are off the charts, so we're going to have to do a great job on the boards."
Oregon is considered a slight underdog entering its Final Four matchup, a position Altman is familiar with when it comes to facing Williams.
The two faced off 10 times when Altman's tenure at Kansas State overlapped with Williams' at Kansas from 1991-94. The Jayhawks won eight times, but the Wildcats scored a memorable upset on the road when Kansas was ranked No. 1 during the 1994 season.
"Our guys stepped up," Altman said. "It was one of the times we got 'em, and it was a big upset. I was really happy with the way the guys played that day."
Brooks on Monday was named an all-American by the Wooden Award, which makes him one of 10 finalists for its national player of the year honor.
Brooks was earlier named first-team American by USA Today and Pac-12 player of the year.
