Photo by: @EricEvansPhoto
A Dream Realized
04/03/19 | Women's Basketball, @GoDucksMoseley
Seniors Oti Gildon and Maite Cazorla will wrap up their careers on college basketball's biggest stage this weekend when the Ducks play in the Final Four.
TAMPA, Fla. — It was early Monday afternoon in her native Spain when Maite Cazorla connected by phone with family back home. The UO senior point guard was laying in bed, unable to sleep in what were the first few hours after midnight back in Eugene.
How could Cazorla rest? On Sunday in Portland, she and the UO women's basketball team had beaten Mississippi State in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. A program that three years before spoke in whispered tones about the idea of making a Final Four had achieved that goal in her senior season. Sleep wouldn't come easy under those circumstances.
"I was so excited," Cazorla said. "I was just like: This is actually happening."
The UO women's basketball team left Tuesday on a charter flight to Tampa, Fla., site of this year's Final Four. Cazorla and fellow senior Oti Gildon will cap their careers on college basketball's biggest stage, having joined a program that finished 13-17 the year before they arrived, but which will play Friday in an NCAA Tournament semifinal against Baylor (4 p.m., ESPN2).
Gildon is naturally a morning person, but she sprung from bed with extra energy Tuesday. So excited for the trip to Tampa was the UO forward that she forgot her headphones — an indispensable item when facing a five-hour, cross-country flight. She had to circle back home to get them, having been too eager to leave the house and catch the bus from Matthew Knight Arena to the airport.
"My alarm went off," Gildon said, "and I was like, yep, let's go."
In truth, as the Ducks can now acknowledge with full-throated pride, reaching the Final Four while Cazorla and Gildon were still on the team had been a goal ever since fifth-year head coach Kelly Graves took over the program. Upon being hired, Graves and his staff challenged themselves by adopting the mantra "four in four" — the Final Four in their fourth year at Oregon. They developed a hashtag for use in communication with recruits, "#4N4." And now, after coming up one game short in both 2017 and 2018, they have the Ducks playing on college basketball's final weekend.
Cazorla recalled that the staff floated the "four in four" concept while she was being recruited. Back home in Spain, the entirety of the NCAA Tournament wasn't necessarily a big deal, but they paid attention to the semifinals and final. She knew well the significance of the Final Four — and how unlikely it seemed for Oregon to reach one during her four years.
"That sounded like a dream," she recalled. "Like, there's no way."
Gildon first remembers hearing of it during the recruitment of the next class, the "Sweet Sixteens" who enrolled in the fall of 2016, including current juniors Sabrina Ionescu and Ruthy Hebard.
"Four in four" began to seem realistic the following spring, when the 10th-seeded Ducks made an unlikely run to the Elite Eight. But before that?
"I was like, I'm just gonna try to win as many games as I can," Gildon recalled, wanting to keep expectations reasonable given Oregon's sub-.500 record the year before she arrived.
"To actually be here," she added during Tuesday's charter flight, "is awesome."
Cazorla and Gildon each was asked the biggest key to Oregon's having fulfilled the "four in four" goal. Each had the same response: The Ducks' family atmosphere, and their team unity both on and off the court, fueled the program's turnaround.
Cazorla and Gildon have been critical elements to that dynamic. Placed together as roommates their freshman season, they split up as sophomores but reunited the next year and live as seniors with teammates Hebard and Morgan Yaeger. Cazorla endures the living arrangement despite Gildon's devilish desire to hide behind a wall or door and leap out to scare Cazorla, or target her with a Nerf gun.
"They just pick on me," Cazorla said with deadpan humor. "They're just bullies."
Along with being friends, Cazorla and Gildon are natural sidekicks, too. Both can seem shy on first meeting. A team can only handle so many alpha dogs in the mold of Ionescu, and Cazorla and Gildon have been more than happy to settle into the pack behind her.
"She's obviously a great player, and she's just really comfortable with the media and being out front," Cazorla said. "With us, that's not who we are, and we're comfortable with that."
On the court, though, both seniors have stepped into the spotlight when called upon. Gildon has had a knack for playing crucial minutes in postseason games, and in a rare start while Hebard was hurt in November 2017, Gildon stepped up with career highs of 20 points and 12 rebounds against Hampton.
Cazorla has been a fixture in the starting lineup since setting foot on campus. A complementary player just as she's been a complementary personality, that didn't stop Cazorla from hitting arguably the biggest shot of the Elite Eight win over Mississippi State.
With less than a minute left and Oregon looking to hold on to a lead, Cazorla found herself with the ball on the left wing; though precious seconds still remained on the shot clock, Cazorla was unguarded, so she fired up a three-pointer. It touched nothing but net, and drove a dagger into the Bulldogs' comeback bid.
On another team, she might not have felt confident taking such a shot when the Ducks were trying to milk the clock.
"My team trusted me," Cazorla said. "They were like, you're open. Shoot it."
She made it, and now the Ducks are at the Final Four. What once seemed like fantasy is a reality.
As she laid in bed long after Sunday's game, chatting with family, Cazorla didn't have to sleep to dream. Her dreams had come true.
How could Cazorla rest? On Sunday in Portland, she and the UO women's basketball team had beaten Mississippi State in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. A program that three years before spoke in whispered tones about the idea of making a Final Four had achieved that goal in her senior season. Sleep wouldn't come easy under those circumstances.
"I was so excited," Cazorla said. "I was just like: This is actually happening."
The UO women's basketball team left Tuesday on a charter flight to Tampa, Fla., site of this year's Final Four. Cazorla and fellow senior Oti Gildon will cap their careers on college basketball's biggest stage, having joined a program that finished 13-17 the year before they arrived, but which will play Friday in an NCAA Tournament semifinal against Baylor (4 p.m., ESPN2).
Gildon is naturally a morning person, but she sprung from bed with extra energy Tuesday. So excited for the trip to Tampa was the UO forward that she forgot her headphones — an indispensable item when facing a five-hour, cross-country flight. She had to circle back home to get them, having been too eager to leave the house and catch the bus from Matthew Knight Arena to the airport.
"My alarm went off," Gildon said, "and I was like, yep, let's go."
In truth, as the Ducks can now acknowledge with full-throated pride, reaching the Final Four while Cazorla and Gildon were still on the team had been a goal ever since fifth-year head coach Kelly Graves took over the program. Upon being hired, Graves and his staff challenged themselves by adopting the mantra "four in four" — the Final Four in their fourth year at Oregon. They developed a hashtag for use in communication with recruits, "#4N4." And now, after coming up one game short in both 2017 and 2018, they have the Ducks playing on college basketball's final weekend.
Cazorla recalled that the staff floated the "four in four" concept while she was being recruited. Back home in Spain, the entirety of the NCAA Tournament wasn't necessarily a big deal, but they paid attention to the semifinals and final. She knew well the significance of the Final Four — and how unlikely it seemed for Oregon to reach one during her four years.
"That sounded like a dream," she recalled. "Like, there's no way."
Gildon first remembers hearing of it during the recruitment of the next class, the "Sweet Sixteens" who enrolled in the fall of 2016, including current juniors Sabrina Ionescu and Ruthy Hebard.
"Four in four" began to seem realistic the following spring, when the 10th-seeded Ducks made an unlikely run to the Elite Eight. But before that?
"I was like, I'm just gonna try to win as many games as I can," Gildon recalled, wanting to keep expectations reasonable given Oregon's sub-.500 record the year before she arrived.
"To actually be here," she added during Tuesday's charter flight, "is awesome."
Cazorla and Gildon each was asked the biggest key to Oregon's having fulfilled the "four in four" goal. Each had the same response: The Ducks' family atmosphere, and their team unity both on and off the court, fueled the program's turnaround.
Cazorla and Gildon have been critical elements to that dynamic. Placed together as roommates their freshman season, they split up as sophomores but reunited the next year and live as seniors with teammates Hebard and Morgan Yaeger. Cazorla endures the living arrangement despite Gildon's devilish desire to hide behind a wall or door and leap out to scare Cazorla, or target her with a Nerf gun.
"They just pick on me," Cazorla said with deadpan humor. "They're just bullies."
Along with being friends, Cazorla and Gildon are natural sidekicks, too. Both can seem shy on first meeting. A team can only handle so many alpha dogs in the mold of Ionescu, and Cazorla and Gildon have been more than happy to settle into the pack behind her.
"She's obviously a great player, and she's just really comfortable with the media and being out front," Cazorla said. "With us, that's not who we are, and we're comfortable with that."
On the court, though, both seniors have stepped into the spotlight when called upon. Gildon has had a knack for playing crucial minutes in postseason games, and in a rare start while Hebard was hurt in November 2017, Gildon stepped up with career highs of 20 points and 12 rebounds against Hampton.
Cazorla has been a fixture in the starting lineup since setting foot on campus. A complementary player just as she's been a complementary personality, that didn't stop Cazorla from hitting arguably the biggest shot of the Elite Eight win over Mississippi State.
With less than a minute left and Oregon looking to hold on to a lead, Cazorla found herself with the ball on the left wing; though precious seconds still remained on the shot clock, Cazorla was unguarded, so she fired up a three-pointer. It touched nothing but net, and drove a dagger into the Bulldogs' comeback bid.
On another team, she might not have felt confident taking such a shot when the Ducks were trying to milk the clock.
"My team trusted me," Cazorla said. "They were like, you're open. Shoot it."
She made it, and now the Ducks are at the Final Four. What once seemed like fantasy is a reality.
As she laid in bed long after Sunday's game, chatting with family, Cazorla didn't have to sleep to dream. Her dreams had come true.
Players Mentioned
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/ Women's Basketball
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/ Women's Basketball
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