For Oregon Men It's Been 'Won, Not Done,' Three Straight Years
by Rob Moseley
Editor, GoDucks.com
OMAHA, Neb. — Success in March, which Oregon has achieved of late with consistency few other programs have enjoyed, begins months earlier.
When the Ducks are slogging through tough individual workouts in September, and lengthy preseason practices in October, it's with one eye on March. Head coach Dana Altman doesn't shy away from reminding the Ducks of that.
"He always says, 'Teams that go hard now are the ones that are going to be playing in March,'" UO guard Theo Friedman said Saturday, after the Ducks practiced for Sunday's third-round NCAA Tournament matchup with Wisconsin (4:45 p.m. PT, TruTV). "He tells us, 'It's your guys' decision. Do you want to win in March, or just walk through everything and have an average team?' He's talked about that for a long time."
Altman's foresight has paid off in three straight seasons, something few other coaches can say at present. The Ducks are one of just nine teams nationally to have won a tournament game each of the last three years, joining Arizona, Gonzaga, Kansas, Louisville, Michigan State, North Carolina, San Diego State and Wichita State.
"That's been a goal: not just to get to the tournament, but to win games," said UO assistant Tony Stubblefield, who has been on staff all five years since Altman took over at Oregon. "When you get here, it's a great feeling — but you want to stay, too. Our guys have done a good job of staying focused, and put us in a situation to win games."
Winning in the tournament takes a mix of season-long preparation and execution in the pressure of the moment. The Ducks have done both well over the last three years.
One of Altman's hallmarks is sustained improvement over the course of the year. In his five seasons at Oregon, the Ducks are 31-14 in the second round of Pac-12 play, third-best in the conference behind Arizona and UCLA.
Given that the Ducks have been working with revamped rosters each year, it stands to reason the team would jell over the course of the year. But it doesn't happen without coaxing from Altman and his staff. "His effort and his enthusiasm for each day is the same," said another fifth-year assistant, Kevin McKenna. "The guys see that and know it, and they fall in."
Altman urges consistency from the Ducks within games, too. "He always talks about valuing every possession, in film we breakdown — all the bad layups we give up, all the bad turnovers we have — because he knows that so much comes down to those last possessions," Friedman said. "I think that's why we've been so successful in close games. And in the tournament, a lot of games are close."
Oregon saw that first-hand Friday against Oklahoma State. Neither team led by double digits at any time, and it was a one-point game with four minutes left, at 70-69. The Ducks buckled down on defense, allowing just one more field goal and four more points to win, 79-73.
"Tournament play is a different animal," McKenna said. "I heard somebody say it the other day, you don't coast to any wins in the tournament — unless you're Kentucky. That's just the way it is, and you have to be able to handle that little extra pressure. The teams that do, advance."
Exceptional free-throw shooting has helped the Ducks clinch close wins all season. Oregon entered the tournament 12th in the NCAA with 76 percent free-throw accuracy, a huge key in the team's 8-0 record this season in games decided by four points or fewer.
The Ducks suffered rare lapses at the line against the Cowboys, with Dwayne Benjamin missing the front end of a one-and-one with 1:02 left, and Jalil Abdul-Bassit doing so again with 21 seconds to play. But the team didn't rattle.
"We responded with positiveness," Abdul-Bassit said. "We were still ahead. Everybody kept clapping, saying, we're still there, it's time to get stops now."
Jordan Bell came through with two blocks in the final 11 seconds, and the Ducks got the stops they needed. That gave Oregon eight wins in its last nine games, the exception being a one-sided loss to Arizona in the Pac-12 Tournament final.
"You throw out the Arizona game, we've played pretty well for quite a while now," McKenna said. "And it's kind of carried over."
McKenna pointed to an earlier loss to Arizona, on Jan. 28, and the way the Ducks responded — an overtime win at Arizona State two days later — as a turning point to this season.
"A lot of teams would have lost confidence or not been able to bounce back," he said. "And these guys did. That showed some resiliency, some character and toughness. I remember telling the guys, that was a big win; now, I didn't know it would turn into this, but we've played pretty darn good since."
With the resources at the program's disposal, that's now the expectation, Stubblefield said. It's something the staff mentions in recruiting, he added.
"We're not stressing getting to the tournament, we're stressing winning games in the tournament," Stubblefield said. "We want to be a team that can contend to play for a championship."
A huge challenge awaits the Ducks on Sunday, when they take on the West Region's top-seeded Badgers. But regardless of the outcome, Oregon can celebrate a run of sustained success in the tournament that only eight other teams have enjoyed the last three years.
