The I-5 Thoughts: The Ducks will dance in Seattle
On the Ducks landing in Seattle, Altman's first-round success and Nate Bittle's future.
Dana Altman didn’t seem to anticipate they’d finally get the easy route.
To be clear, there’s nothing simple about the five-seed Oregon men’s basketball team’s run through the NCAA Tournament. The Ducks begin with Liberty on Friday and, if they win, could stare down old Pac-12 rival Arizona with a spot in the Sweet 16 on the line.
But consider this: After Oregon’s Big Ten Tournament loss to Michigan State on Friday, Altman, along with center Nate Bittle, came to the postgame press conference with their bags packed.
“If we could make this a lot shorter than the last one,” Altman said, not wanting to spend a minute longer than he needed to in Indianapolis. Not after a game in which he said they were punished on the boards as everyone “stood around waiting for Nate to go get it.”
The Ducks lost 74-64, and Altman wanted to get home. Selection Sunday was on the horizon and, while the Ducks’ position in the NCAA Tournament was all but certain, the committee would have been well within its rights to send the Ducks right back on the road to Lexington or Providence or Wichita or Cleveland or Milwaukee or Raleigh.
Maybe, if they got lucky, they could land in the Denver bracket.
But the Ducks didn’t get Denver. The Ducks got Seattle.
“Well, we were happy about it,” Altman said. “We thought Seattle or Denver were pretty good options for us — Providence, Cleveland, probably not, just because we just got back from Indy.”
The Ducks will have two full days of “desperately needed” practice in Eugene, they’ll make the relatively short jaunt to Seattle on Wednesday and practice on the tournament court on Thursday before Friday’s 7:10 p.m. tip against the 12th-seeded Flames.
It’s a blessing for the Ducks. And it’s a blessing for The Corridor — Seattle is well within our travel budget, and I look forward to providing on-site coverage from Climate Pledge Arena.
A portal success
The transfer dream doesn’t always work out.
I’m reminded of Elijah Brown, a high-scoring guard from New Mexico, who came to Oregon the year after the Final Four, finished second behind Payton Pritchard in scoring and missed out on the NCAA Tournament in his final season of eligibility.
There was no net cutting for Brown. No Selection Sunday. Just a 20-point loss in the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals and a two-game run in the NIT.
I thought of this when going back through Brandon Angel’s appearance at the Big Ten media day back in October. Angel, a senior, came to Oregon from Stanford for his final season of eligibility. And he did so with the NCAA Tournament in mind.
“My biggest thing in the transfer portal was, I need to win,” Angel said. “It’s not a want. I need to win, and I think I found that at Oregon with Coach and the history they’ve had.”
It is pretty good history. Friday will be Oregon’s ninth NCAA Tournament appearance in Altman’s 15 seasons. But it’s never a sure thing, which is why Altman is particularly happy for this year’s roster.
“I am just excited for Brandon Angel, Supreme Cook, TJ Bamba and Ra’Heim Moss,” Altman said of a group of players the Ducks took in last offseason with 579 games played in their careers but none in the NCAA Tournament. “Guys that came here wanting to experience this, you know, who were in transfer situations in the last year and getting that opportunity."