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DEL.ICIO.USCinderella slippers may fit Ducks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
St. Louis — This is what passes for Cinderella in the Big Dance of 2007: The tournament champion of the league that has won more national basketball titles than any other; a team that has been in the Top 25 since December; a No. 3 seed that has beaten Georgetown, UCLA, Washington State and Southern Cal. That said, the Oregon Ducks are the lowest seed left in the tournament, so don’t they feel a bit like this year’s George Mason?
Uh, no.
“A lot of people haven’t seen us play,” said Bryce Taylor, one of Oregon’s four starting guards, “but we’ve had some big wins. We kind of take the underdog role personally. We use it as extra motivation.”
George Mason embraced its sleeper status to the max last year, its pep band adding “All I Need Is Miracle” and “Livin’ On A Prayer” to its repertoire. The Ducks bristle because more folks haven’t paid attention. Taylor again: “West Coast teams get overlooked or underrated.” That isn’t true if you’re UCLA, but it is if you’re a Duck.
Said Tajuan Porter, the smallest of the four guards and a native of Detroit: “I didn’t even know Oregon was a state until Malik [Hairston, his high school teammate] went there.”
Said Ernie Kent, the Oregon alum who coaches the Ducks: “Sometimes it’s hard to sell the rain [precipitation is a fact of everyday Northwest life] to someone who comes from California.”
Just because Oregon seems slightly rustic doesn’t mean it’s a mid-major. It’s a major major. Its enrollment is 20,333. It won the first NCAA basketball title in 1939. Its athletics programs are heavily funded by Nike, which rules the world. Alumnus Phil Knight, Nike’s founder, is a quacking Duck fan, and he’s here for the Midwest Regional. “He’s no different from any other booster at Michigan or UCLA,” Kent said. “But he hasn’t called a play yet, and I don’t know if I’d let him.”
Oregon plays Florida today, and these Gators have become a brand name to rival Nike. Florida has a small forward who’s 6-foot-9. Oregon’s leading scorer against UNLV on Friday was Porter, who’s 5-6 and who had 33 astonishing points. “The ultimate challenge,” Kent called his team’s date with the big and swift Gators, but any team that has beaten the people Oregon has — the Ducks led Southern Cal, which nearly beat North Carolina, by 40 points 15 days ago in the Pac-10 tournament final — cannot plead poverty.
The Ducks can play. They just play somewhat differently. They resemble Villanova of a year ago — lots of guards, tons of quickness, barrels of 3-pointers — but it’s worth noting that Florida handled Villanova rather easily in this round. “I’m definitely tempted to watch [the tape of that game],” said Kent, who admitted: “What Villanova did definitely influenced us.”
It’s a funny space the Ducks occupy: They’re too accomplished to be the tournament darling but too obscure to be a full-blown power. Kent again: “There are a lot of big names sitting center stage this weekend, and our name is not as big.”
Maybe that will change today. Maybe the watching world will get a load of this brace of Ducks and decide that Porter is the cutest thing since Spud Webb. “Everybody loves to cheer for the little guy,” Kent said, and Porter is definitely little. His size, or the lack thereof, prevented bigger (pun intended) schools from recruiting him, and even his fellow Ducks weren’t sure what they were getting.
They soon learned. Said Aaron Brooks, the relatively massive (he’s 6-foot) point guard and the team’s best player: “I had to guard the little dude. He put on a couple of moves that kind of shook me.”
Can the Ducks pull the moves that will shock the defending champs? Probably not. But it should be fun to watch them try. They really don’t qualify as Cinderella, but you never know. Maybe mighty Nike is about to put the swoosh on a line of glass slippers.
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By Atlanta Gator
March 24, 2007 10:56 PM | Link to this
Gators vs. Ducks? Should be a great regional final. Until the last several weeks, the Ducks were under-rated by the polls and the other “experts,” but the secret’s out of the bag now: Oregon is definitely a top-10 team. Nervertheless, I’ve already placed my bet, and my money’s on the kids from that small school from Gainesville.
May the best team win.
By Nan
March 25, 2007 12:16 AM | Link to this
Go Ducks! You’re my kind of team though I’m a die hard SECer! An I don’t even care for Orego… geographically speaking. Lulu
By Nan
March 25, 2007 12:21 AM | Link to this
PS- Come to think of it I don’t like the state politically, personaly or oLulutherwise. But go Ducks!!!
By SkiDuck
March 25, 2007 2:08 PM | Link to this
As a fellow fowl I would like to remind you that a duck can swim, walk and fly (my case they can ski also). Name another with them qualities. Ducks forever.