Dana Altman’s face said it all.
He doubled over in dismay and came up laughing. A man who has seen it all recognizing exactly what is happening in real time. He knew in that moment, with 26 seconds left in regulation, with the Oregon Ducks leading by two, that freshman Kwame Evans Jr.’s desperation call to inbound the ball to N’Faly Dante did the one thing the Ducks could not do in this second-round men’s NCAA Tournament game.
It kept the door open for the Creighton Bluejays.
Yes, the Ducks could have slammed it shut.
Yes, they probably should have won the game and advanced to the Midwest Regional in Detroit.
Dante missed the free throw. Creighton tied the game to force one overtime, and then blew past the Ducks in the second OT to win 86-73.
Oh, how close the Ducks were to the Sweet 16.
The team that entered the Pac-12 tournament seemingly destined for a third consecutive March lost in the purgatory of the NIT rode the brilliance of its two best and most veteran players to one of the most unexpected and thrilling rides Oregon fans can remember.
There have been better Oregon teams. There have been more exhilarating runs in this tournament.
But I don’t know if there has been a Ducks group that came from so far out of nowhere to so quickly, so completely capture the imagination of the fanbase.
Before breaking loose in Las Vegas last week, Couisnard was kind of just a face in the crowd for the Ducks. The leader by default of a couple of teams that never amounted to much. Today, he has a place in Oregon lore after scoring 72 points in two NCAA Tournament games, including 40 to beat South Carolina on Thursday. His three-pointer to tie the game with 16 seconds left in overtime was magic.
N’Faly Dante propelled the Ducks to the tournament by singlehandedly dominating Colorado in the conference title game, leaving Eugene with a true glimpse of his dominance rather than the questions of what-if that accompanied so much of his Oregon career that was defined by injuries.
The Ducks were only going to go as far as those two could take them. That could not have been more clear when the pair combined for 37 of the Ducks’ 39 points after halftime.
A run that nobody saw coming earlier in March ended when Dante and Couisnard finally ran out of gas. It ended with Jackson Shelstad, the star-in-the-making freshman guard, on the bench after suffering a late injury.
Ducks fans likely went to bed on Saturday contemplating just how this game got away. Oregon led by four with under 30 seconds to play in regulation. A date with No. 2 seed Tennessee felt inevitable.
Stories by Bill Oram
What happened? You can second-guess those final moments. And you should. That’s sports.
But that frustration in and of itself is the silver lining of the Ducks’ heartbreak in Pittsburgh.
With an unexpected, unbelievable run, Altman and the Ducks breathed a surge of excitement into a program that was listing.
Consider that a year ago, the Ducks’ season ended in the NIT with Altman questioning why Oregon fans had stopped showing up at Matthew Knight Arena, a message that reflected broader concerns about the direction of the program.
One year later, the season is over, but if the Ducks had a game tomorrow, wouldn’t you want to be there? I would.
In the span of 10 days, Oregon became a basketball school again. At least in March. Altman reasserted himself as the right man for the job.
And when the Ducks open next season as the fresh-faced newcomer in the Big Ten, I’d bet here will be butts in the seats to watch Evans, Shelstad and whoever else Altman can find to replace Couisnard and Dante. That part won’t be easy.
But I suspect Altman is going into the offseason with a little bit more pep in his step than you’d have expected two weeks ago.
And that Oregon fans are, too.
MORE SPORTS COVERAGE
- News | Newsletter | Facebook | YouTube | Podcast
- Support local journalism with a subscription to OregonLive
- Contact Bill Oram at BOram@oregonian.com