GLENDALE — Three weeks in March can feel like a lifetime.
Remember when Arizona won the Pac-12 Tournament, beating Oregon … three weeks ago?
Arizona certainly remembers it: the last vestige of joy in a season that ended early in San Jose, California, in the Sweet 16, falling victim to Xavier’s 2017 Cinderella story.
That Pac-12 Tournament, though, was a season highlight for the Wildcats. After all Arizona had been through this season, it was a nice culmination. Within 24 hours, the painting of Arizona’s accomplishment was already on the walls in McKale Center.
Three weeks later, and the Oregon Ducks have done well to one-up Arizona’s Pac-12 Tournament title celebration. Next season at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, the Ducks will raise their first Final Four banner in 78 years.
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If Oregon wins Saturday against North Carolina at University of Phoenix Stadium, and again on Monday against the winner of Gonzaga/South Carolina, it would have yet another banner.
Arizona will remember its Pac-12 Tournament title.
Oregon remembers it, too, just for a different reason — that’s when everything took off.
That afternoon, news came out that big man Chris Boucher, a 6-10, talented 3-point shooter and shot blocker, tore his ACL and would miss the rest of the season.
That’s a deadly blow for a team with Final Four aspirations, critics said.
Maybe not — Arizona was sent home, Lauri Markkanen is off to Finland to relax after declaring for the NBA Draft and Oregon is preparing for the first Final Four of coach Dana Altman’s career.
The Ducks still remember how they felt walking off the T-Mobile Arena floor in Las Vegas three weeks ago, confetti flying through the air, Arizona’s players and coaches cutting off their pieces of the net for keepsakes.
That’s not a great feeling for the other team.
But it’s not the end of the world, either.
“Nobody likes that feeling,” freshman guard Payton Pritchard said Friday. “But we knew we had the (NCAA) Tournament. The Pac-12 tournament is nice, but NCAA Tournament is way better.”
Looking back, maybe everyone should have seen this coming.
Consider: On short notice, Oregon had to replace one of its best low-post defenders, who also happened to be a matchup nightmare for opposing defenses. To combat Boucher’s loss, Altman debuted Oregon’s small ball lineup, featuring a 6-9 Jordan Bell in the middle, flanked entirely by guards and wings, including Pritchard, Tyler Dorsey, Dylan Ennis and Pac-12 Player of the Year Dillon Brooks.
Arizona routinely outplayed the Ducks in the first half, outscoring them 35-29, with Oregon shooting 34.5 percent from the field, out-rebounded 20-13.
In the second half, Oregon went down by 10 with 11 minutes to play. The Ducks then rallied and only lost by three points.
Here’s why: Dorsey, now known Mr. March, emerged.
So did Bell, who’s been the most impactful defensive player in the NCAA Tournament.
Before the Arizona game in Las Vegas, Dorsey had scored 20 points six times this season. He scored 21 in the second half of that game, and has scored more than 20 in all four NCAA Tournament games to date, averaging 24.5 points per contest.
Bell had recorded five double-doubles all season before the Pac-12 tournament final. He managed 16 points, 10 rebounds and one block that night. Since, he’s had four double-doubles and averaged 12.5 points, 12.5 rebounds and three blocks, which includes the eight blocks he managed against Kansas in the Elite Eight in a game-altering performance.
“Yeah, it was like freshman year when we lost to Arizona,” Bell said. “It was tough. But I was proud of my team, having to find out we lost one of our best players hours before we had to play and still only losing by three, I was sad obviously that we lost, but I saw that we could make a deep run in the tournament.”
The players reflected about that game on Friday after practice and realized that, more than anything, the Arizona loss made them smarter and better mentally charged to deal with the loss of Boucher.
“It just raised our IQ for playing without Chris,” Brooks said.
Added Altman: “I think in that regard, it probably did help us a little bit in relationship to Chris, just because Arizona got to the basket on us. They got a lot of points in the paint that night and got some easy shots that we typically don’t give up. But I think that losing a ballgame maybe refocuses you sometimes.
“In this particular case, I think it just let us know that we were going to have to play a little differently without Chris.”
Before the Pac-12 tournament, Altman spoke to the Ducks about making a run. He said “you can have two games, or you can have nine games,” Brooks recalled. “We made it two and then we lost the game to Arizona. It made us see ourselves without Chris. Back then, it really raised our awareness of what we had to do without him.”
One loss in the NCAA Tournament, season over. Or, in Oregon’s case, win five games and make it to the championship game. The Ducks will play their eighth postseason game Saturday, with a chance for one more.
After the Pac-12 title game, UA coach Sean Miller said of Oregon: “In fairness to them, I think they’ll hit on all cylinders by the time next week comes around. … I still believe that they can make a run to Phoenix.”
The clairvoyant coach.
It appears the Ducks have figured out the winning formula.
In three weeks, no less.
