Photo by: Ian McFarland/UO Athletics
Another Familiar Foe Awaits Ducks
03/22/24 | Men's Basketball, @GoDucksMoseley
Two days after Jermaine Couisnard faced his former team, UO coach Dana Altman will face Creighton, where he was head coach for 16 seasons.
PITTSBURGH — Year in and year out, the NCAA Tournament produces fantastic storylines. Some emerge out of nowhere. Others can almost feel scripted.
One example of the latter is the next matchup for the Oregon men's basketball team, in the second round of the tournament here Saturday evening. The 11th-seeded Ducks will face third-seeded Creighton for a spot in the Sweet Sixteen, in a game tipping off at 6:40 p.m. PT on TBS — a matchup of the school where Dana Altman previously spent 16 years as head coach against the school he has coached for the past 14 seasons.
At this time of year, coaches want to be maniacally focused. Altman is no different. But it's a challenge this weekend.
"All I care about is my players now," Altman said Friday, before the Ducks practiced at PPG Paints Arena in the wake of their first-round win Thursday over South Carolina. "(But) it's tough to play Creighton; I wish the committee wouldn't have done that. There are other threes we could have played. But they did, and so we'll have to play a game. But my focus is on (N'Faly) Dante and Jermaine (Couisnard) and the fellas I got now. And I'm sure Creighton feels the same way."
Altman remains Creighton's all-time winningest coach, having gone 327-176 there. Current Bluejays coach Greg McDermott, who replaced Altman in 2010, is knocking on the door of that record, having earned win No. 324 on Thursday against Akron.
Altman has been rooting on McDermott and the Bluejays since moving to Oregon. That will change Saturday, if only for one night.
"It's so good to watch from afar," Altman said. "It might be my ego or whatever, but I still feel a part of it. I still cheer for them. My family is all back in Nebraska. Oregon might be 1, but Creighton is 1A."
Oregon's ties with the Bluejays go deeper than just Altman. Current UO staff members Kevin McKenna and Brian Fish worked at Creighton under Altman, and now do so with the Ducks.
So there are some mixed feelings about the matchups — though any nostalgia goes out the window when the ball is tipped Saturday, if only for a couple of hours.
"It's tournament time, and I love Oregon," Altman said. "I hope I feel, and the people feel, the same way when my time is done at Oregon. I know I'll feel the same way about Oregon as I do about Creighton. I'll want them to be successful and keep it going."
Couisnard's paternal grandmother, Claudette Jackson, doesn't like to fly. And so, Thursday's NCAA Tournament game was the first time Jackson, who lives in the Midwest, was able to drive and watch her grandson play since he joined the Ducks last season.
"And if I'd have known that," Altman joked Friday, a day after Couisnard scored a UO tournament-record 40 points with his grandmother watching from the stands, "we'd have had the bus pick her up in Chicago and drive her all the way out to Eugene."
Like Altman against Creighton, Couisnard was a player in one of this tournament's great early narratives Thursday when he scored 40 points against his former school, South Carolina. It was one of the top individual performances of the first night of the first round, and Couisnard couldn't avoid all the attention he attracted.
"It's kind of hard, just because you see yourself everywhere, just scrolling any social media," Couisnard said Friday. "But it's just like coach said, once he handed us out the scouting reports (on Creighton, at lunch Friday prior to practice), it was time to lock in on our next opponent and that's what I'm focused on. The game that's past, that was a wonderful game for us, but I feel like we're not done yet — we got more to accomplish."
Couisnard's big night was sparked in part, he said, by some playful trash talk on the part of one of the Gamecocks players he knew. At least one of Couisnard's new teammates would have advised against poking the bear in that way.
"He's super competitive, and when somebody said something on the other team — us on our team, we know not to say anything to Jermaine because that's what gets him going," UO freshman point guard Jackson Shelstad said. "So that was a bad idea. After that, he got it rolling. So we just got him the ball, and he was hot. He carried us."
Shelstad found himself in the spotlight at some key moments Thursday, as well.
Shortly after the opening tip of his first career appearance in the NCAA Tournament, the freshman from West Linn scored Oregon's first points of the game, on a three-pointer. And Shelstad's final points of the night were the fourth time in four games this postseason he hit free throws in the final minute of play.
In two of the Ducks' three Pac-12 Tournament wins, their final points of the night were provided by Shelstad from the free-throw line. He made 1-of-2 free throws with 4 seconds remaining in the quarterfinals and Oregon leading UCLA by one, 2-of-2 with 29 seconds left in the semifinals to give the Ducks a six-point lead over Arizona, and 2-of-2 with 16 seconds left for the final UO points of their title-game win over Colorado.
On Thursday, Shelstad made 2-of-2 with 1:07 left against South Carolina, and he made another 2-of-2 with 55 seconds to play.
"Definitely something I've been getting used to," Shelstad said of performing on the big stages. "But I just try to keep my confidence, and my teammates and coaches do a really good job instilling that in me every day at practice and in the game. So when I'm out there I don't feel shaky, really, because I know they trust me and I just gotta deliver."
One example of the latter is the next matchup for the Oregon men's basketball team, in the second round of the tournament here Saturday evening. The 11th-seeded Ducks will face third-seeded Creighton for a spot in the Sweet Sixteen, in a game tipping off at 6:40 p.m. PT on TBS — a matchup of the school where Dana Altman previously spent 16 years as head coach against the school he has coached for the past 14 seasons.
At this time of year, coaches want to be maniacally focused. Altman is no different. But it's a challenge this weekend.
"All I care about is my players now," Altman said Friday, before the Ducks practiced at PPG Paints Arena in the wake of their first-round win Thursday over South Carolina. "(But) it's tough to play Creighton; I wish the committee wouldn't have done that. There are other threes we could have played. But they did, and so we'll have to play a game. But my focus is on (N'Faly) Dante and Jermaine (Couisnard) and the fellas I got now. And I'm sure Creighton feels the same way."
Altman remains Creighton's all-time winningest coach, having gone 327-176 there. Current Bluejays coach Greg McDermott, who replaced Altman in 2010, is knocking on the door of that record, having earned win No. 324 on Thursday against Akron.
Altman has been rooting on McDermott and the Bluejays since moving to Oregon. That will change Saturday, if only for one night.
"It's so good to watch from afar," Altman said. "It might be my ego or whatever, but I still feel a part of it. I still cheer for them. My family is all back in Nebraska. Oregon might be 1, but Creighton is 1A."
Oregon's ties with the Bluejays go deeper than just Altman. Current UO staff members Kevin McKenna and Brian Fish worked at Creighton under Altman, and now do so with the Ducks.
So there are some mixed feelings about the matchups — though any nostalgia goes out the window when the ball is tipped Saturday, if only for a couple of hours.
"It's tournament time, and I love Oregon," Altman said. "I hope I feel, and the people feel, the same way when my time is done at Oregon. I know I'll feel the same way about Oregon as I do about Creighton. I'll want them to be successful and keep it going."
Couisnard's paternal grandmother, Claudette Jackson, doesn't like to fly. And so, Thursday's NCAA Tournament game was the first time Jackson, who lives in the Midwest, was able to drive and watch her grandson play since he joined the Ducks last season.
"And if I'd have known that," Altman joked Friday, a day after Couisnard scored a UO tournament-record 40 points with his grandmother watching from the stands, "we'd have had the bus pick her up in Chicago and drive her all the way out to Eugene."
Like Altman against Creighton, Couisnard was a player in one of this tournament's great early narratives Thursday when he scored 40 points against his former school, South Carolina. It was one of the top individual performances of the first night of the first round, and Couisnard couldn't avoid all the attention he attracted.
"It's kind of hard, just because you see yourself everywhere, just scrolling any social media," Couisnard said Friday. "But it's just like coach said, once he handed us out the scouting reports (on Creighton, at lunch Friday prior to practice), it was time to lock in on our next opponent and that's what I'm focused on. The game that's past, that was a wonderful game for us, but I feel like we're not done yet — we got more to accomplish."
Couisnard's big night was sparked in part, he said, by some playful trash talk on the part of one of the Gamecocks players he knew. At least one of Couisnard's new teammates would have advised against poking the bear in that way.
"He's super competitive, and when somebody said something on the other team — us on our team, we know not to say anything to Jermaine because that's what gets him going," UO freshman point guard Jackson Shelstad said. "So that was a bad idea. After that, he got it rolling. So we just got him the ball, and he was hot. He carried us."
Shelstad found himself in the spotlight at some key moments Thursday, as well.
Shortly after the opening tip of his first career appearance in the NCAA Tournament, the freshman from West Linn scored Oregon's first points of the game, on a three-pointer. And Shelstad's final points of the night were the fourth time in four games this postseason he hit free throws in the final minute of play.
In two of the Ducks' three Pac-12 Tournament wins, their final points of the night were provided by Shelstad from the free-throw line. He made 1-of-2 free throws with 4 seconds remaining in the quarterfinals and Oregon leading UCLA by one, 2-of-2 with 29 seconds left in the semifinals to give the Ducks a six-point lead over Arizona, and 2-of-2 with 16 seconds left for the final UO points of their title-game win over Colorado.
On Thursday, Shelstad made 2-of-2 with 1:07 left against South Carolina, and he made another 2-of-2 with 55 seconds to play.
"Definitely something I've been getting used to," Shelstad said of performing on the big stages. "But I just try to keep my confidence, and my teammates and coaches do a really good job instilling that in me every day at practice and in the game. So when I'm out there I don't feel shaky, really, because I know they trust me and I just gotta deliver."
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