Resilient Barthelemy Helps Ducks To Second Round

SEATTLE — Battles between Oregon and Arizona on the hardwood tend to be memorable. For Keeshawn Barthelemy, there's one in particular he'll never forget.

It was Jan. 27, 2024, at Matthew Knight Arena when Barthelemy suffered an ankle dislocation that ended his season. A senior at the time, Barthelemy didn't want that to be the end of his college career, so he opted to take a fifth year due to having played during the pandemic.

Thus, Barthelemy will face the Wildcats one more time, when the Ducks meet them in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Climate Pledge Arena on Sunday (6:40 p.m., TBS). It was a match-up he anticipated when the bracket for the tournament was revealed.

"It was definitely in the back of my mind," Barthelemy said Saturday, a day after helping the UO men knock off Liberty in the first round. "Arizona's a good opponent, and I'm ready, not for revenge necessarily, but just to stand back up on my feet."

The choice of words was striking. It was early in the second half last year when Barthelemy drove to the rim against the Wildcats, had his shot contested and came down awkwardly. His ankle was dislocated, and recovery took months.

While Barthelemy's season was over, Oregon's continued, into the NCAA Tournament. He was an observer, but also a participant.

"His leadership, just being there even when he was at his lowest," teammate Kwame Evans Jr. said, "just really being there for us every game still, was important."

This season, Barthelemy is making an impact in a way he much prefers — through his play.

Entering Sunday's second-round tournament game, Barthelemy is Oregon's fourth-leading scorer with 10.1 points per game. His 62 three-pointers are one fewer than Jackson Shelstad's team-leading total, and his 37 steals are second on the team behind TJ Bamba's 61.

"Kee's done a tremendous job all year," UO coach Dana Altman said. "His efficiency offensively has helped us. He and Jackson have done a good job of handling the ball. Defensively he's tried to compete on that end and use his quickness to create some opportunities for us. He's had a really good year, and he bounced back from that injury and really did a nice job."

Barthelemy had 10 points in Friday's win over Liberty, with a pair of three-pointers. Because of his injury last season, that was Barthelemy's first NCAA Tournament appearance since two games as a redshirt freshman with Colorado in 2021.

But if that made Friday's game any more special for Barthelemy, he wasn't letting on.

"My emotions are, I just try to stay level-headed at all times," he said. "I try to stay a senior leader for the team, just level-headed all the time. Whether things are going good or bad, just always even-keel."

That attitude got Barthelemy through the depths of his injury a year ago. It's helped him thrive in one last season for the Ducks this year.

Sunday's matchup with Arizona brings the chance for a different set of emotions to strike Barthelemy, after last season's injury against the Wildcats. He may stay level-headed, but his head coach will be proud to see him back on the court and thriving.

"As a coach, you always appreciate guys that fight through adversity; we've always talked to our players about it," Altman said. "If it was easy, everybody would do it. And the adversity that comes with the season, the adversity that comes maybe with an injury, the adversity of not playing as much as you want and to fight through that. So to see Kee battle back from that injury and see him become a big part of this year's team, it's a story we'll talk about. No different than (N'Faly) Dante overcoming a couple surgeries a year ago to have a tremendous year for us.

"But as a coach, you preach that. You tell 'em, it's not going to be easy, there's going to be a lot of ups and downs, and you just got to fight through the downs. So when somebody fights through adversity, fights through the challenges of an injury, that's just something that you keep talking about. You talk to future guys that go through injuries. We've had guys with knees, we had guys with ankles. You just got to battle back. So he's set a good example in that regard."