Ducks basketball: A March to remember (that’d be 2017), and an offseason of questions (in 2026)

March 25, 2017, will be a tough one to beat in my professional life.

It began in Kansas City, where the Oregon men’s basketball team was about to take on a Goliath. The Ducks were playing No. 1 Kansas, in Kansas City, with a trip to the Final Four on the line. It wasn’t exactly a neutral setting. Vegas favored the Jayhawks by 6.5 points, and everyone knew the Ducks were up against it.

But before that, I ate barbecue at Q39, checked out the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and then settled in to watch the Oregon women take on Maryland in the Sweet 16 on TV. The Ducks were a 10 seed and playing in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2005. They were inexperienced, with a couple of upstart freshmen named Sabrina Ionescu and Ruthy Hebard leading them into the tournament. And they didn’t care, as they pounded Maryland by 14 to reach the Elite Eight for the first time in program history.

Later that night, after Tyler Dorsey scored 27 points, after Jordan Bell blocked eight shots and after the Ducks silenced the T-Mobile Center in Oregon’s 74-60 upset win, I couldn’t believe it when a herd of us Oregon sportswriters quickly booked our tickets for Phoenix and the men’s Final Four.

Pound-for-pound, it was one of the better sporting days in Oregon athletic history. And while I understand it’s impossible to replicate that feeling — or that brisket — every year, I do miss the energy that comes from covering a pair of programs still in the thick of things in the tournament’s second week.

The Oregon women made good progress this season — and also saw how steep the climb is from good to great in their second-round defeat to Texas.

And the Oregon men? For better or worse, what happens in 2026-27 isn’t going to be known for a while. Oregon’s roster is seeing massive turnover, presenting yet another challenge for Dana Altman. His 17th season at Oregon will see the coach win his 800th career game. Whether he wins much more than that could help determine how much longer the best coach in Oregon history remains part of the program’s future.

With the men’s and women’s seasons coming to an end over the last couple of weeks, here are a few more parting thoughts on Oregon’s future and the things I’ll remember from the year.

Texas was the real deal

I’m writing this on Friday before the Texas women take on UCLA in the Final Four, but to this point, the Longhorns have been a freight train. They weren’t just bigger, faster and stronger than Oregon. They’ve been that against everyone since. They beat Kentucky by 22 points. They beat Michigan by 38 points. They’re the real deal — and so are the three other No. 1 seeds that made the Final Four.

UCLA won its Elite Eight matchup by 12 over Duke. UConn beat Notre Dame by 18. South Carolina has yet to win a game by fewer than 20 points and is coming off a 26-point drubbing of Texas Christian University.

Yes, as I wrote after Oregon’s loss to the Longhorns, the Ducks have a big gap to make up to get where they want to go. But keep this in mind: Most teams are dealing with the same thing.

The rosters as they stand

The transfer portal doesn’t officially open until April 7, but that hasn’t stopped players from announcing their departures.

Guard Jackson Shelstad, forward Kwame Evans Jr. and forward Dezdrick Lindsay are leaving the men’s team. Forward Sarah Rambus and guard Elisa Mevius are leaving the women’s team.

While both teams are expected to be busy once the portal opens, the women were the first to get some incoming good news: guard Kennedy Holman announced her commitment to Oregon on Friday. Holman was the No. 53-ranked player in the 2026 class and had initially signed with Florida before entering the portal following the firing of Florida coach Rae Finley last month.

After Oregon’s loss to Texas, Ducks coach Kelly Graves talked about Oregon’s need to find some guard depth behind Katie Fiso, and a way for Ehis Etute to not have to spend so much time in the paint. Holman gives the Ducks another guard, and Graves is also high on incoming freshman Emilia Krstevski, a 6-foot-4 center.

The unsung cast members

Had things gone better for the men, Drew Carter probably wouldn’t have played much this season. The senior from Tigard was supposed to be a deep-bench piece — he played in just four games last season after a collegiate career that began in Colorado as a football wide receiver. But when Shelstad went down with an injury and Wei Lin struggled, Carter suddenly found himself on the court. A lot.

Carter played in 26 games this season, seeing his minutes jump from nine last year to 376. The last of those came against Maryland in the Big Ten Tournament.

There was no storybook ending: The Ducks lost 70-60 and Carter went scoreless in 21 minutes.

But I got to chat with Carter in the locker room after the loss, something I probably wouldn’t have done had the season gone right. And I got to learn more about a player who now has some favorite Oregon memories, like scoring 11 points to beat USC on the road in February, or the 10 points he scored in the Ducks’ thrilling come-from-behind regular-season finale against Washington.

“Obviously, the season didn’t go the way we wanted it to go,” Carter said. “But there are still lessons to learn and ways to build off that.”

Some enjoyed the ride

The Wei Lin experience wasn’t a success for the Oregon Ducks.

Signed just before the season, Lin didn’t have nearly enough time to adjust to the American game. He struggled with his shot, turned the ball over and was a liability for the Ducks on the defensive end.

But his fans kept showing up. Lin’s jersey from his Nanjing Monkey Kings days was a common sight at Matthew Knight Arena, and his occasional flashes of offensive brilliance were always met with applause.

Not many made the trip from Eugene to Chicago for the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament. There were Lin diehards, though.

I’ll remember that, at least.

Standing above giants

I saw a lot of impressive things in the last year covering Oregon athletics. Etute’s ability to dominate players 6 inches taller remains at the top of the list.

I just don’t get how she does it. At 6 feet, she’s a vacuum on the boards who pogo-sticks her way to two or three attempts at a ball before her opponent comes down from their first. She can run the floor offensively and showed an uncanny ability to pirouette around larger opponents, pump-fake them into oblivion and bank in a shot.

“There are times when she’s the only person we send to the offensive glass, and she still seems to get a whole bunch of them,” Graves said. “I mean, her nose for the ball on rebounds is among the best I’ve ever seen.”

As long as Oregon can manage to keep her on the roster, the core of her and Fiso is worthy of hype as they move into their junior years with the program.

And finally

Just wanted to thank everyone for reading our coverage of the men’s and women’s teams this year. It was a bit challenging trying to manage both — especially while football made its playoff run — but it was certainly rewarding. I had never really covered Graves and his teams before, and I enjoyed the heck out of it.

It would be fun to do it a little further into the calendar next year.