ONE POINT LOSS ENDS OREGON DUCK SEASON

Image via twitter.com

The last game of the year turns Oregon Duck season sour at Final Four

Get to the Final Four and lose, and you’re a loser.

Get to the championship game and lose? You’re still a loser.

If you don’t defend your championship the next season you’re a loser.

See how often you can work loser into a Final Four appearance.

Getting to a Final Four defines the Oregon Duck season.

Losing to North Carolina by one point? The sourness comes from fundamentals you learn in fourth grade basketball.

Forget them at a crucial moment and pay a heavy price.

Climbing the NCAA basketball mountain to the Final Four raises stakes for the next Oregon Duck season

Last year the Elite Eight, this year Final Four, next year Finals, then win it the year after?

Are those progressive steps? It might have worked for the Fab Five if they’d stayed at Michigan.

It won’t work at Oregon, either. The starting five aren’t all freshman and asking upper classmen to ignore NBA gold is like asking a hungry man to skip lunch because dinner will be so delicious.

They’ve already honed their game to near Final Four victory.

So Jordan Bell didn’t block out Meeks on free throws.

Dillion Brooks fouled out on a bad call.

One point winner North Carolina survived its twentieth Final Four.

Five titles on the shelf show the Tar Heels lost plenty even with the wins.

All they do is keep coming back.

They lost the championship last year, and here they are. Again.

Ride a one point victory all the way back to Chapel Hill

If Carolina wins, then Oregon lost to the eventual champion.

If they lose to Gonzaga, then the Ducks lost to another loser.

That’s the worst sort of loss for sports fans.

A one point loss to the eventual champ is sweeter than losing to a loser, no matter how often they’ve succeeded in the past.

Gonzaga win over NC rubs dirt in the hurt

Maybe you’re heard all about Gonzaga’s Mark Few?

Grew up in Creswell, Oregon, just down the road from Eugene.

He graduated from the University of Oregon.

Oregon wanted Gonzaga’s top man.

They didn’t lure him away from his destiny in Spokane.

He could have taken Oregon to the Big Dance for eighteen years, or flopped and been fired.

From the warning ‘you can’t go home again,’ look at Duck Football and Coos Bay native Mark Helfrich.

Ten years younger, Helfrich and Few on campus would have been the new Marks Brothers.

But you’ve got to win to stick around.

When you feel let down, when you taste the sour, put on your Duck gear and do the numbers.

64-32-16-8-4.

Sixty college basketball teams would gladly trade places with Oregon for a chance to play in the final four and lose by one point.

How sour is that?