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The Buddy Hield show sends Oklahoma into Final Four The Buddy Hield show sends Oklahoma into Final Four
(about 2 hours later)
ANAHEIM, Calif. — An art exhibit showed Saturday here before 18,000 patrons. A joyous Bahamian virtuoso on a student visa performed it. Anyone who likes basketball served with beauty and electricity could derive goose bumps from it. ANAHEIM, Calif. — An art exhibit showed Saturday here before 16,232 patrons. A joyous Bahamian virtuoso on a student visa performed it. Anyone who likes basketball served with beauty and electricity could derive goose bumps from it.
By the 36th game of his senior season at Oklahoma that will land in his Final Four dreamland because of an 80-68 win over Oregon in the West Region final, Buddy Hield had combined such Type-A preparation and basketball know-how and shooting otherworldliness that even his stomach went calmed. After he anticipated waking up at 5 a.m. with butterflies that told him, “It’s going to be real,” he came to Honda Center and looked like a man who could handle the moment from the get-go. By the 131st game of his Oklahoma career that will conclude in his Final Four dreamland because of an 80-68 win over Oregon in the West Region final, Buddy Hield had become a rare concoction. He had combined such Type-A preparation, advanced know-how and shooting otherworldliness that even his stomach went calmed. After he anticipated waking up at 5 a.m. with butterflies that told him, “It’s going to be real,” he came to Honda Center and looked like a man who could handle the moment from the get-go.
He splashed the early part of the first half with three-point shots that looked sure and landed even surer. He served as his usual kinetic force without the ball to reconfigure doomed plays and free up teammates. He was the best player with the ball, and the best player without the ball. He made the stat sheet pop with 37 points on 13-of-20 shooting, including 8 of 13 from three-point yonder, 5 of 6 in the first half. He beautified the early part of the first half with three-point shots that looked sure and landed even surer. He served as his usual kinetic force without the ball to reconfigure doomed plays and free up teammates. He made the stat sheet churn with 37 points on 13-for-20 shooting, 8 for 13 from three-point yonder, 5 for 6 in the first half.
As the first half wound down to nil, then, it fit that Hield had the ball way out up top. As that first half wound down, then, it fitted that Hield had the ball way out up top.
He backed up a little.He backed up a little.
He shot from Stephen Curry county. He shot from Stephen Curry County.
It splashed down with five seconds left, and the No. 2-seeded Sooners had a 48-30 halftime lead over the No. 1 Ducks. [Scores, highlights and more from the NCAA tournament]
The romp was on, wrung out of what looked like an enticing match of two entertaining teams. The second half only filled the time. Oregon never could get closer than 12 points. All along, Oklahoma looked headed to the dream it kept once Hield postponed the NBA for this season, for the program’s first Final Four since 2002 and fourth overall. Tangentially, Oklahoma also became the first athletic program to reach both the basketball Final Four and the newfangled football final four in the same three months. It splashed down with five seconds left, and the No. 2-seeded Sooners had a 48-30 halftime lead over the No. 1 Ducks. “After that, I looked straight at Kobe Bryant [in the second row],” Hield said, “and he saluted me afterward, so that was my favorite one.”
Within the opening minutes, Hield had established that the tension of the opportunity would not mar the opportunity he awaited. Off the bat at 2-2 he drove, kicked out and hurried back across the arc to receive the ball for a three-point shot. He dropped in a preposterous three-point shot from the left corner even while almost draped in Oregon’s Elgin Cook. He stopped on a break and made another one swish. Things got thornier for him personally as they should, including three varying turnovers toward halftime, but as Oklahoma built leads of 24-13, 37-21 and 45-26, its defense prevented Oregon (31-7) the pretty freedom that marked its 82-68 win over Duke on Thursday night. Told that some of the defeated Ducks compared him to Bryant, Hield said, “I’m not Kobe Bryant,” and, “I’m not that special yet.”
By the 6:12 mark of the first half, the Ducks still stood stuck on 17 points. They spent the first half making 2-for-10 from three-point range, a statistical calamity in the year 2016. In the first match between two dear coaching friends who have planned a golfing trip to Scotland for July, Hield helped Oklahoma’s Lon Kruger earn the right to practice gentlemanly silence on the links with Oregon’s Dana Altman. It will be Kruger’s second Final Four and first since he took Florida in 1994, while Altman still searches for his first. With a near-romp emerging in the region final from an enticing match of two entertaining teams, Oklahoma (29-7) reached its first Final Four since 2002 and fifth overall. It also became the first athletic program to reach both the basketball Final Four and the newfangled football final four in the same calendar year. It gave Coach Lon Kruger his second Final Four berth and first in 22 years, four months before Kruger and Oregon Coach Dana Altman embark on a Scotland golfing tour that exemplifies their three decades of friendship. “When your very, very, very good friend is on the other bench, it takes a little bit from this because you know how he feels,” Kruger said.
As that reality became clear, Oklahoma enjoyed such picturesque, contagious pleasure that Hield’s roommate, Isaiah Cousins, who had a 1-for-8 evening on Thursday against Texas A&M, drained two three-point shots before halftime, a matter relegating Oregon to full-on hopelessness. Mostly, though, it gave Altman a very ready answer if someone asked what Oklahoma presented that the first 37 Oregon opponents did not.
From there, it looked as if either Kansas or Villanova could start re-uploading their Hield films for a national semifinal, perhaps in a mix of dread and wonder. “Buddy,” Altman said.
Yet in the third minute of the second half, the Hield exhibition intensified. There came an eye-popping, 123-second stretch. Hield, having treated Oregon to the familiarity of his three-point shots, went on a drive inside for a streaming layup, moved across the lane and backed up slightly for a 15-footer, backed up slightly in the lane for another 15-footer and then made another turn of beautiful lunacy: a three-point shot from left of center, out near Disneyland, that ratcheted the score to 59-41 with 15:55 remaining. With 4:21 left, he treated the audience to one more outrageous three-point shot, one that seemed to loiter in the sky before dropping through. Hield decorated the opening minutes with three three-point shots, one of them a preposterous matter from the left corner with Oregon’s Elgin Cook attached to his skin, and from there through the half, Oklahoma used a rebounding advantage wrung partly from the attention on Hield to carve leads of 24-13, 37-21 and 45-26, its defense preventing Oregon (31-7) the pretty freedom that marked its 82-68 win over Duke on Thursday night. Altman lamented the rebounding, which stood 23-10 at halftime.
Many of 18,000 gasped. [Feinstein: Williams was ‘scared to death,’ but field should be in fear of UNC]
Yet perhaps with the sense of Hield’s presence, the Pacific-12 champions looked awry on their shots. They got to halftime making 2 of 10 from three-point range to Oklahoma’s 10 for 14.
The glittering exhibit continued. In the third minute of the second half, there came an eye-popping, 123-second stretch of Hield’s mastery. Having treated Oregon to the familiarity of his three-point shots, he went on a drive inside for a streaming layup, moved across the lane and backed up slightly for a 15-footer, made a fadeaway shot near the foul line and then made another turn of beautiful lunacy: a three-point shot from left of center, out near Disneyland, that ratcheted the score to 59-41 with 15:55 left. From there, it looked like Kansas or Villanova could re-upload the Hield films to study for a national semifinal, with both dread and wonder.
“My confidence level is so high,” Hield said, but he lauded his teammates repeatedly, including the three other seniors who have played 104 consecutive games together, honing a rare cohesion. “As a kid you dream about having games like this, but I just thank my teammates and coaching staff that they put me in a position to make shots.”
Those shots, in turn, “took the life out of” Oregon, he said, and later on Cook sat at his locker and told again and again of the perils of guarding Hield: “He’s a great player. He’s a tremendous athlete. He’s scoring in a ton of ways. He shoots the ball from deep.” Moments prior, with 4:21 left, Hield had treated the audience to one more outrageous three-point shot, one that seemed to loiter in the sky before dropping through.
Many of the 16,232 gasped.