Body of work makes Ducks buff to NCAA.

Byline: Ron Bellamy The Register-Guard

At the Redmond airport Sunday, a baggage handler brought a large, battered cardboard box onto the Alaska Airlines flight, and asked the passengers whether it needed to continue to Eugene.

Ah, yes, replied the members of the Oregon men's basketball team, en route from Los Angeles, being that the box contained their trophy from winning the Pac-10 tournament.

And so there the trophy was, on a table at McArthur Court later Sunday afternoon, when the name "Oregon" popped up on the TV screen on the NCAA Tournament selection show, to the delight of 2,500 fans and the joy of the Ducks.

Oregon's "body of work" this season, as the selection committee puts it, got the Ducks into the NCAA Tournament.

Winning that trophy at Staples Center, with three straight dominant victories over Arizona, California and Southern California - two NCAA Tournament teams, sandwiched around a team that had ousted UCLA, a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tourney - got the Ducks, at 26-7, a No. 3 seed that seemed unthinkable when they left for Los Angeles last week, and a close-to-home berth in Spokane.

And for the Ducks from the Midwest, there was even this added incentive, a seeding in the Midwest Region, meaning that if the Ducks win two in Spokane, they can get Malik Hairston and Tajuan Porter, of Detroit, and Joevan Catron, from Chicago, closer to home, to the regional site in St. Louis.

Based on the way the Ducks are playing now, that's certainly very thinkable.

They're defending, rebounding, shooting. Earlier in the season, they were going only as far as Aaron Brooks could take them, but now Porter, the freshman guard, has proved that he's a big-time player in a 5-foot-6 package, and Hairston has overcome injuries to become a force again, and Bryce Taylor just hung a perfect 32 on USC, and Maarty Leunen's been a rock all season and has help inside now from the other freshman, Catron.

It's a group that can stay awhile, despite the fact that none of these Ducks has yet played in an NCAA Tournament game. And, maybe, just because of that - because they figure they've come late to the party, and now want to hang around.

"This was kind of new for us," Leunen said, describing the scene Sunday afternoon, the Ducks sitting in chairs on the floor of Mac Court, facing a huge screen that projected the CBS telecast, with the crowd starting to murmur as soon as the Spokane bracket came up, followed by the roar: "No. 3, Oregon."

"I wish I would have been there my freshman and sophomore years, experiencing this, but I'm glad we're here now, and looking forward to an opportunity."

Hairston said he'd never watched the tournament selection show before. Growing up, he was more of an NBA fan and since coming to Oregon, well, "we weren't winning, though I think we should have. ...

"In the past couple of years, we'd be done with our season right now. It's just a great feeling, to be able to sit here on Selection Sunday and see our name up there on that board, and see the crowd reaction. It's a great feeling."

Let the record show that the Ducks were planning the public celebration even before they left for L.A. and improved their seeding so dramatically. For coach Ernie Kent, this was an important ritual for this team, both as a reward for how far it has come, and as an investment in next season's team.

"For those guys to understand what drives us, and why we push them so hard, it was very important for them to get a taste of March Madness," Kent said. "Now they get a chance to experience March Madness, and for the guys that are coming back next year, it will be so much easier for them to push, and go to work, and easier to listen. ...

"As they build toward next season, this is going to be a great, great experience. It already has been."

Said Hairston: "Got to have that feeling again. I think it will happen. I think this program will continue to take bigger steps toward becoming a more elite program."

Those steps are there to be taken right now.

Clearly, the selection committee respected Oregon. Now, the Ducks must live up to that, which means winning twice in Spokane and reaching the Sweet 16, at least.

"I know our heart's in the right place," Brooks said, "and we're going to pour it out and be ready to play."

And so the Ducks leave Wednesday, off to Spokane, to play Miami (Ohio), a giant killer of years past, on Friday.

"I don't know what to expect," Hairston said. "I just know I love playing basketball, and we're going to be doing a little bit of that. I look forward to it."

If you've followed the Ducks the last few seasons, through the tough times, maybe, at last, so can you.