I'd like to stay away from arguments about refs--really meaningless imo since the margin of victory was the largest in the history of the Pac12 Tournament--and instead point out that Oregon won 3 tournament games, the last 2 against very good teams, with Sabally basically a no-show in each--something that I think most Duck fans would have believed impossible back, say, in January. So, although it makes some sense to talk, as all the commentators seem to do, about a "big three," the team's success has in fact depended upon the way in which different players have stepped up at crucial moments to do whatever has been needed, and especially when not all of its presumably high draft picks have been clicking on all (or even some) cylindars. Hebard barely scored in the win at Stanford; Sabally, on the other hand, was unstoppable. Tonight, Satu was mostly nowhere to be seen and Hebard had a "quiet" 24, with 7 rebounds. Boley scored 18 on Saturday and took only one shot (which she made) tonight. Moore reversed that: 2 Saturday and over 20 tonight. And that doesn't even take into account the contributions that Chavez and Shelley make off the bench by giving Graves a sort of mix and match as needed at the guard position (with Moore) and, to some extent, also with Boley on the wing. In an interview, Sabrina said that the team uses the first few minutes of a game to determine what works and what doesn't and it's that versatility, along with a very good defense when everyone is locked in (as was the case tonight), that makes this year's Oregon team a much tougher out than the depleted squad that almost beat Baylor in last year's Final 4. In fact, I'd argue, and I imagine there will be more than a little disagreement, that this Oregon team is the best team to come out of the Pac12 in recent memory, and--with last year's team--really the only Pac12 team in some time that's been, or is, a legitimate contender for a National Championship.
