HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610)- As Oregon was about to take the floor at Kansas City's Sprint Center for its Midwest Regional Final against Kansas, Dillon Brooks stopped his teammates at the end of the tunnel and pointed to a sign that read "Road to the Final Four".
"Guys, we're going!" Brooks told his teammates. "I don't care who we're playing or where we're playing them. We're going!"
Oregon quieted a crowd of 18, 643 mostly Kansas fans and jumped out to a 44-33 halftime lead on the way to clinching its first Final Four berth since 1939, taking out the top-seeded Jayhawks 74-60. Brooks, the Pac-12 Player of the Year, scored 17 points.
"I was (getting) all the credit for getting them there, but it was Dillon who may have gave them that confidence," Oregon head coach Dana Altman told SportsRadio 610 in a phone interview last week. "He has that air about him."
Oregon's 2017 tournament run was expected to be short after Chris Boucher suffered a torn ACL during the Pac 12 Tournament, but Altman said it was Brooks' leadership that kept the group together.
"He was a good leader and our guys followed him because they knew how competitive he was and they knew how hard he worked. Guys respect hard work. They respect talent, but they also respect hard work."
Altman coached Brooks for three seasons in Eugene. They won Pac 12 regular season and tournament titles in 2016 before losing to Buddy Hield and Oklahoma in the Elite Eight. Brooks' sophomore and junior seasons are the only 30-win campaigns of Altman's 35-year career as a Division I head coach.
Brooks moved from Canada to Las Vegas where he played at Findlay Prep. He re-classified to join the Ducks in 2014. All he knew about the program was that it was in the Pac 12 Conference, and he'd get to play a lot, which wasn't the case at Findlay because Kelly Oubre Jr was in front of him.
Because he wasn't playing as much as he probably should have, Altman signed Brooks based on what he thought he could be. Those expectations were exceeded, and the relationship between coach and player was as strong as one could imagine.
"We always had conversations about the game," Brooks told SportsRadio 610. "He would listen to me, and I would listen to him, and he knew how to handle my fiery competitiveness."
Altman knew right away Brooks' competitive nature was different than most players he had coached before.
"First one to practice and didn't want to leave. Extra weight work. He changed his body in the three years he was with us. I knew right away he was different."
It wasn't always smooth sailing between the two, especially early in Brooks' college career. The competitiveness that has fueled him could sometimes hurt him and the team. Altman chuckled when he recalled people telling him, "You know you're getting a handful, right?"
"He wanted to be really good," Altman said. Nobody else thought he could get to the NBA, but he sure did, and I think he trusted me just a little."
Altman had to pull Brooks from games a few times during his freshman season in order to settle him down. Brooks also had a tendency to "smarten off" with officials, which led to to a number of technical fouls. At one point Brooks took things too far with veteran referee David Hall. Altman made sure to make Brooks know he was in the wrong and forced Brooks to apologize. The two struck up a friendship after the incident.
"David Hall asks me about him all the time," Altman said. "When he was in the NBA, Dave would say, 'Boy, Dillon's really, really doing good'. Dave did respect how hard he played."
Brooks learned how to channel his competitiveness as he got older and went from averaging 11.5 points per game as a freshman to more than 16 points the next two seasons.
"It was all him. I was just there to try to help him along a little bit. Clap my hands a little bit and give him a little direction, but it was all his work ethic and competitiveness."
It's been seven years since Brooks played for Altman, but the two remain close and speak a couple of times a month. The night before the Rockets played in Portland on March 8, Brooks went down to Eugene to watch Altman and the Ducks lose to Colorado. After the game, Altman joked he had Brooks in his office to give him a chance to tell him all the things they were doing wrong.
Oregon beat Utah 48 hours later and then took out three top-five seeds on the way to a surprise Pac 12 Tournament championship. After knocking out top-seeded Arizona in the semifinals as 11.5 point underdogs, Brooks fired off a text to athletic trainer Clay Jamieson, who handed his phone to an emotional Altman as he addressed the team.
"Win it all. Don't leave nothing on the table," the text read.
Altman showed the screen to his players. "You know Brooks. Right away."
Brooks has carved out his own place in the NBA, and he will be at $125 million in career earnings when his contract with the Rockets expires in 2027, but Oregon and Altman will always hold a special place for him.
"He sacrificed a lot, and I sacrificed a lot," Brooks said. "He presented me with different challenges every year for me to get better, so he's one of the coaches that I'll always remember, and to this day he always has my back."
