SPOKANE -- Thumping music accompanying Notre Dame's net-cutting celebration reverberated through Spokane Arena's grandstands Monday evening as Oregon coach Kelly Graves began a subdued postgame press conference.
"I'm disappointed for us," Graves said. "I know this is something that we obviously wanted. It was attainable, I felt."
The Ducks' season ended Monday for a second consecutive year in the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight. Yet unlike 2017, when they were upstarts crashing the party before being routed by perennial favorite Connecticut, they had a favorable route to what could have been the program's first Final Four -- an opportunity that would have been unthinkable four years ago, upon Graves' hiring.