With the Big Ten Tournament just around the corner, I can't help but get more and more into the college basketball spirit. March Madness is a special time around the country. Teams from the United States, with players from around the world, compete in a single-game elimination tournament to be crowned the best team in college basketball.
While Oregon also fits in the category of a team that consists of players from far and wide, one key starter only needed about a 3-hour car ride to embark on his collegiate journey in Eugene.
The West Linn native had plenty of Division 1 offers to choose from coming out of high school, but staying close to home seemed like it was always going to be the choice for him. Standing at a little over 6 feet tall, Shelstad is and always has been able to make up for his shorter stature with elite quickness and shifty dribbling skills.
The former Oregon High School Basketball Player of the Year has shined so far through a little less than two full seasons with the Ducks, and watching him play reminds me of another Oregon guard from not too long ago.
The comparison to Payton Pritchard is pretty obvious, and it's getting clearer every game. The exact same height, from the exact same place, wearing the exact same number, and are on track to have very similar careers.
Pritchard had the luxury of joining Oregon's arguably best team ever in 2016-17. As a true freshman, he started alongside players like Tyler Dorsey, Dillon Brooks, Jordan Bell, and Chris Boucher and still found a way to make a name for himself. That team made it all the way to the Final Four. With Pritchard being the only returning starter from that team the following year, the overall drop-off was expected.
For the team's success, yes, things did go down from that Final Four team, but Pritchard took a step that solidified himself as a real collegiate star. He nearly doubled his PPG from 7.4 in his freshman year to 14.5 in 2017-18.
By his junior year, the team was fully his as he led a younger group back to the big dance by going undefeated in the Pac-12 Tournament to secure the automatic bid. Two upset victories helped the Ducks get back into the Sweet 16 that year and made Pritchard's senior season a highly anticipated one.
Stat (Per Game) | Pritchard (Fr.) | Shelstad (Fr.) | Pritchard (So.) | Shelstad (So.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
PTS | 7.4 | 12.8 | 14.5 | 13.3 |
FG% | 39.3 | 45 | 44.7 | 44.4 |
FT% | 73 | 85.7 | 77.4 | 86.6 |
3P% | 35 | 34.5 | 41.3 | 39.3 |
REB | 3.4 | 2.8 | 3.8 | 3 |
AST | 3.6 | 2.8 | 4.8 | 2.7 |
STL | 1.2 | .7 | 1.4 | 1 |
TO | 1.4 | 1.6 | 2.1 | 1.4 |
The anticipation was matched with one of the greatest seasons from a player in program history. Pritchard became the Pac-12 Player of the Year, Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year, and the first ever AP First Team All-American in program history. All of that to have March Madness canceled due to the pandemic.
While his career didn't end in the exact way he would have wanted, things always seem to work out. Coming off his first-ever NBA Championship with the Boston Celtics, he is now a candidate to win NBA 6th Man of the Year with a chance to repeat. As for his college career, it isn't quite the same, but he can still live vicariously through the emerging Shelstad.
Pritchard is a big fan of his game, regularly posting Shelstad's highlights on his Instagram story. The West Linn connection is real, and Shelstad is making me believe there is something going on in that water.
Shelstad, like Pritchard, started just about every game right away as a freshman. He proved to be a better initial scorer coming out of the gate, averaging 12.8 points a game, but overall, the season was one of the program's worst in recent years.
Now, as a sophomore, things with the team are starting to click. His stats this season are very similar, with little improvements here and there. The most obvious one is his improvement in three-point percentage, going from 34.5 last season to 39.3 percent now with just three games left before the conference tournament begins.
The team all together has improved, too. Although not currently ranked inside the top 25, the Ducks should have a March Madness bid waiting for them no matter what, due to their solid resume of Quad 1 wins.
Getting to the tournament is just the tip of the iceberg. It's called March Madness for a reason. 1s and 2 seeds can lose to 16s and 15s at the drop of a hat, players can get injured, and Cinderella stories can be had.
The one non-negotiable is having a player with the clutch gene. Pritchard had it with the best of them. Deep threes as time expires was just another day at the park for him, and Shelstad is starting to show he has it, too.
Payton Pritchard had his defining moment when he hit a deep overtime triple in Washington with little time left on the clock to secure the win. As he turned to the crowd, smacking his chest, I knew that had he had a chance at a tournament run that year, he would have been a hard man to stop. Shelstad might have had his own the other night.
In Madison against the No. 11-ranked Badgers, Shelstad connected from deep with only 13 seconds left in regulation. The triple tied the game and sent it to overtime, where the Ducks ended up as the eventual victors.
The shot felt like 2017. It felt like Pritchard's name was above the number three. But now it's Shelstad's team. The in-state roots run deep this year, with Nate Bittle from Central Point, OR, providing a 1-2 Oregonian connection that many teams have failed to stop.
He still has two remaining years of eligibility after this one, but without getting too far ahead, we will get to see how the two Oregon guards compare in postseason play. March will bring the answers, with Shelstad hoping to be able to fill the shoes of one of the greatest Ducks to ever lace them up.