One Duck holds key to a deep run in the NCAA Tournament

The NCAA Tournament is all about guard play and hitting the three. Deep tournament runs are fueled by a scorer on a hot streak. Inside, the Ducks have a reliable big man in seven-footer Nate Bittle of Central Point, Oregon, but if Dana Altman wants to make another trip to the Sweet 16, he needs Jackson Shelstad to get hot.

Shelstad is used to big stages, a two-time State Gatorade Player of the Year at West Linn High School, losing the state championship to Tualatin as a senior. He's starred at the Les Schwab Invitational. He played for Team USA at the Nike Hoop Summit. Last July he went off for 71 points at the Portland Pro-Am, the event where Payton Pritchard once scored 92.

When Pritchard won his fourth straight state title at WLHS in 2016, Shelstad was an 11-year-old ball boy. He looked up to the Boston Celtics star as a grade schooler, and since they've become workout partners and close friends. Shelstad told John Ross of Prospective Insight, “I saw how hard he worked every day. I learned what it takes.”

" You don’t just go to the gym to go to the gym. You gotta go hard. My freshman year, I started to get some dog in me. Don’t play around when you’re in the gym. Work. Don’t waste time. Put your work in."

Like Pritchard, Shelstad's work ethic is legendary. When he was a freshman with the Ducks last season he hit a flurry of big shots to beat UCLA 64-59 in December, scoring 16 of his 20 points in the second half. Star guard Jermaine Couisinard told Alec Dietz of the Register-Guard, “I see him working every day. I know he puts the time in and I trust him to shoot those shots and be relaxed out there. There’s no pressure on him … I tell him to play with a free mind and be ready and be a learning sponge."

The challenge for Shelstad in the tournament is to find that free mind. He's the Ducks' second leading scorer this season at 13.2 points per game, just behind Nate Bittle at 14.1, but throughout his college career he's been a notoriously streaky shooter. At times he is torrid: In a three-game stretch in January against Maryland, Ohio State and Penn State he poured in 23, 24 and 17 points while hitting 23-31 from the floor, 12-16 from three-point range.

Lately despite his work habits he's been equally cold. In the Ducks' three most recent games, Shelstad's shooting bricks beyond the arc, 0-5 against Michigan State at the Big Ten tournament, 2-6 against Indiana, 0-5 at Seattle versus Washington in the last regular season game of the year.

Shelstad is a tremendous competitor. As a high school senior he turned out for football for the first time since freshman year and made All-Three Rivers League at cornerback. He caught three touchdown passes from Sam Leavitt in the state quarterfinals against Sherwood. A few weeks later he won the MVP at the Les Schwab Invitational, scoring 38 points in a game against Bronny James and Serra Canyon High of Los Angeles.

No stranger to big games or pressure moments, the Ducks can go far in the tournament if Shelstad finds his rhythm. In his first year he told Gabriel Duarte of si.com, "What I learned most from my freshman season is the ups and downs. Such a long season and it could be going good for a couple games and then go bad for a couple games," he noted. "Just gotta stay even, even-keeled. If you get in your head over a couple bad games, it's not gonna end well."

"“I want to be remembered as a hard worker and kid who wants to win.”"

Jackson Shelstad, to wlhsnow.com