The Sweet Sixteen is here and Oregon’s Dana Altman has the Ducks humming along as they arrive in Kansas City to take on red-hot Michigan on Thursday. In anticipation of the matchup, here is how each team was built. RELATED: Gonzaga-West Virginia | Kansas-Purdue | Arizona-Xavier



OREGON DUCKS

STEP ONE: The reclass and the return

The Ducks best player and vocal leader is Dillon Brooks. A native of Canada, Brooks has been recruited to Oregon twice and each time has been important. In high school, Brooks was a top 50 player in the class of 2015. However, the Ducks convinced him to arrive a year early and his toughness, talent and character helped to change the culture of the program. After his sophomore season, Brooks flirted with leaving for the NBA before coming back, fighting through a broken foot and emerging as the Pac 12’s player of the year.

STEP TWO: A switch and a sacrifice

A five-star prospect coming out of high school, Tyler Dorsey initially committed to Arizona before backing off and committing to the Ducks. He had designs on running the point in Eugene and was sold on the idea of being the man. His acceptance of a different role and finding his groove at the right time has made a huge difference. Dorsey has really embraced the role of scorer while playing much of the time off the ball. He’s been at his most efficient when the Ducks have needed him the most and his emergence as a reliable scorer in crunch time – after some early season struggles – has taken pressure off of Brooks and allowed the offense to really hum.

STEP THREE: Mixing and matching

In the recruiting industry, we have always joked that it seems like Oregon has unlimited scholarships. The Ducks are always able to find a home for a key player, like graduate transfer guard Dylan Ennis. Altman and his staff are always keeping their eyes open in the juco ranks where they find players like shot-blocking three-point shooter Chris Boucher. Then when a talent like Boucher gets hurt, they always seem to have somebody waiting in the wings like another junior college shot blocker Kavell Bigby-Williams. The Ducks roster is athletic, versatile and diverse featuring transfers and players from three different countries.

MICHIGAN WOLVERINES

STEP ONE: The floor general

Derrick Walton Jr. (AP)

Very early on in the recruiting process, coach John Beilein knew that he had to have Derrick Walton Jr. He offered the Detroit star early, he recruited him hard and as a result Walton committed to the Wolverines right before the start of his junior year of high school. While Walton has enjoyed a very good career at Michigan, it hasn’t been until his senior season that he’s played up to his lofty No. 37 overall ranking coming out of high school. Walton has become the leader that Beilein envisioned him becoming six or seven years ago and it couldn’t have happened at a better time.

STEP TWO: The late bloomer

As a high school player, D.J. Wilson didn’t have the biggest reputation. It wasn’t even until the summer before his senior year that he started to crack the Rivals150 and even then, he was a bit inconsistent. As a result, he was a bit underrecruited. Michigan loved him from the moment it saw him and felt he was a perfect fit for its system. After showing glimpses, Wilson has recently blown past anything expected. A former four-star prospect, Wilson is playing so well that he may entertain the NBA Draft over another year in Ann Arbor.

STEP THREE: Hitting in Germany