Dana Altman walks off the court in the first half upset at his team's performance.

At halftime, the Oregon Ducks were down eight points and the Ducks were being outworked by the 11 seeded Rhode Island Rams. Oregon's season was slipping away and their National Title hopes seemed lost and forgotten.

To save the season, Oregon's head coach Dana Altman took an interesting approach to get his guys back into the game. There would be little coaching during halftime by Altman. His message was simple, but before he could do it, he had to clear out the room.

Altman kicked out the CBS TV crew embedded with the team and any other person who couldn't step foot on the court or help coach those players.

"I think he didn't want the cameras to hear what he was saying," said Jordan Bell.

What came next could be described as simply as a coach screaming, pleading, and demanding his team to play better than how they did in the second half.

"At the end of the day, he asked if we were ready for our season to end," said Casey Benson. "He told us we had 20 minutes to make something happen or we were done."

"He kicked everybody out. Honestly, he started yelling at us," said Jordan Bell. "He just got into us about turnovers, the selfishness, the rebounding, not moving the ball side to side."

The Ducks in the first half had committed 10 turnovers, which were turned into 16 points by the Rams. On offense, the Ducks assisted on just four baskets out of their 13 made field goals. It was one of Oregon's worst halves of the season, at the worst time of the season to have that type of performance.

The Ducks trailed 43-38 and their season was slipping away at half.

To save it, Altman didn't speak once about x's and o's, according to players. Instead, it was a reminder that the Ducks needed to get back to what brought the Ducks this far: simple plays and simple plays for their teammates.

"We didn't talk about any plays. It helped us a lot," said Bell. "Whenever we get a lead, some of us tend to start trying stuff, play a little selfish. So he really got into us."

After Altman was done getting a good screaming in, the Ducks came out for the second half and tried to make a comeback to send the Ducks to Kansas City for the Sweet 16. The move by Altman worked and the Ducks stormed back and overcame the 11-point URI lead, and they did it by doing what Altman pleaded and demanded.

"Reboudning, defending, and turnovers. Stopping those turnovers and points off turnovers, we had like 16 in the first half and then like five in the second half," said Bell.

In the second half, the Ducks committed just four turnovers, URI scored just seven points off them. Oregon assisted on seven of their 12 made field goals, won the rebounding battle by two, got to the free throw line for 12 attempts and made eight, and the Ducks crashed the glass to grab seven offensive rebounds and score 14-second chance points.

When the clock hit triple-zeros the Ducks had made the comeback and thry did it by doing what Altman has preached all year, simple plays.

"We just didn't want to go home," said Casey Benson.

Now the Ducks can enjoy this sweet season for at least another week.