Today should have been the day that Oregonians got to watch the University of Oregon women’s basketball team cut down the net in celebration after winning the national title.

It seemed their destiny. With three All-Americans and the unparalleled play of senior guard Sabrina Ionescu, the Ducks looked unstoppable. Their jaw-dropping 93-86 win over the U.S. women’s national team last fall offered a preview of the rollicking season they would have under Coach Kelly Graves in which they dominated opponents and handily claimed the conference championship. Winning the NCAA title game, originally slated for today, would resolve the “unfinished business” that lured Ionescu back to UO for one more year instead of going pro.

But with the COVID-19 pandemic stretching across countries and continents, it will remain unfinished. The annual March Madness tournament was canceled as health officials increasingly urged social distancing to thwart the spread of the novel coronavirus. The team’s run has ended, leaving a superlative season with an asterisk and its fans crushed at what might have been.

If grief can be objectively measured, the loss of a college basketball tournament doesn’t even belong on the same scale as the loss of lives this pandemic has caused – thousands in the U.S. in the past week alone. The heartbreaking accounts of family members unable to say goodbye to their loved ones as they die in isolation or the last-ditch efforts by medical teams to make a ventilator meant for one help two people instead show the trauma and desperation that the virus – and our lack of preparedness – have wrought.

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But it’s a mistake to denigrate the disappointment felt by millions of people over canceled ceremonies, unmarked milestones and denied opportunities. These shared experiences and celebrations, whether it’s cheering on a sports team or walking across a stage to receive a diploma, build and cement the kinds of relationships, memories and connections necessary to get through crises like the one we’re facing. Especially in times of anxiety, a phenomenon that can capture the imagination and enthusiasm of people across an entire state is a powerful force that lifts a community and brings it together.

The Oregon Ducks’ women’s basketball team was that phenomenon. This was a team that many Oregonians, regardless of college affiliation or sports IQ, loved for their dominant and fearless brand of play. It wasn’t just individually thrilling performances like Ionescu’s no-look passes or the dramatic three-pointers she could hit – even while falling to the floor; or Ruthy Hebard’s gymnastic ability to emerge from a tangle of bodies and sink buckets, helping account for her nation-leading 68.5% field goal percentage; or Satou Sabally’s laser-like athleticism, making a behind-the-back layup that headlined highlight reels.

That grown men and young boys are wearing Ionescu’s No. 20 jerseys says something about what this team achieved and how it has silenced all the “yeah, buts” that detractors put forward about women’s basketball. “Yeah, but the offense is boring.” “Yeah, but UConn’s the only good team in the nation.” “Yeah, but women’s basketball is just unwatchable.”

To that, the Ducks had answers. Lots of them. The team led the nation in scoring offense with 86 points per game, relying on a mix of pick-and-roll plays, classic drives to the basket and three-point shots to run up the score. Oregon, which ended the season ranked No. 2, beat the legendary University of Connecticut team in its home arena by 18 points and led a Pac-12 conference full of contenders, including Oregon State University, which had its own headline-worthy season. And unwatchable? The women’s team drew larger audiences than the men, attracted throngs of fans wherever they played and hosted OSU in a sell-out game at the 12,000-plus seat Matthew Knight Arena ­– reflecting a passion and intensity usually associated with men’s rivalry games. In fact, the enthusiasm for both the Ducks and Beavers is a testament to this state’s support for women’s sports, a trait in which Oregonians should take pride.

While Ionescu, Hebard and Sabally understandably received the most attention, the Ducks succeeded because of the play of so many others, like Minyon Moore, who showed her offensive alter ego to her defensive identity in the conference championship against Stanford and Erin Boley, who landed viper-like strikes from the three-point line all season long. The season reflects the collective effort of a team that played with joy and ferocity, brilliance and selflessness – and found immense success in that approach.

This isn’t just about what the women accomplished, however. It’s the example they set at a time when the pandemic is forcing social distancing and economic sacrifice because, as our new mantra goes, “we are all in this together.” We say this to encourage and, at times, admonish one another when personal choices conflict with public goals. We say this to our children to guide them through the disappointment of a canceled birthday party or a bout of frustrated boredom. And we say this to ourselves to pull us out of the quicksand of panic when personal losses and fear of the unknown threaten to overwhelm.

Who better exemplified this team mentality than the women of the Oregon Ducks basketball team? Even when faced with the devastating news of the canceled tournament, Coach Graves and his players accepted the new reality with grace and the understanding that the health of the public must come first.

The records won’t show this team as national champs. But everything they’ve done this season has.

- The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board