When he was finally able to get on the basketball court and stay healthy, N’Faly Dante delivered on the potential that he displayed before he came to the University of Oregon. Once a teen phenom who was on a trajectory to make college a brief pit stop on his way to the NBA, the 6-foot-11 Muslim ballplayer from Mali is now a fifth-year college senior playing a key role as the Ducks advance through the NCAA Tournament.

Dante was a five-star high school prospect at Sunrise Christian Academy (Kansas). Before he reclassified to the graduating Class of 2019, he was ranked by Scout.com as the 13th-best player in the Class of 2020, a group that included current NBA standouts like Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green, Evan Mobley, Scottie Barnes and Jonathan Kuminga.

Immediate success eluded Dante at Oregon, however. As a freshman, he played in only 12 of the Ducks’ 35 games due to a combination of injuries and eligibility issues. His sophomore season was cut short after only six games due to a torn ACL in his left knee.

It wasn’t until his junior year — by which time, several of his high school classmates were already in the NBA or playing pro basketball somewhere in the world — that Dante finally made an impact as a college starter. In 2021-22, he averaged 8.1 points and 6.3 rebounds in just over 20 minutes per game. Oregon didn’t make it into the NCAA Tournament that year, instead going two rounds in the second-tier NIT. As a senior last season, Dante saw his scoring (13.4 PPG), rebounding (8.4 RPG), and shot-blocking (1.4 BPG) increase, but the Ducks missed the NCAA tourney again, and went three rounds in the NIT.

This season, as a fifth-year senior, Dante wouldn’t be denied. Although another knee injury forced him to miss about two months early in the season, he returned to the court to Oregon in scoring at 16.2 points per game, plus 8.8 rebounds and 1.9 blocks. His 70.2 percent shooting from the field would have led the Pac-12 conference if he’d played enough games to qualify. Despite the time missed due to injury, Dante made his second straight All-Pac-12 First Team and earned his first Pac-12 All-Defensive team nod.

In the Pac-12 tournament, Dante was voted Most Outstanding Player after putting up 25 points, nine rebounds and three steals in the Ducks’ win over Colorado in the championship final. By winning its conference tournament, Oregon punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament.

In the first round of his first NCAA tourney on Thursday, Dante had 23 points, six rebounds, two steals and two blocks in the 11-seeded Ducks’ upset win over 6-seeded South Carolina. But he — and everyone else — was overshadowed by Oregon guard Jermaine Couisnard, who dropped a school-record 40 points in the win. The Ducks advanced to face 3-seed Creighton in the Round of 32.

To win that game and advance again, Oregon will need to pull off another upset this weekend, and Dante will need to play well against Creighton’s 7-foot-1 center Ryan Kalkbrenner, the three-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year. It very well could be the biggest challenge Dante has faced in his tumultuous college career, but if he can improve game-by-game in this tournament the way he’s improved year-by-year at this level, Oregon could make one of those famous Cinderella runs that makes March Madness irresistible.