Oregon men’s basketball is ranked No. 5 nationally, and Dillon Brooks played a significant role in getting the Ducks to their current spot.
The forward, however, is sidelined with a foot injury that will keep him out. No timetable has been given for his return.
Brooks’ injury hurts Oregon’s depth, but he will be back. In the meantime, Oregon will have to learn to play without last year’s standout. Oregon is still talented without Brooks, but fans are anxious to get the 6-foot-7 Canadian back on the court.
“Before I got hurt I was really working on handling the basketball and shooting it and really trying to get myself into top shape,” Brooks said before the season at media day.
Oregon is fortunate to have plenty of returners, but still lost some of last season’s stars.
“We lost two really good 6’6” athletes – Elgin [Cook] and Dwayne [Benjamin] – those guys gave us tremendous versatility,” Dana Altman said prior to the start of the season. “Now that Dillon Brooks is not playing for a while, we don’t have that same versatility in that 6’6” range; so that is our biggest deficiency.”
Oregon added junior Kavell Bigby-Williams — the nation’s junior college player of the year — to fill the big man role. Even with these additions, Oregon cannot replace Brooks with ease, as the junior made a strong impression in 2015-16 and was named a preseason first team All-American by the Associated Press and CBS Sports.
“We don’t have the middle range covered like we did a year ago [without Brooks],” Altman said.
Without Brooks, Oregon is not doomed. The Ducks are arguably deeper this season than at any other point in the program’s history. For Brooks, morale remains high, despite his injury.
“We have a lot of size,” Brooks said. “We’ve got overall confidence and freshmen that are ready to go and focused.
“[Winning a national championship] is very possible. We only lost two guys last year and kept a lot of guys and added tip-top freshmen. That’s my goal and that’s a lot of people’s goal on this team. When a lot of your team thinks that you can win something, it can happen.”
Now, it is important that players step up and occupy Brooks’ role for the time being. One option is Tyler Dorsey, who is still trying to improve his game as he enters his sophomore season.
“Knowing that there’s not that 6’6″ strong get to the basket, I’ve been trying to put on some weight and work on that part of my game,” Dorsey said. “We also have Dylan Ennis and those big guards and strong guards that can get to the rim. It’s gonna be key to get in that paint this year.”
Oregon struggled getting to get into the paint in the nonconference opener against Army. Ennis attempted to fill Brooks’ role while Brooks filled Ennis’ role from last year: cheering on the team from the bench.
“Dillon Brooks learned from what I did on the sideline and he’s been doing that since he’s been out,” Ennis said.
Follow Shawn Medow on Twitter @ShawnMedow
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