Yahoo Sports 
Oregon's early scoring issues persist despite Dillon Brooks' return
When Oregon regained All-American candidate Dillon Brooks in time for the Maui Invitational, many thought it would be a cure-all for some of problems that had plagued the Ducks during their first three games of the season.
Turns out it wasn’t that simple.
It’s clear Oregon isn’t as far along as it would like to be offensively after the Ducks suffered a 65-61 loss to previously struggling Georgetown in Brooks’ debut. They rallied from 17 down at halftime to take the lead with eight minutes left in the game, but they could not sustain that level of defensive intensity and quickly fell behind again.
“We came back all the way and took the lead, but then, I think, on the next four or five possessions, we had three turnovers and two front ends of one-and-ones that we missed,” Oregon coach Dana Altman told reporters in Maui. “So as great a comeback as it was we weren’t tough enough to finish it.”
Brooks was far from an All-American-caliber presence in the loss, but he wasn’t a total non-factor either. The 6-foot-7 forward shook off the rust in his return from offseason foot surgery, scoring eight points off the bench, dishing out a pair of assists and playing stretches of disruptive defense.
Oregon has now dropped two of its first four games of the season despite beginning the year fifth in the AP Top 25. The reigning Pac-12 champs shot only 32.8 percent from the field and 3-for-21 from behind the arc in a dismal loss at Baylor last Tuesday.
The Georgetown loss was a little more eye-opening if only because Brooks was back on the floor, it came on a neutral floor in Maui and the Hoyas had been disappointing themselves lately. They squandered a late lead against Maryland and suffered an inexplicable home loss to Arkansas State last week.
Offense was the biggest issue for Oregon against Georgetown just as it had been in the Baylor loss.
When Georgetown went to a packed-in 2-3 zone designed to shrink the floor and protect the paint, Oregon could neither consistently shoot over the top nor generate clean looks against the long, athletic Hoyas around the rim. The Ducks shot 39 percent from the floor and 4 of 17 from behind the arc. What little success they did have often came in transition or via second-chance put-backs.
One of the few bright spots offensively was freshman guard Payton Pritchard, who scored 18 points and sank Oregon’s only 3-pointers of the game until a 30-foot heave from Brooks in the game’s waning seconds. With Tyler Dorsey slumping and Brooks still not at full capacity, Oregon needs Pritchard’s outside shooting and playmaking off the dribble even if it means sacrificing some perimeter defense.
Oregon can afford to make that tradeoff because the one aspect of the team that is far from broken is its interior defense.
The long-armed trio of Chris Boucher, Jordan Bell and Kavell Bigby-Williams is incredibly difficult to score on around the rim because of their shot blocking ability. Boucher, in particular, keyed the Ducks’ 21-4 run to open the second half by altering or blocking shots, leading to run-outs.
While Georgetown heads to Maui Invitational semifinals to face Wisconsin, Oregon must sort out its early issues in the consolation bracket. The Ducks will face Tennessee on Tuesday and could meet either UConn or Oklahoma State in a potential fifth-place game on Wednesday.
It’s certainly clear Oregon isn’t a top-five team at the moment, but it’s far too soon to write off the Ducks entirely.
Perhaps the offense will reemerge when Brooks regains his explosiveness and Dorsey rediscovers his jump shot. Or maybe we’ll learn that graduated seniors Elgin Cook and Dwayne Benjamin were bigger losses than many realized.
“I’ve been scolding the team a little bit,” Altman said. “Last year’s team is what got us ranked, not this group. And I know there’s a lot of players back. But take Elgin and Dillon Brooks off that team and we’re not a ranked team. So we better get some guys to step up and play a lot better.
– – – – – – –
Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
