AP Photo/Chris Pietsch

The keys to winning? The players

If you ever get the chance to talk with Oregon coach Dana Altman, who has led the Oregon Ducks to the NCAA Tournament for the fifth straight year, and ask him about how he's been successful, he'll give you the same answer every time.

"It's about the players," Altman says.

So while the Ducks will rely a lot on Altman's planning and adjustments throughout the NCAA Tournament, here's a look at what each one of his players need to do, beginning on Friday against Iona, for Oregon to have a long tournament run.

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Photo by Richard Brian for The Oregonian/OregonLive

Dillon Brooks

Oregon has talent across its roster and is far from one-dimensional. But….this team will go as far as Dillon Brooks can take them. The Pac-12 player of the year has been the heart of this Oregon team and its most prolific scorer. The Ducks will need him consistently game in and game out. He has experience and he has talent. The one thing he can’t have? Foul trouble. With Chris Boucher out, the Ducks don’t have any immediate offensive fire power coming off the bench and if Brooks continues to pick up fouls early like he did in the Pac-12 tournament, the Ducks could be in trouble.

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Richard Brian for The Oregonian

Tyler Dorsey

The three games Tyler Dorsey played in the Pac-12 tournament were, in our opinion, the best three-game stretch of Dorsey’s two-year Oregon career. Dorsey put up point numbers of 21,23,23. He did it not only by hitting his threes, but he drove inside with more consistency than we’ve seen throughout his career. It will be huge if Dorsey can keep this up, giving Oregon a clear elite scoring threat if the opposition decides to try and shut down Brooks. And if Dorsey can crash the glass like he did against Arizona State – nine rebounds – Oregon will be in great shape moving forward.

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Dylan Ennis

Ennis can score. Ennis can rebound. Ennis can dish. The Ducks will need him to do all three with consistency. The sixth-year senior is the most experienced player on Oregon’s roster and, outside of Brooks, is the Ducks’ best player at getting a tough basket inside when needed. His three-point shooting needs to rebound from a tough Pac-12 tournament that saw him hit just 2 of 11 shots from outside.

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Jordan Bell

Bell’s improvement from last season to this year has been one of the biggest keys to Oregon’s success. He’s always been a good shot blocker, but Bell has been stronger on the boards this season and his offensive game has greatly developed. Bell can’t shoot it from outside like Boucher, but Oregon will do well in this tournament if Bell can continue to inject some offense into this team. A good blueprint? In the loss to Arizona, Bell had 16 points, 10 rebounds and a block. A big key for him? He was also 8 of 10 from the line.

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Kavell Bigby-Williams

Bigby-Williams is not the same player as Chris Boucher. Both are tall, both were junior college players of the year and, with Boucher gone with an ACL injury, Bigby-Williams will take the bulk of his minutes. But don’t expect him to play the same offensive role as Boucher, who was a threat from the outside. What the Ducks need from Bigby-Williams is strong defensive minutes in the paint as a shot blocker and a rebounder. He’s not going to score 20 points per game for Oregon, but they’ll need some production on that end along with improved free throw shooting – he was 1 of 5 from the line in the Pac-12 tournament. The Ducks don’t need Bigby-Williams to be a star right now. They just need him to be productive.

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Payton Pritchard

Pritchard has been one of the really nice surprises for the Ducks this season. The West Linn graduate came in to earn a starting spot as a freshman, using his strong shooting and ball skills to play an integral part to Oregon’s success. The Ducks will need more out of him than they’ve gotten recently, however. In Oregon’s last two games of the tournament, Pritchard was 1 of 6 from the field, 0 of 2 from three and had five assists to six personal fouls. Pritchard has played well in intense situations this season – see his three-pointer in the win over UCLA – and he’ll need to play beyond his years in the coming days.

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Casey Benson

Benson has played his role masterfully this season. A two-year starter who moved to the bench with Pritchard’s rise, Benson has been a reliable spark coming off the bench. He commands Oregon’s offense and rarely turns the ball over and is one of the Ducks’ better three-point shooters. He’s struggled with his shot as of late, going 1 of 6 from outside in the Pac-12 tournament, and the Ducks will need him to hone in from outside for success.

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Keith Smith

After dealing with knee problems for most of the Pac-12 season, there was doubt as to whether Smith would actually play at all in the postseason. But Smith played two minutes in the regular season finale against Oregon State and played a pair in both the Arizona State and Arizona tournament games. He’s played far too little as of late to expect any sort of consistent production, but if he can add anything when used going forward, it’s gravy.

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Roman Sorkin

While the bulk of the minutes provided by Boucher’s injury are going to go to Bigby-Williams, expect Sorkin to get a bit more playing time in the coming games. He didn’t play in Oregon’s last two games, but if the Ducks get in foul trouble they may need the 6-foot-10, 225-pounder to eat up some minutes. He has shot 48 percent from three this season.

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Serena Morones for The Oregonian

Charlie Noebel and Evan Gross

If the walk-ons play in this tournament, that means most of the players above have done their jobs. Their jobs? Soak it in and shoot away.