by Rob Moseley

Editor, GoDucks.com

Photo: Eric Evans

There was no bigger question coming into the 2015-16 season than how Oregon would replace Joseph Young.

The Ducks promised it would be a team effort. Down the stretch this spring, with the Pac-12 regular-season title on the line, they backed it up.

With Young, the UO men's basketball team could boast the Pac-12 player of the year, a 20-point-per-game scoring machine who carried the team on his back many nights. This season the Ducks may not have the Pac-12's best player, but they've been its best team.

“I think that's the most important thing about our team, which I've been saying the whole year,” senior Dwayne Benjamin said. “The fact that so many people can do so many things.”

Sophomore Dillon Brooks led the Ducks in scoring over the regular season, averaging 16.7 points per game entering Thursday's noon Pac-12 tournament quarterfinal game against either Stanford or Washington. In 31 games so far, Brooks has led or shared the lead in scoring 14 times.

In 36 games last season, Young led or shared the lead 26 times — more than two-thirds. His teammates did so just 12 times. Brooks has had more help, with Elgin Cook, Chris Boucher, Tyler Dorsey and Dwayne Benjamin combining to lead or share the lead in scoring 18 times.

“That's what's special about this team,” Cook said. “One day it could be me, one day it could be Dillon, or Chris, Tyler, Jordan (Bell). You just never know. Whoever has it rolling is who's going to shoot the ball.”

Players said that philosophy of going with the hot hand hasn't changed. Young was just in such a zone throughout much of 2014-15 that he was almost always the best option. This season, the Ducks are much more versatile offensively.

That was borne out in particular over the last three weeks. Brooks played himself into Pac-12 player of the year consideration with a 10-game stretch beginning at mid-January in which he averaged more than 20 points per game. But over the last five games of the regular season his average was 14.2 points per game, on .411 shooting.

Into the spotlight stepped Cook and Dorsey; each had his best five-game stretch of the season over the past three weeks, with Dorsey matching a hot streak from the nonconference slate. Cook scored 97 points over the last five games, nearly 20 per contest, and Dorsey added 79.

During the final weekend of the regular season, in Los Angeles, Boucher didn't break double figures either game, just the second time that's happened in conference play. But Benjamin did score at least 10 points in each — also for just the second time in Pac-12 play this season.

“If one person gets on a roll, we try to get them the ball,” Benjamin said. “It's just so many people. We try to exploit a mismatch on every single play. With all the versatility we have, we have a way of finding it.”

It's safe to say that, had Young experienced a stretch of games like Brooks has recently endured, last year's Ducks would have been in trouble. But this team's well-rounded roster has enabled it to weather off nights by one or two guys.

In Pac-12 play last season, Young scored 12 or fewer points three times; Oregon went 0-3 in those games. This season, Brooks also failed to surpass 12 points just three times in conference play; the Ducks went 3-0 in those games.

“We can pick each other up,” Cook said. “And that's what it's about.”

Though his numbers have fallen off a bit the last few weeks, Brooks remains a primary scoring option.

“Because of his speed and his power, there's not a lot of people that can guard him,” Benjamin said. “Most of the time we try to get him the ball. When people run a zone, if we've got Dillon in the middle, we're going to try to get him the ball. He's made plays there all year.”

Benjamin said Brooks brings a level of intensity, regardless of his point production — “There's some things numbers can't tell you,” Benjamin pointed out.

But the good news has been, when Brooks or anybody else hasn't been able to get his shot to fall this season, the Ducks have had other answers.

“That was a thing we talked about as a team before the season, and not just with the coaches,” Benjamin said. “Don't worry if it's not your night. Everybody's going to step up.”