Flying Ducks: Brooks, Dorsey, and Boucher give Oregon the goods to win it all
If there was ever a possible way for a team to be an underrated No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, the Oregon Ducks have accomplished it.
A lot was unproven about the Ducks heading into the 2015-16 college basketball season. Joe Young graduated and was taken in the second round by the Indiana Pacers after being the Pac 12 Player of the Year in 2015. Normally, when a player like that graduates, you wouldn’t expect the team to improve. They had unproven pieces coming in to go along with several players who only played supporting roles. Based on all of these factors, their ceiling seemed low.
Not only has Oregon overachieved on their preseason expectations, but they’ve blown the doors open on a chance to make the Final Four and win a national championship. The Ducks are 30-6 with a Pac 12 regular season title, Pac 12 tournament championship, and a birth in the second weekend of the tournament. They’re outscoring their opponents by 10.3 points per game, helped by their 49th ranked offense and 55th ranked defense, according to Synergy Sports. Their Pac 12 championship game drubbing of top ten ranked Utah was a good indicator of just how high these Ducks can fly.
A lot of their success has to do with their three best NBA prospects. While Dillon Brooks, Tyler Dorsey, and Chris Boucher may not be the three best players on the team, they are the three who have the highest upside to play in the league. They’re also a great representation of how this Oregon team has been so good all year, and will be a nightmare matchup for the teams they face the rest of the tournament.
Dillon Brooks
Brooks may not look the part of an NBA prospect at first glance — his measurements don’t jump out at 6-6 with a short 6-5 wingspan, and you’d think he is an undersized power forward at 225 pounds — but he definitely has game.
On the court, the sophomore more than passes as an NBA player. Despite the unglamorous measurements, Brooks has the type of athletic profile that will fit perfectly in the NBA. He is strong for a college forward, using his body to seek out contact and make tough finishes in the lane.
Along with that strength, he has a quick first step and sneaky bounce off the floor.
Most of the time, you can expose players like Brooks on defense. However, he is so big and strong that it doesn’t even matter when players try to attack him. He does well at walling up as guys drive at him, using his chest to force them into bad shots.
Oregon has several players that can make tough shots — Elgin Cook, Dorsey, and Casey Benson to name a few. It’s Brooks, however, who is the leading scorer at 16.8 points per game and the guy who takes (and makes) all the big shots for them late in games.
Brooks can get too confident at times, leading to erratic shots. It is good to have a player like him that can hit big shots, but he has some room for growth in his shot selection.
Whenever Brooks decides to declare for the draft, scouts aren’t going to love his measurements. Even though he does well overcoming his lack of wingspan with his strength and work ethic, having short arms is usually a red flag. In the meantime, his skill and toughness should help him get better at everything else and make people forget about how he measures up.
Tyler Dorsey
Dorsey first caught the attention of scouts after his performance for Greece in the FIBA U19 games in 2015. There, he averaged 15.9 points and five rebounds per game on 52.4 percent from 3-point range, including a 23 point and six rebound outing against the USA. He carried that over to his freshman season at Oregon as Dorsey is third on the team in scoring at 13.7 points per game while shooting 41.8 percent from the perimeter.
Dorsey’s best skill is his elite shooting. He can shoot spotting up, coming off screens, and off the dribble. He has a quick release that lets him get his shot off with just a hair of space.
Dorsey is the prototypical two guard you can plug into any offensive system, not just because of his shooting. He plays a lot of point guard and has a nice arsenal of hesitation moves and in-and-out dribbles that help him get in the lane and create. He can improve his playmaking a little in the way he reads the help, but the potential to be a high end combo guard is there thanks to his ball handling and speed.
On the other end, Dorsey does well staying locked in. He isn’t afraid to guard anybody. You can see his fearlessness in the way that he crashes the glass, gets his hands dirty and goes up against big men. Oregon’s scheme on D has their players switching a lot, and Dorsey does well communicating and guarding multiple players. Watch him switch on to St. Joe’s best player, DeAndre Bembry, and fight hard to front and deny him the ball.
Dorsey could come back and benefit from having another year to show he can run the point, making better decisions, and maybe do a little more scoring off the dribble. Dorsey is solid, and is the type of prospect who can get put on an NBA roster today and blend right in.
Chris Boucher
Boucher’s path to Oregon was unconventional. He played at two different JUCO’s, averaging 22.5 points, 11.8 rebounds, and 4.7 blocks his last year at Northwest College, winning National JUCO Player of the Year. This season in his first with the Ducks, and Boucher is stuffing the box score again with averages of 12.1 points, 7.4 rebounds, and three blocks per game.
The first thing that jumps out with Boucher is his length. He stands at 6-10 with a gigantic wingspan. Along with that, he glides across the floor like a guard. This helps him switch on to any type of player and shut them down. He had the main task of guarding Bembry and was a big reason why the St. Joe’s star went 5-15 from the floor and 0-3 from three.
Oregon has several long players that can protect the rim, but none are better than Boucher. His awareness is great, always knowing what is going on. He does well seeing both where the ball is at along with the other actions going on around him. He shows all of that in this possession, starting with a perfect closeout, followed by him leaving his man to help out on the more important stuff.
His biggest improvements will have to come on the glass and on the offensive end. He is shooting 34.6 percent from 3-point range, an average clip he can improve on. He doesn’t do anything off the dribble or posting up, which means for him to function on offense he has to become an elite shooter. Otherwise, he won’t bring much to the table. His thin 200 pound build also doesn’t help when guarding guys in the post and rebounding. He already is a defensive monster, however, and he is only going to get better.
Boucher’s age (23) may scare some teams away, but there is just too much there from a physical aspect to pass up on. Oregon won their appeal and can have him for another year, but he might be a guy who should go this year and capitalize on a great season. Of all their prospects, Boucher has the highest ceiling. There aren’t many players with his combination of length, agility, feel, and potential skill. He has the makings of being the whole package as an NBA power forward.
The System
Brooks, Boucher, and Dorsey are all great representations of what makes this Oregon team so good on both ends of the floor. Each of them have the ability to space the floor and create plays in that space, something that everybody in their rotation is able to do.
The Ducks currently rank 49th in the country in offensive efficiency. They move the ball quick around the arc, constantly attacking closeouts and making the defense scramble on their heels. Benson misses this shot, but this is the type of open look they generate.
They can get undisciplined at times. I mentioned it with Brooks earlier, but this team has a tendency to get out of control and take bad shots. It’s like they are constantly taking heat checks for themselves. When they get going, however, they are impossible to stop with how versatile their players are knocking down shots and making plays off the dribble.
Defensively, the thing that makes the Ducks thrive is their versatility to guard multiple positions. Dorsey, Brooks, and Boucher can switch between different spots on the floor. They all range from about 6-4 to 6-10 and have the ability to stick with any player on the floor, no matter the size and speed.
Even though their defensive ranking is lower than their offense, being the 55th best team in the country in defensive efficiency shows that they have what it takes to shut down anyone. They play a match up zone that requires a lot of switching and they have the personnel to make it work.
Because of their length and speed across the board, they can closeout from anywhere. They shut gaps so fast, getting steals and deflections everywhere. This helps them scramble back to their man when they get beat on an initial action.
You can just forget about scoring against them at the rim. Opponents are shooting 51.5 percent around the basket against the Ducks and 29 percent on jumpers within 17 feet, good for 29th best in the country, according to Synergy. You think you have a layup, then out of nowhere a bright yellow jersey comes to erase your shot.
This isn’t to say they aren’t beatable. Playing a frantic and fast paced defense like this has its downfalls if you don’t stay locked in. They will overcommit at times and leave players wide open. If you stay patient and move the ball, not panicking when these guys fly out at you, there will be an open shot.
This style has its faults, but when it comes to the tournament, it is also the style that can bring the highest reward. Teams will be nervous and tight, and this defense is the perfect type to take advantage of that.
Head coach Dana Altman has done a phenomenal job with this team getting the most out of them and playing a brand of basketball that is fun to watch. They remind me of the Golden State Warriors with how fast they play. They have players who switch and guard multiple positions, closing gaps and protecting the rim. They have guys that can make plays in space and create advantages all over the court, too. They are littered with shooting at just about every position, which will come in handy late in games. When this team is flying around, getting steals, and hitting shots, they’ll put up a big lead on you in a hurry.
Oregon has what it takes to win it all, and the talent to match any other team left in the tournament.