[BobJoeJim]

Oregon homer here.

We might be really good, but I think you're underestimating what Brooks meant to this team last year. Neither Porter nor Taylor is a point guard. Porter will be forced into the role this year, but unless he improved drastically in the offseason he does NOT have the ball handling and decision making skills to be a trustworthy point guard against good athletic competition like he'll be facing week in and week out in the Pac Ten.

Porter is far more effective as a catch-and-shoot two guard than he is running the offense. Taylor at the point is just LOL, he's a guard-forward hybrid. Oregon will only live up to expectations this year if one of two things happens. Either, Porter learns how to run the offense FAR better than he did last year during the few moments where Brooks sat out, or else true freshman Kamyron Brown takes over the point guard duties competently. If neither of these players steps up to run the offense, the team will still be dangerous, as Leunen, Catron, Hairston, and Porter have as much raw talent as any starting five in the conference, or maybe even the country. Without a true PG though, they will be inconsistent and lose enough games they "shouldn't" that it's not entirely unreasonable to predict fifth place in the conference. Losing Brooks REALLY hurts.

The upside is that Kamyron Brown looked surprisingly comfortable with the ball in his hands in the first three games this weekend. He may turn out to be the best freshman in the conference that you didn't know anything about and could be the key to a successful season. At least, I hope he might. The Ducks ran a lineup with Brown and Porter on the floor simultaneously a lot, with Porter taking the ball up the court but Brown running the half-court offense, and Brown being in charge of breaking the press when the opponents showed it. They did this not just experimentally, but during key moments. Brown was very impressive with his decision making, and this has me far more excited for this season than I was a week ago, but I still want to see what happens against a better opponent than Pepperdine/Pacific/Western Michigan. Also, I haven't watched tonight's WMU game yet, it was closer than I was hoping it would be from a glance at the box score, so I'll have to look over the film before I can say for sure how I feel.

Preseason I would've ranked Oregon 3 and USC 6, but in light of the opening to the season, here are my current rankings:
1 UCLA
2 Oregon
3 WSU
4 Arizona
5 Stanford
6 Washington
7 Cal
8 USC
9 ASU
10 OSU