When youre a top-five team with national title aspirations and NBA talent, and you score .82 points per possession and lose by 17 to an unranked opponent in your second game of the season, well, silver linings are hard to come by.Yet?Oregon?had one baked in before it took the court at Baylor on Tuesday, the same one it has had for much of the offseason: Its star player, junior preseason All-American guard Dillon Brooks -- a broad 6-foot-7 wing who led the team in usage, shot rate and assist rate last season -- would not be on the floor. Ergo, whatever happened in Waco, Texas, it would stay in Waco, Texas. Why freak out? The difference between Brooks-less and Brooks-led is the difference between spaghetti and noodles with ketchup. Besides, at some point in the near future, and possibly as early as next week, Brooks would end his recovery from offseason knee surgery. He would return to the lineup. Oregon would be fine.Lets just say Oregon coach Dana Altman -- who, according to The Oregonian, had a hoarse voice on Wednesday and began his media session by saying hes had better days -- did not find this premise to his liking.Im not going to let the guys off that easily, he said. Dillon is a guy that will help. He meant a great deal to our team last year and is a great player with a great passion for the game and that can rub off on his teammates. But thats really easy to let the guys off the hook that way. This team is a lot better, even without him, than what it showed yesterday, and thats what disappoints me.Two days later, Altmans theory prevailed, as did his team, in a 76-54 thrashing of Valparaiso. Its not just motivational coach speak: Oregon really can be fine -- which is to say, really good -- even with its best player on the bench.Or, rather, its most important player -- a distinction that may prove progressively more crucial throughout the 2016-17 season. It is difficult to imagine a situation in which Brooks is not only the teams fiery emotional leader but also its most central, most relied-upon piece.Brooks usage and shot shares a season ago werent crazy; he didnt gobble possessions like, say, Cals?Jaylen Brown.?What Brooks did do, though, was, well, everything. Synergy scouting data breaks down plays into types: spot up, isolation, cut, stuff like that. For the 2015-16 Ducks, Brooks had at least a top-three share of every type of play Synergy tracks. Post-ups, isos, hand-offs, offensive rebounds, setting the screen in the pick and roll, receiving the screen in the pick and roll, miscellaneous -- Brooks had a hand in every single slice of Altmans offense. This is not surprising, given Brooks matchup-problem mix of size and skill, but still. Oh, and he guards, too. Hes super important.And yet. If you saw what Chris Boucher did to Valparaiso Thursday night, you saw what sure looked like Oregons best player -- in the making, if not at the moment.Bouchers line is impressive enough on its own: 25 points, 9-of-12 shooting, 9 rebounds, 3 blocks, 1 steal. It barely touches on how good he really looked, though. Take that steal. You see it in the box score. Do you even notice it? Does it even register? One steal. Whatever.Now look at it.That is a 6-foot-10 dude who began playing organized basketball at age 19, a guy whose path to Eugene is as unusual and unremarkable as any player in recent college basketball memory. That is a player who a year ago, in his first Division I season, sometimes looked lost ... and still, per SIs Luke Winn, became just the third major-conference player of this decade to average at least 17 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks per 40 minutes, with an offensive efficiency rating of at least 120 -- the others being Kentuckys former No. 1 draft picks?Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Davis.That video shows a center who might be the best shot-blocker in the country jumping a passing lane 30 feet from the rim, probably getting away with a travel (who cares!), going from midcourt to the rim in three dribbles, stepping and ripping through two defenders at full speed, and finishing with a dunk. Thats ... nuts.Boucher was already good a season ago, and he was efficient, if not assertive, in Oregons first two games. But it is moments like that which strike up that old?Joel Embiid?feeling -- the rush of watching a born savant learn the game at a frightening science-fiction pace.Boucher isnt the only reason to to be optimistic for the Brooks-less Ducks, however long they remain that way. Save some ongoing turnover woes, forward Jordan Bell is off to a really encouraging start; he finished with 15 points and seven rebounds on 7-of-13 from the field. Dylan Ennis has yet to play the kind of offensive hoop that made him a key piece of a No. 1-seeded Villanova squad in 2014-15 (hes just 2-of-13 from 3 thus far and has one more total turnover than assist), but he is already guarding the ball every bit as well, if not better, than he did during his tenure in Philly.The defense was impressive overall Thursday night. Valpo is a good team, the Horizon League favorite, with arguably the nations best mid-major player, Alec Peters, leading the way. A year ago, in Eugene, the Ducks trailed (an admittedly more experienced team not led by a first-year coach, but still) in the second half. They only narrowly escaped with a 73-67 win. Within the first few minutes of Thursdays second half, any chance of a tense repeat performance was gone.Now the Ducks will go to Maui. On Monday, theyll tip off against a struggling Georgetown team. Wisconsin, UConn, and/or North Carolina could await them in the later rounds. There is a chance Brooks will be able to play by the time the teams presumably neon-colored charter jet touches down. There is a chance hell play in part of the tournament, and a chance he doesnt play at all.Make no mistake: Oregon will be better when he comes back. But until then -- whenever then is -- the Ducks will be just fine. Michael Saunders Jersey . Siddikur, whose previous win on the circuit came in Brunei three years ago, finished his bogey-free round with a birdie on the 18th for a total of 17-under 199. Indias Shiv Chowrasia, who has finished runner-up in this tournament twice, was in second place after a 66. Ian Kennedy Jersey . -- An ugly goal by Nick Bonino helped the Anaheim Ducks overcome the defensive-minded Phoenix Coyotes on a night when their ragged power play continued to struggle. http://www.royalsteamproshop.com/Royals-Whit-Merrifield-Kids-Jersey/ . Once again Jordan Cieciwa (@FitCityJordan) and I (@LynchOnSports) go head to head in our picks. Last weekend at UFC Fight Night 32 my #TeamLynch got the best of #TeamJC by a score of 9-6. Let us know which side youre on for UFC 167 use the hashtag #TeamLynch or #TeamJC on Twitter. Jason Hammel Jersey . "I dont know that were close," said general manager Alex Anthopoulos. "I just think, right now, the acquisition cost just doesnt work for us right now. I dont know if I can quantify how far off or things like that that they might be but I would say we continue to have dialogue. Jorge Soler Jersey . Dukurs winning time was 1 minute, 45.76 seconds, a quarter-second better than Russias Alexander Tretiakov. Lativas Tomass Dukurs was third, 1.41 seconds off the pace. Jon Montgomery of Eckville, Alta. TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Youre going to hear a lot about risk versus reward this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, especially when it comes to the 10 drivers battling for six remaining NASCAR Chase playoff transfers.Rightly so.Risk versus reward comes into play anytime late in a championship campaign when theres a seasons worth of effort on the line. But balancing aggression and temperance also always has been an integral part of racing at NASCARs most daunting superspeedway, especially in the restrictor-plate era.No other track fosters more of a win or bust attitude among competitors in the Sprint Cup Series. And this year, Talladega has been positioned as a cutoff race between rounds of the Chase, meaning that for a handful of racers, perhaps only a win will suffice.Sure, anything can happen at Talladega, and a driver could still qualify to move on in the Chase by being in the top eight of the point standings on Sunday night.Chase Elliott faces the longest odds in that regard. The Hendrick Motorsports rookie is 25 points behind the eighth-place cutoff, meaning that risking it all in an effort to win the Hellmanns 500 is his only realistic strategy for advancing.It puts us in a pretty simplistic situation this weekend, of having to have a really good run, if not have to win, Elliott said. But were looking forward to the challenge.By contrast, the Joe Gibbs Racing trio of Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards seemingly looks comfortable, running 1-2-3 among winless drivers in this round of the Chase. With a cushion of 24 to 29 points between themselves and Joey Logano and Austin Dillon -- the drivers currently on the cutoff -- the Gibbs guys could theoretically run around at the back and try to dodge the accidents en route to the conservative top-20 finishes they need to move on.But history shows that playing it safe is nearly as dangerous as risking it all at Talladega. Cruise and collect often translates into cruise and get collected.I have wrecked here racing up front, wrecked in the back and wrecked while I was running in the middle, recalled Edwards.I know you cant make a plan that is foolproof here, he added. We just want to stay up front all day.Two drivers who have little to worry about Sunday are Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick, who already have their spots reserved in the next round by virtue of their wins at Charlotte and Kansas, respectively.Kyle Busch knows how quickly things can turn at Talladega. In 2014, he arrived as the points leader, but a wreck and subsequent 40th-place finish were the biggest factors in his failure to advance into the next round. Last year, Busch was below the cutoff line heading into Talladega, but an 11th-place finish was enough to bump him into the top eight.Even though the defending Cup series champion can advance in this years Chase with a 26th-place finish on Sunday, he knows he cant take even that for granted.You never can have any comfort and you do what you need to do in order to transfer through, Busch said. Its aall about the racing gods when it comes to the story of Talladega, and Ive been on both sides of it in the first two years of this [playoff] format.ddddddddddddIt doesnt always help to push too hard and try to advance yourself, and sometimes you just have to relax and take what the race gives you, he added. The key is to somehow stay out of trouble.Some drivers will argue that theres no point in trying to be defensive, that flat-out aggression is the only way to go -- no matter where they stand in the points race.Logano, who is on the bubble holding a tiebreaker over Dillon, vows to race for the win rather than points.I dont really think about how people are trying to knock me out; I think about how Im gonna knock other people out, said the driver of Team Penskes No. 22 Ford.?Thats my attitude. If Im on defense, were not gonna win. So we better stay on offense.?Everyones situation is different, but the last time I checked, this thing is called a race and I believe racers race, he continued.? Ive seen people ride around the back and crash. Ive seen guys running up front and crash. It happens, so being aware of your surroundings becomes very important throughout the race.Dillon hasnt been a threat to win a restrictor-plate race, but he has consistently avoided trouble and racked up top-10 finishes. In his first Chase, Dillon doesnt plan on doing anything different than usual on Sunday.Do we want to be aggressive, like we usually are, which works out for us, or do we want to wait and ride and try to make it to the end and try to make it through there? Dillon pondered. It just depends on your points position there.If youre out of the top-eight-points position and you need a win, youre going to go for broke, he noted. If youre sitting comfortably where you need to be and you can guard a top-5 finish, you just need to take that top-5 finish and go on, I think.It stands to reason that the drivers above the cutoff in the points -- Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Edwards, Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr. -- can afford to be more conservative than they guys on the bubble (Logano and Dillon) and especially those below the cutoff (Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Elliott).Kurt Busch is yet another driver who has experienced both sides of the risk versus reward equation. He knows that playing it safe isnt always the safest option, but he admitted kicking himself for years after aggressively going after a Chase win only to be spun out in the late stages.Winning versus finding a consistent finish is such a razor-blade edge versus wrecking, said the 2004 Cup series champion. Its a matter of just trying to understand your surroundings early in the race. If people are getting crazy, youve got to get out of there, or youve got to get up front and be in that top three.Honestly, though, Lady Luck is really the dictator of how well you are going to do at Talladega. ' ' '