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Danielle Hickey | Photo editor
Oregon point guard Aaron Brooks hopes to find consistency after an up-and-down start.
Consistent play
vital to Oregon's
success in Pac-10
The Ducks' top players must repeat non-conference
performances and put forth strong efforts every game
BY JON ROETMAN
SENIOR SPORTS REPORTER
The best basketball teams in the
country can experience consistency
problems from time to time.
But when a team has no seniors and
its most-hyped player isn’t old enough
to buy a lotto ticket, erratic play is to be
expected. So far, the Ducks have
played a fairly steady brand of basket
ball for a team with 11 freshmen and
sophomores. They won eight of their
first nine non-conference games and
looked like a team talented enough to
earn a spot in the postseason.
When Oregon opened its Pacific-10
Conference schedule last week, howev
er, the Ducks were plagued by inconsis
tency and split a pair of home games
against Southern California and UCLA.
Most notably, the Ducks received
spotty performances from three of their
most talented players. Sophomore
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point guard Aaron Brooks and fresh
men guards Malik Hairston and
Bryce Taylor need to have a positive
impact one way or another for Ore
gon to avoid letdowns similar to Sun
day’s 70-62 loss to the Bruins.
After dropping 34 points on USC,
Brooks connected on only 4 of 12 shots
for 14 points against UCLA. Taylor fol
lowed an 18-point performance against
the Ttojans with a single field goal
against the Bruins. And the 17-year-old
Hairston struggled in both games.
“I actually expected it to be that
way,” Hairston said. “I just wanted
my team to win but I had a rough
weekend.”
The jump from playing weaker non
conference opponents to getting into
dogfights with Pac-10 opponents is all
part of the learning curve for Oregon’s
talented newcomers, which also
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