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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. Cheap Dolphins Jerseys . P.A. Parenteau scored early in the third period to help the Avs edge Toronto 2-1 on Tuesday night. 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Authentic Mike Gesicki Jersey . -- Timbers coach Caleb Porter didnt stray from his business-like approach to the season even after Portland downed the two-time defending league champion Los Angeles Galaxy to gain crucial playoff position. NEW YORK -- The Tampa Bay Rays?signed veteran shortstop Alexei Ramirez before Thursday nights 5-4 loss to the New York Yankees.Ramirez, who was released by the San Diego Padres on Sunday after losing his job as the teams starting shortstop, entered the game in the bottom of the second as a defensive replacement for shortstop Brad Miller. He?went 1-for-3.Ramirez, who turns 35 on Sept. 22, hit .240 with five homers and 41 RBIs in 128 games with San Diego. He started 109 games at shortstop, three in right field and one at designated hitter. Padres manager Andy Green said Ramirez didnt have the range at shortstop anymore that we need after Ramirez was released.ddddddddddddRamirez, a 2014 All-Star, signed with the White Sox out of Cuba before the 2008 season and hit .273 with 109 home runs in eight years with Chicago. He signed as a free agent with San Diego in January, agreeing to a deal that included a $3 million salary this year and a 2017 mutual option with a $1 million buyout.Tampa Bay pays $69,331 for the rest of the season, a prorated share of the big league minimum that offsets a portion of what the Padres owe.The Associated Press contributed to this report. ' ' '