With nine minutes remaining in Oregon’s road matchup with Baylor on Tuesday, Jordan Bell caught an entry pass at the top of the key, turned to face the basket and cooly drained a contested 18-foot jumper.
Earlier in the half, Bell caught a pass on a fastbreak after an Oregon steal, took two dribbles and delivered a Euro step that caused a backpedaling Baylor defender to fall to the ground as Bell finished an easy layup.
These plays marked two of the few positives for the No. 4 Ducks in their underwhelming 66-49 loss in which they were handcuffed by Baylor’s zone defense.
But those small glimpses also signified something else: The evolution of Jordan Bell.
Bell, a 6-foot-9 forward who runs like a guard and has one of the quickest second jumps in college basketball, became a breakout contributor for the Ducks during last year’s NCAA Tournament. His offensive game consisted almost entirely of monstrous two-handed dunks and putbacks off missed shots.
Bell is one of the top shot-blockers in the country — he broke Oregon’s school block record in just his 50th career game — and paired with his defensive gifts, his ability to clean up misses on the offensive end was enough to make him an impact player last year. Over the summer, though, he added a jump shot to his game that could make him one of the best two-way threats in the Pac-12.
“The jumpers developed a lot — just little tweaks and fixes, like keeping my elbow in, keeping the ball up towards my face,” Bell said. “Just little stuff like that. Coach Mike Mennenga helped me out a lot in the summer. Everyday in the morning, just working out.”
During the summer, Oregon would play shooting games before and after practices, and Bell was among the best shooters in the gym by the time August rolled around. He beat almost everybody on Oregon’s roster at one point or another, including sophomore guard Tyler Dorsey, who shot 40.6 percent from 3-point range last season.
There’s still one player who Bell couldn’t top, though. 
“I’ve beat everybody except for Chris [Boucher],” Bell said, laughing, on Oregon’s media day. “I couldn’t beat Chris for some reason.”
Bell’s offensive expansion couldn’t have come at a better time for the Ducks.
As Baylor showed during its blowout victory, Oregon doesn’t have a solid answer for matchup zone defenses at this point in the year. Dillon Brooks is a preseason All-American and was the heart of Oregon’s offense last year when the Ducks were faced with zone looks. His ability to slash through the lane and find open shooters forced opposing defenses to stop sagging toward the 3-point line.
But Brooks is out with a foot injury for the time being, and may take time to get back up to speed whenever he returns. With Brooks gone, Oregon doesn’t have the type of slashing forward it needs to unlock defenses, and that could mean serious trouble when shooters go cold.
Bell might not be the full answer, but he is part of the solution. His ability to play more of a small-ball roll could ease the impact of Brooks’ absence.  
“I’ve talked to him a little bit about becoming a better perimeter defender,” Oregon head coach Dana Altman said. “We’re gonna need that out of him. I think offensively he can do some things from there. But defensively, we’re gonna need him to get better and guard smaller guys.”
When they struggled to shoot against Baylor, the Ducks would run their offense through Bell at times — something that seemed unimaginable last year. An entry pass at the top of the key gave Bell the option to shoot or put the ball on the floor and beat an opposing big man one-on-one. He did both well at times against the Bears.
When paired with Boucher, which he will be often this year, Bell’s offensive versatility means the Ducks will boast two sharpshooting power forwards who can play interchangeably on the block, or along the baseline on the weak side of the defense.  
“With both of them, I can just run in the lane and throw it behind my head and one of them will catch it and dunk it,” Oregon guard Dylan Ennis said.
Whatever role the Ducks unleash Bell in this year, expect to see his offensive game blossom as the season goes on and the Ducks have more options available.
Follow Jarrid Denney on Twitter @jarrid_denney