It took only four minutes for the McArthur Court faithful to get the hang of the “Aaron” chant.
Aaron Brooks and Luke Jackson officially started the Aaron-2-Luke era on Sunday in front of 8,666 at Mac in impressive fashion.
OK, so maybe Aaron-2-Luke doesn’t sound as good as Luke-2-Luke, but it could very well be just as effective this season as the past three years. Brooks posted 14 points and four assists in 24 minutes as the Ducks defeated MBC Nikolaev, 96-76.
“He’s going to be good,” Oregon’s Ian Crosswhite said of the freshman point guard. “He’ll push the ball as fast as any guard in the Pac-10. Like any freshman, he’s going to get better as time goes on.”
If Brooks wasn’t shooting three-pointers — he made 2 of 3 — or making no look passes, he was going coast-to-coast on layups.
Or maybe he was making Nikolaev — a team from the Ukraine — defenders lunge at the ball, only to slip away untouched. It was Brooks’ first game in an Oregon uniform, and even though it didn’t count, he showed that Luke Ridnour’s departure to the NBA may not be as much of a worry as previously had been thought.
“I’ve told people this all along; he is a gifted player,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said. “People are going to have a chance to really see him grow and become a great player. He has all the tools to be a great one: speed, shooting ability, an ability to finish in the hole and the thing he probably does the best is run the team.”
Overall, Brooks finished the night on 5 of 10 shooting, committing one turnover and three fouls.
Brooks’ speed was evident against the mismatched Ukrainian squad. Nikolaev had just eight players available for the game, and three of them — Evgen Podorvannyy, Olexiy Onufriyev and Ivan Gilevich — fouled out.
Brooks said he was out to have fun in his first game at McArthur Court.
“When I first got in, I was nervous, but I eased into it,” he said.
The Ducks started a relatively young group, highlighted by two freshmen: Brooks and Mitch Platt. Jackson played despite a sore big toe he injured last week during practice, and Crosswhite started at forward opposite Jackson. Senior Andre Joseph also started at guard and led a team that shot 54.4 percent from the field.
“The good thing is, knowing that it is an exhibition, you can throw out a lot of different lineups out there,” Kent said. “We tried a lot of different things, yet at the same time, we didn’t show a lot of stuff out there because we don’t want to give too much for Fresno State to see on tape. There is a lot more stuff we could have done out there.”
Nikolaev hung with Oregon in the first half and at one time even took a three-point lead after a three-pointer by Volodymyr Polyakh at the 9:52 mark. The Ducks, however, pulled away convincingly at that point and ended the first half with a 13-point lead.
The lead ballooned to 30 points by the 11-minute mark of the second half.
“When you’re up by that much, it’s hard to run the offense,” Crosswhite said. “It’s just about having discipline.”
Overall, the Ducks shot 46.7 percent from beyond the three-point arc, pulled in 42 rebounds — compared to Nikolaev’s 25 — and committed 14 turnovers, which Kent said was a source of concern for him entering the game.
Better yet, they held their Ukranian counterparts to 48.3 percent shooting from the field.
“We can nit pick at a lot of things, but overall we were pleased,” Kent said. “We know we’ve got a lot of work to do, but considering how far we think we need to go, I was pretty impressed with what I saw out there in terms of the offensive productivity, energy, passing the ball and doing some of those things.”
Oregon’s reserves combined to post 25 points, led by James Davis’ 12.
Matt Short and Jordan Kent were both kept out of the game due to foot injuries, but both are expected to be ready for the start of the season.
The Ducks play next against the EA Sports All-Stars on Nov. 17 at McArthur Court. The real games begin on Nov. 21 when Fresno State visits The Pit.