8 to watch: Aaron Brooks

Maybe it’s not quite an adage yet, but come tournament time, guards seem to become more important. This will be the case for the Ducks, who rely a lot on senior guard Aaron Brooks. Brooks, the Pac-10 Conference’s leading scorer this season, is averaging 17.6 points a game and sits on the forefront of a guard-heavy Oregon team. Although Oregon is the obvious favorite in its first-round game with Miami (Ohio), Brooks said overconfidence is not an issue. “Being that this is our first tournament and how hard it was for us to get here in the first place, we can’t allow anything to get by,” Brooks said. “I think we’re all going to have that focus going out to the game where we’re not going to let a second go by where we’re not playing hard, not on our job. I think that will definitely show.” By Jessica Brown, Staff writer