Evan Gross appeared in just two games last season, but he helped push the Duck starters behind the scenes and on the practice court. You’re only as strong as your weakest link. Every team needs a solid 12th man.

Let’s take a look at the 2017-18 roster with our individual player profile series. After placing you in an intro class to Oregon’s five new freshmen last week, this week we profile the entire 2017-18 roster before we get serious next week (tip-off week).

UNFOLDING THE 2017-18 OREGON ROSTER

Troy Brown (Oct. 24)

Kenny Wooten (Oct. 25)

Victor Bailey Jr. (Oct. 26)

Abu Kigab (Oct. 27)

Will Johnson (Oct. 31)

Payton Pritchard (Nov. 3)

Elijah Brown (Nov. 4)

MiKyle McIntosh (Nov. 5)

Paul White (Nov. 6)

Keith Smith (Nov. 7)

Roman Sorkin (Nov. 8)

Evan Gross (Nov. 9)

“IT’S GOTTA BE THE SHOES”

The redshirt walk-on senior is listed at 5-foot-10 and 165 pounds. He is from Sacramento and played his high school basketball at Oak Ridge. He will wear No. 21 once again this season.

QUOTABLE

“It's a big challenge for our team,” said head coach Dana Altman. “Arizona, USC returned a lot of players. UCLA has a great blend. Stanford, with all the players they have returning. And Oregon State, they've got four really good scorers.”

ROLE CALL

He’s the 12th man on a talented, deep roster that could go as deep as 10 on certain nights.

LAST YEAR

He played in two total games. Gross played a career-high four minutes vs the Buffaloes in the home-season finale and scored three points.

HIGHLIGHTS

The walk-on made an appearance in the final home game of the 2016-17 historic regular season. For the Ducks 42nd straight win from Matthew Knight Arena, Gross buried a triple in the final moments.

His 3-pointer pushed UO across the 100-point mark vs Colorado (101). It was the first time since 2002 (Washington) that Oregon scored 100 points against a Pac-12 opponent.

This concludes our 24-hour marathon with Oregon basketball for the upcoming season. If you missed anything at all, please feel free to check out @TheQuackFiend on Twitter for 24 consecutive hours of 2017-18 Duck basketball coverage.

Ready or not? Oregon basketball is set to return soon. The regular season gets underway at Matthew Knight Arena on Friday against Coppin State. You can catch opening night on the Pac-12 Network at 9:00 p.m. local time.

Stay tuned, if you want to; Twitter @TheQuackFiend Gram @eugene_levys_eyebrows