Fall camp held attention as Dennis Dixon returned a few days early from his summer with the Braves and from the first day of drills every comment was on the improved decisions he was making operating the spread offense he set aside for a couple months chasing a curve ball. That's the thing about a curve ball, a curve ball will teach you a lot about yourself...

So with Houston in town to open the season on Saturday, late Friday afternoon's email notice of a press conference to be held at 9:00 the next morning - confirmed what had been widely understood was about to take place.

Baseball was back - that we knew. The curveball was that the Ducks found themselves announcing the hire of George Horton, who through most of the search process had not been considered a candidate. His success and ties to Cal State Fullerton were held to be too great an obstacle to entice him into accepting the position. Around 9:20 or so... that was no longer the case. In one fell swoop the Ducks landed a premier coach with impeccable recruiting connections into a geographical area that should help Oregon establish their footprint in a very competitive - and evolving - landscape.

Recent revelations about the professional game have fostered an environment that suits well for a growing market to develop around the collegiate game. I don't think that was lost on the athletic department, actually I rather suspect it was the prime motivator - not the "Beaver Envy" many of those in Orange & Black ascribe - in the decision to field a team after a 26 year absence.

The Beavers changed the landscape as the landscape was changing and Oregon jumped with what appears to be well timed footwork. Hiring Horton was the emphatic closing step of a cha-cha-cha that was very well done indeed.

Best on field moment -

It didn't end as hoped, Oregon's exit from the elite eight left one looking back at a season that was rewarding and redeeming on so many levels it would be wrong to settle for only a singular snapshot for a memory (perhaps Aaron Brooks' gorgeous floater to sink the Bruins??). Their toe-to-toe with the defending - and soon to be repeat - national champion Gators offers a better perspective.

On the largest stage of the day and against the most significant of possible opponents the Ducks nearly pulled it off. It took Florida's best game of the tournament to eliminate the Ducks and they may well have not been successful if the whistles hadn't been so heavily skewed against the Ducks or if Tajuan Porter's three-point touch had remained true for one more game.

Brooks and Hairston went to the hoop with purpose and confidence, Maarty banged between Joakim Noah and Al Horford and back again. Making the Final Four would have been a milestone no question - but for a team that for two years had been everybody's verbal punching bag, takin' the champ a full 10 and walkin' to your own corner with a couple of punches left isn't to be diminished... the Gators would have been the party least interested in going to an eleventh round...

Team of the Year -

Track and Field's unlikely men's Pac-10 title featured two that will long be held in Oregon lore and a boatload of others to narrowly outpoint USC and ASU for the team title.

An energized refocus on the program initiated when Vin Lanana took over the program was going mostly swimmingly already... the 2008 Olympic Trials a reward for the upgrades at Hayward now underway and continued fan support of the team after his first season. The Ducks had finished a hair thin second in the conference meet the year before but graduated many of those points, leaving the '07 squad mostly positioning themselves for the 2008 season. A win in the javelin and hammer and then a first for Galen Rupp in 5k set the stage, followed by the incomparable Tommy Skipper's fourth conference title in the pole vault and then the Ducks got last of the points it needed from the 4X400 relay team - the meet's last event - to give Hayward Field another championship.

A national championship in men's cross country that followed this fall furthers Oregon's momentum as do the meets awarded to the celebrated facility in the coming years. In the past two seasons Hayward Field has hosted the Pac-10 championships, the NCAA Western Regional and been awarded the 2008 Olympic Trials. Last month USA Track & Field - the sport's governing body - awarded the 2012 Olympic Trials to Hayward Field as well. Already scheduled are the US Outdoor Track & Field Championships in 2009 and 2011 and the NCAA Championship in 2010. That, ladies and gentlemen is top drawer stuff...