Oregon ended a season Sunday with a loss in the NCAA Tournament, and then it was on to what comes next?
"We've just got to take this experience and take it into next year," freshman Joevan Catron said.
"This was a great taste of success," chimed in junior Maarty Leunen. "We won 29 games, we got to the Elite Eight ... I know I definitely want to get back here next year and hopefully a little farther."
The Ducks reached the final of the Midwest Regional before losing 85-77 to Florida. It was only the second time Oregon has advanced to within a game of the national semifinals since 1939, when the famed "Tall Firs" claimed the first NCAA basketball title.
But as it was in 2002 when Oregon fell to Kansas with a Final Four berth at stake, the Ducks came up a game short. After nine straight victories, including three to take the Pac-10 tournament title and three more in the NCAA Tournament, Oregon's run ended in the Edward Jones Dome at the hands of the defending national champion.
"A lot of people, they visit the Elite Eight or the Final Four or the Sweet 16, and they don't get back," Malik Hairston said. "We don't want to be one of those kind of programs. Oregon wants to continue to build into an elite program.
"We came to the Elite Eight, and I hope we can continue to build off of it and go further."
If not exactly a statement that he's returning for his senior season, Hairston has made it clear he'd like to be part of another season like Oregon's just-completed one. He's going to meet with his family and advisers and discuss his options, which could include testing his NBA status, knowing he can come back to the Ducks if he doesn't sign with an agent.
Off this 29-8 team, the Ducks lose two senior scholarship players in Aaron Brooks and Adam Zahn, along with Adrian Stelly. All Brooks did as an all-league player this season was lead the Pac-10 in scoring, and move into the top 10 of about every Oregon career list except rebounding.
And he rebounded about as well as any guard in the country, in a season of one big shot or notable play after another.
"It's going to be different without him," UO assistant coach Mark Hudson said. "This team is going to have to find a guy to go to at the end of a game. He was our go-to guy all year. Other guys had great games, but everybody on our team knew who was going to get the ball when it was crunch time and we needed a bucket. It was Aaron Brooks."
Brooks suggested that it could be Tajuan Porter or Bryce Taylor filling that role next season.
"Malik is definitely going to grow, too," Brooks also suggested. "We've got some new guys coming, and I'm looking for them to step in."
Maybe the Ducks will simply look different. Instead of Brooks and Porter sharing the point guard position, it's more likely to be Porter and ... well, how about Chamberlain Oguchi as the other guard, replacing the shooting of Brooks if Porter can be the primary ball handler.
"I expect Champ to have a better year than he had this year," Brooks said. "He kind of reminds me of myself, having a bad junior year and then coming back and having a good senior year."
They are large Nikes to fill, however the Ducks realign themselves without Brooks.
"That's going to be the challenge for the juniors and Tajuan Porter and the new people coming in, who's going to take the responsibility to shoulder that pressure when the game's
on the line?" Hudson said. "There are not a lot of people in this world who can put an entire basketball program on your back and come through like he did."
The Ducks have every reason to think they should contend for a repeat appearance in the NCAA Tournament, something Oregon has done only twice, in 1960 and '61 and 2002 and '03. Even without Brooks, there are four double-figure scorers who could return in Porter, Taylor, Hairston and Leunen, the latter also the leading rebounder.
"We lose the heart and soul of our team, but we've got other players who will step up," Leunen said. "We lose a great piece, but it will give other people the opportunity" to do the same.
The additions for next season are Frantz Dorsainvil, the 6-foot-8 junior college transfer who was delayed in enrolling until spring term by immigration delays, along with incoming freshmen Kamyron Brown, a point guard, and Drew Viney, likely a wing player.
It will be a different team, simply because the personalities change.
"I'm ging to miss Aaron and Adam a lot," Taylor said. "Me and Aaron have been through a lot of things together, seeing a lot of people get down on him and myself. We kind of had to prove a lot of people wrong and rewrite our careers. I feel like we both did a good job of that."
A lot of Ducks did that, or the season wouldn't have gone this far, to 29-8 including six win-or-out situations. Every Oregon starter scored in double figures at least once against NCAA opposition. Brooks, Porter and Hairston were named to the all-tournament team for the Midwest Regional.
Only a loss to the Gators kept Oregon from being in the Final Four.
"We hung in there with them," Zahn said. "A couple shots go our way, a couple guys don't get in foul trouble, we're right there with the defending national champions.
"I don't think we should have any talk of us not belonging on that stage. It's sad right now but in the big picture, we made it to the Elite Eight, we had a great year."
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