So how are we feeling?

[buckmarkduck]

Seems we have given Dana a pass long enough, because he did great things. But now he lost his top assistants, and we are looking at missing the tournament for the second year in a row? How long do we give him before moving on?

[dthomas=ddixon]

I love Dana but I’m extremely tired of the “slow start” thing. I get that he’s an incredible coach, and when he gets the team rolling he can outcoach basically anyone, but his inability to put a quality team on the court to start the year is becoming bizarre. And it’s eating away at people’s interest in the team; he’s trained fans to not waste their time and just check in halfway through the season.

This year he has to get a pass because of injuries, and next year we’ll be revamping the entire roster like usual… I really want him to figure it out but if most years we’re going to be a middling team that might make an end of season run then I think it’s ok to start having the conversation.

[Alan]

Seems we have given Dana a pass long enough, because he did great things. But now he lost his top assistants, and we are looking at missing the tournament for the second year in a row? How long do we give him before moving on?

He lost me years ago when he turned his head on a sexual assault until after the tournament. Also, I am tired of all these one and done players. They play like crap and we hope they can jell before it is too late.

[Phalanx]

Still not sure what he was supposed to do during a tournament when all the details weren't out...whatever. In terms of his coaching, he has been a magician for years, and I think recruiting to Oregon is harder in basketball because of how many eggs you have to put in only a few baskets. These kids are not from here, and they like leaving after a year or two. It would be great to have a program full of four-year guys and stability - I'm just not sure you can do that at Oregon and still field top-flight talent.

When the team stops being good in February, then it's time to move on. Last year was bad and if he has lost his gravitas in the locker room a la Helfrich, then it could be time, but I would argue for more leash than Helf got. Ineffective coaches have a way of weeding themselves out if they see the writing on the wall. I would compare it to Bruce Bochy with the Giants.

[buckmarkduck]

Seems we have given Dana a pass long enough, because he did great things. But now he lost his top assistants, and we are looking at missing the tournament for the second year in a row? How long do we give him before moving on?

He lost me years ago when he turned his head on a sexual assault until after the tournament. Also, I am tired of all these one and done players. They play like crap and we hope they can jell before it is too late.

I thought those guys sued the school and won?

[OG Duck]

Dana gets a pass this year due to the injury situation, which is completely out of his control. But he needs to do a better job of convincing his guys to stick around for a couple years. It starts with Kel'El. He absolutely needs to come back for a second year. He's not ready for the league. If we get him back and he plays with Kwame and Mookie, that should be a quality team out of the gate.

[UOducksTK1]

I think what’s most concerning right now is we lose like 5 or 6 of our top guys this off-season. So things aren’t necessarily gonna get better next year.

So I could legit see Oregon not making the tournament for about 3 or even 4 years in a row. Which could mean his job at that point.

[Alan]

Seems we have given Dana a pass long enough, because he did great things. But now he lost his top assistants, and we are looking at missing the tournament for the second year in a row? How long do we give him before moving on?

He lost me years ago when he turned his head on a sexual assault until after the tournament. Also, I am tired of all these one and done players. They play like crap and we hope they can jell before it is too late.

I thought those guys sued the school and won?

It has been a few years but in my mind the girl sued the school and Oregon settled. The players transferred after the tournament. So as not to seem I am changing the topic, the scandal never left my mind and thoughts about Altman and all these slow starts due to one and done players makes it so I have little interest in mens BB, I would love to see the days of following players through the Duck days again….. the Luke’s! Even if it means we don’t win quite as much.

Edit to add, after thinking about it I do believe the two players also sued the school later, not about the sexual assault but about how ithey were handled, delayed process to kick off the team to play in the tourney then kicked off the team was what they sued about ………I believe.

[Duck07]

If my recollection is off, please feel free to update this but this is how I recall the events all playing out:

-Girl and 3 BBall players get freaky in a bathroom at a party.
-Girl tries to get another girl to join her with them when that girl opens the door trying to use the bathroom.
-Girl and Players leave to one of the Players apts where they engage in more group sex and she stays the night with that 1 player.
-Girl's Dad somehow finds out a few details so she says it wasn't consensual.
-EPD/Lane gets notified. They tell Rob Mullens of an incident, nothing specific and not that it was a possible SA.
-Eventually EPD/Lane tells more specifics to the UO about the incident, bruises, etc. Within 24 HRs players are suspended and its a news story.
-Girl 2 from bathroom tells Eugene Weekly what she saw happen in bathroom now that its a story. EPD/Lane decline to take it further action based on conflicting statements/actions.
-Girl settles with UO for 800K and stayed on campus to finish her degree with free tuition.
-Artis/Dotson both sued, I believe they settled as well. Not sure about Austin but I do want to say that all 4 eventually settled.

I think one of the major lessons from everything that happened was a reminder of how difficult it is to prosecute SA cases for a bevy of reasons that were all present.

As it relates to Dana, I think he's a pretty damn straight shooter in his life and he is a man of Faith. To think that he knew what occurred when he and Mullens say there were only told of an incident and not specifics feel like it isn't just out of character, but not in line with who he is as a person. I think he looks tired but he doesn't want to quit/stop coaching. I also think this was a difficult period for him because of the outside view of him.

I don't want to see Altman fired/retire, but I do wonder what he thinks his timeline might be. What's his current contract length?

[OregonFan4Life]

Eh, I never have been a fan of Altman’s style but I have to admit he’s done great things here, however it’s clear he peaked with the Final Four team and it looks like he won’t be able to recreate that magic, he had the program climbing and getting better each year until that Final Four team and since then it hasn’t been the same. There’s been a couple of decent late season runs to the Sweet Sixteen but as a low seed where if they played well the entire season they’d be a higher seed and would’ve gone father. I think Altman has struggled to build the same roster that he did on that Final Four team and losing a couple of key assistants has made it harder. But like the OP said, one thing that has to bother Mullens is the lack of fan support/participation until halfway through the season, watching early duck basketball games on TV is like watching UCLA football games, embarrassing due to lack of fan attendance. I do think at this point Altman should have figured out the early season struggles and how to get better and more consistent guard play. I think we will see the end of the Altman era within a couple years, he’ll retire but Mullens won’t be heartbroken about it.

[73duck]

His best team might have been the 2019-20 squad, especially before Bol Bol went down. They still won the PAC12 and finished ranked #14, but they would have done really well in the tourney, I think, with a senior Payton Pritchard running the show. But the tourney got canceled due to the COVID scare.

[northbeachsf]

Oregon made the NCAA tournament 9 times between 1939 and the day Altman started coaching in Eugene. They have since made the tournament 7 times in the last 9 years. I think it is fair to cut Altman a little slack.

Altman's half court offense is pretty average. He does really well when he has guards and stretch forwards that can shoot the ball really well with the inside out game. The confusing thing is that we it seems like we don't have a lot of those type of players on the roster this year that truly will fit his system. Ware actually shoots it pretty well. If he stays one more year, I think that would be a great start.

[greenyellow]

His best team might have been the 2019-20 squad, especially before Bol Bol went down. They still won the PAC12 and finished ranked #14, but they would have done really well in the tourney, I think, with a senior Payton Pritchard running the show. But the tourney got canceled due to the COVID scare.

Bol Bol was on the 2018-19 team, which still made the NCAA Tournament but only because they won the Pac-12 Tournament. It was the next year where Pritchard went off as a SR only to get the Tournament canceled by COVID.

[whosyourwally]

I’m just amazed at how often we start the year off with major injuries. I’d go back and look, but that feels like work…. Hasn’t it been several times in the last 5 or 6 years we’ve started the season with major injury issues?

I have no idea what this year’s team would look like if they were at full strength and they’d had the fall to gel.

Similar to the above comment about the impact of landing/missing on recruiting, I feel like health of a basketball team really dictates the course of a coach’s career. You lose one core player to injury and it can derail a season. That happening multiple years in a row can derail a career.


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[dd10snoop28]

Oregon made the NCAA tournament 9 times between 1939 and the day Altman started coaching in Eugene. They have since made the tournament 7 times in the last 9 years. I think it is fair to cut Altman a little slack.

Altman's half court offense is pretty average. He does really well when he has guards and stretch forwards that can shoot the ball really well with the inside out game. The confusing thing is that we it seems like we don't have a lot of those type of players on the roster this year that truly will fit his system. Ware actually shoots it pretty well. If he stays one more year, I think that would be a great start.

True!

Altman has created a greater standard for duck basketballl that hadn't ever existed.... unfortunately, he hasn't lived up to this new standard the past 3 seasons specifically.