Dana Altman

[uostudent]

May be my favorite coach at UO. Obviously Chip, Vin, and Horton are outstanding coaches, but Altman came into a very tough situation. The most heralded recruits departed and the team's best player (Jeremy Jacob) battled knee injuries all year long. Everyone predicted that the team would come in last place in the conference and win a maximum of 10-11 games this season.

It was pretty unbearable watching Oregon basketball for the past few seasons. Guys like Kamyron Brown and Drew Viney were selfish players (imo, teams should avoid Mater Dei recruits like the plague). Tajuan Porter is a great guy, but nobody wants to see a team's entire offense run through an undersized sg who had a tendency to jack up long ill-advised three pointers.

Despite being one of the least talented Oregon teams in the past 10-15 years, this year's team was fun to watch. They always played hard, played solid defense, and actually ran an offense that included real ball movement, screens, and players moving without the ball.

We can't predict whether Altman's teams will be able to make it to the elite 8, but one thing we can count on is some consistency. In the next 2-3 years, I think Oregon will become a team that finishes in the top half of the conference and will remain there. Oregon will never be a basketball school, but I think it's reasonable to expect the basketball program to make the tournament most years and graduate > 80% of the its players.

[MFRDuckFan]

Great post UO & agree that Dana is the shot in the arm that this team desperately needed.

Also, they need to win more so I can hear Dana talk! He gives a great interview.

[greenyellow]

May be my favorite coach at UO. Obviously Chip, Vin, and Horton are outstanding coaches, but Altman came into a very tough situation. The most heralded recruits departed and the team's best player (Jeremy Jacob) battled knee injuries all year long. Everyone predicted that the team would come in last place in the conference and win a maximum of 10-11 games this season.

It was pretty unbearable watching Oregon basketball for the past few seasons. Guys like Kamyron Brown and Drew Viney were selfish players (imo, teams should avoid Mater Dei recruits like the plague). Tajuan Porter is a great guy, but nobody wants to see a team's entire offense run through an undersized sg who had a tendency to jack up long ill-advised three pointers.

Despite being one of the least talented Oregon teams in the past 10-15 years, this year's team was fun to watch. They always played hard, played solid defense, and actually ran an offense that included real ball movement, screens, and players moving without the ball.

We can't predict whether Altman's teams will be able to make it to the elite 8, but one thing we can count on is some consistency. In the next 2-3 years, I think Oregon will become a team that finishes in the top half of the conference and will remain there. Oregon will never be a basketball school, but I think it's reasonable to expect the basketball program to make the tournament most years and graduate > 80% of the its players.

So glad that he's the coach now. Actually seeing an offense being run was jarring at first since it had been so long since any coherent offensive strategy had been in place. I loved seeing the smart, aggressive defenses that Altman used. Only thing that made them not work was not having enough depth and athleticism. One thing that I always liked about Kent, which I think will continue with Altman, was he graduated his players.

Also, I agree Oregon should avoid players from Mater Dei HS like the plague. I can't really think of any that have done anything special in CBB in a while.

[duckfan22]

Altman is such an unselfish person. Look at his team. They are all unselfish.
Altman never takes credit when the win. When they lose he takes all the blame.
Look up the road in corn valley. CR throws his players under the bus after a loss.
Altman is such a better coach and person then CR is. I bet if you were in vegas and
placed bets that The ducks would have won 16 games you would have been laughed
right out of town. I can't wait to see when Altman has had 2-3 more years recruiting.
To me watching an Oregon team that plays as one and actually runs a offense and
plays hard on the defensive end is amazing. Haven't seen that for awhile. I'm proud of
the coaching staff and the players for not buying into all the naysayers at the beginning
and for the athletic department for thinking the Altman was the right guy for the
job. It appears they were right.

[dthomas=ddixon]

Great post man, couldn't have said it better myself. Really looking forward to the coming years under Dana. The guy puts a great brand of basketball on the court that is really fun to watch but he's also a great guy that, as a fan, you know you can really get behind & fully support.

[briarduck]

Well said gang, I couldn't be more impressed with him and what he's done...very proud of what they did this year! And as duckfan22 said I can't wait to see what he can accomplish over the next 2-3 years, adding talent and depth should easily put us into the tourney every year!

[Greenblood]

Yes -- a very nice post by uostudent. It was a real joy to watch this team many times this year, which I did not anticipate. And I hope it's not over yet.

But I'd like to know what is meant by, "Oregon will never be a basketball school." I'd like to know how a "basketball school" gets defined. Is Oregon a football school? I'm guessing that most of us would say "yes" to that. Or do you need a certain tradition in a sport, such that Oregon can really only be considered a track & field school? Or is it more about how much enthusiasm/passion the student body has for a given sport? In that regard, I certainly think that in most of the Dick Harter portion of the 1970s there was more of that for UO basketball than UO football. And in a few years, I could see that kind of enthusiasm again for hoops, even if we might never see it again exceed that of football.

Not to be overly provocative, just curious.

[Duck24]

Coach Altman is not only a great motivator he seems to be a great game-planner. I know I am not shocking everyone when I say that our teams talent level was beyond sub-par, but he was able to make them believe that they could compete. The confidence he instilled in the team was quite inspiring to me, just watching on TV. Even if they were over-matched, you knew that it wasn't likely that they would be outworked. As far as his game-planning goes, if/when he found a weakness he could exploit, boy did he ever. I know this is what everyone else says, but good God I can't wait to see what he does when he has real talent. And I can't help but wonder what our team would have looked like with Humphrey and Wilson getting some serious PT. A solid slasher like Wilson and a streaky dead-eye shooter like Humphrey would have been great. I am very much looking forward to next season.