If we knew a loss to Wisconsin would send Dana Altman into this kind of rant, perhaps the Ducks should schedule the Badgers more often.
Oregon didn’t schedule this particular game as it was an NIT quarterfinal matchup and Altman’s post-season rant wasn’t exactly on the docket either.
But the loss and the rant both probably needed to happen in order to open up some eyes within the program and those associated with it from the players, coaches and even the administration.
After the 61-58 loss to the Badgers, Altman said this:
We’re gonna get after players. If they’re gonna stay here they’re gonna work their asses off, and if they don’t, we’ve got to find somebody who will. We’ve got too good of a situation here. The facilities, we’ve got a lot of support staff that wants these guys, you know. We’ve got Cliff (Spiller) in the weight room. He’s an NBA weightlifting coach. We can get to the Mariota Center over there. We’ve got nutritionists. We give these guys every advantage, we just have to take advantage. So again, that goes into the evaluation, and we’ll make some changes.
No question that the talent is there. Altman’s recent recruiting classes have been in the Top 20 of the country. He’s won a lot more with a lot less. Dillon Brooks wasn’t a Top 100 player, Jordan Bell was No. 99 and Chris Boucher wasn’t even ranked. All three of those guys, along with Tyler Dorsey, stayed multiple years and turned themselves into some of the best players in the country. But they wanted to get better and worked at it. They took advantage of the facilities Oregon provides. Evidently, there are more than a few players in the program that do not and the results show it.
We were playing hard. We just didn’t play very smart. We played hard but we did not play smart. So they found a way to make some plays at critical times had a couple of threes down the stretch and we had turnovers and a couple of bad shots.
Not playing smart was a fixture of this team in the 2022-23 season and they had a five-year starter at point guard in Will Richardson. But it wasn’t just him. N’Faly Dante got into foul trouble, Kel’el Ware didn’t play hard a lot of the time, Quincy Guerrier would seemingly make the wrong play at the worst possible time. Except for Ware, the other players should and need to know better. Hopefully, Ware and the other younger players see this and don’t make the same mistakes in the future.
If it’s me, then get rid of me. If you need somebody else to be a promoter, do something. But 3,300 people, that’s embarrassing. It really is. I’m not in a very good mood you can tell. If it’s me, then make the change. Make the change. Somebody will hire me, I’ll go coach junior college ball again. I loved junior college ball. Those guys, those guys were dogs.
It’s not Altman. Perhaps the decision to go to a 1-3-1 zone in the last minute which set up Wisconsin’s game-winning three wasn’t the best move in the history of Oregon basketball, especially with the lack of basketball IQ this team showed this season. But Altman knows his stuff. You can teach fundamentals over and over, but if the player doesn’t get it … there’s so much a coach can do. He can’t play the game for them.
But 3,300 people for Wisconsin? I was disappointed. And I appreciate the people that came, that’s 3,300 people who did come, great. I sure appreciate and you know, the people who have stuck with us. But, again, you know, I’m not a promoter. And I’m not out to public. I don’t have Twitter and all the stuff. My job is to coach, my job is to get the team and coaching and you know, I’m not out there … I’m so bad at promoting, doing those things. But, you know, we have won 20 games for a long time and we have been in the postseason 13 years in a row. And I know this is the NIT, it’s not the NCAA. I understand. I understand. But our guys work hard. And I’m just a little disappointed, but they’re disappointed in us.
We’re not sure if that was an intentional dig at Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens or not, but some of this has to fall on him. Obviously Altman feels like he’s not being supported by the administration with the lack of marketing for the team and thus the attendance goes down. Of course, winning cure everything and that’s on Altman. But he’s right, for an NIT quarterfinal against a big time Big Ten opponent, 8-9,000 wouldn’t be an unreasonable ask from the fan base.
There’s a disconnect there somewhere. Matthew Knight Arena isn’t exactly the most assessable arena out there. The parking is nearly non-existent. It’s difficult to get to. Oregon needs to build some kind of parking structure or a shuttle service to and from the arena.
But again, the accessibility issues didn’t exist when the Ducks were going to Sweet 16s. Winning cure everything and hopefully with this wake up call, and a stellar recruiting class coming in, winning will come.