The House of Points: Both UO Ducks Basketball Teams Scoring at Record Pace

The House of Points: Both UO Ducks Basketball Teams Scoring at Record Pace

Originally posted on CampusAttic.com on December 26th, 2013

    Oregon basketball is scoring points on top of points on top of points, son! Following a cue from the Oregon football mentality, Ducks basketball has become a game of scoring at will, for both the men’s and women’s teams.

 

Men's Basketball coach Dana Altman (NBC.com)

    The men’s squad, undefeated on the year at 11-0 and ranked as high as 10th in one poll, the women’s squad 8-2. Both are slated to next play games this Sunday, Dec. 29th at Matthew Knight Arena in what should be an entertaining and fast-paced doubleheader. Both are led by high-profile coaches with distinct systems.

    Whatever the means, whether it’s the “Guru of Go”’s run-and-gun system by Paul Westhead having his women sprint and shoot within three passes, or Dana Altman’s movement system built on out-scheming opponents; both teams have a lot in common — flashy uniforms, the Pit Crew cheering them on, plenty of wins, and scoring lots and lots of points in the process.

    It is unprecedented territory for Oregon, and perhaps any program, to consider the equality in offensive production currently taking place in the cavernous and occasionally mostly-filled Matthew Knight Arena. The Oregon Ducks men’s team currently rank #1 in the country in points per game (90.3), and 7th in field goal percentage (.511). The women are also #1 in scoring per game at a whopping 106.2 points per game, almost six points per game higher than the 2nd-ranked team (Baylor).

Paul Westhead’s system is finally paying big dividends. (courtesy: GoDucks.com)

    For comparison purposes, the women’s team would rank third overall in the NBA behind only Portland and Oklahoma City in points per game, and 24 points per game higher than the top-scoring WNBA team in the 2013 season (Minnesota Lynx – 82.88).

    The University of Oregon athletic department is a program more than any other today that has become a marketing giant, a brand in of itself. Predicated on speed and flash across all of its sports, behind the glitz and glamour of Duck lore is the reality of performance. The University of Oregon may not have the banners that the traditional powers do, but in the 21st century nothing draws attention like scoring and winning, two things the Ducks have done often…now if only those things actually attracted a crowd to Matt Knight Arena.

    With both teams running and scoring at a breakneck pace, it will be interesting to see where the Ducks end up once Pac-12 play begins. Each team has been tested, the men surviving difficult battles in overtime vs. Ole Miss and Illinois, the women falling to the #1 ranked Connecticut Huskies in Hartford, CT.

    Coach Westhead and Coach Altman will of course give the typical coach speak, emphasizing fundamentals and areas to improve–defense, rebounding, passing, ball control–but the results speak for themselves. The systems are working, oh how they are working.

    Seven times out of ten the Oregon women have scored 100+ points in games, the men four times out of eleven have cracked the century mark. The women in three of those games have exceed 120 points, without going to overtime. Their opening day tally of 131 broke the team and Pac-12 scoring record for a single game, quite a feat considering the top-level play and dynasty long established on the west coast by the Stanford women’s basketball team.

Joseph Young has led the scoring
(courtesy: BleacherReport.com)

    Both teams have have gone into overdrive through new additions to the roster adding turbo to an already powerful engine. The men’s squad has survived in the Dana Altman era through transfers, and 2013 is no exception, with Joseph Young, Mike Moser, and Jason Calliste ranking 1-2-3 in scoring for the Ducks, Young leading the way at a whopping 19.8 ppg clip.

    For the women, the catalyst has been freshman Chrishae Rowe and a finally healthy roster. Westhead has brought in talent to Oregon since taking over the team five years ago, but the program has been as snake bit by injuries as any in the country, until now. Firing on all cylinders, Rowe and the lady Ducks are making buckets at an unbelievable pace.

     Rowe has been named the Pac-12 freshman of the week three times, impressive considering considering the season is barely seven weeks old. Rowe set a new team record for scoring in a single game back on December 4th, racking up 41 vs. Seattle. She is ranked 10th in the country in scoring per game (24.2), while inside post presence Jillian Alleyne leads the nation in rebounds per game at 13.8.

    With Oregon putting up so many points and the Pac-12 schedule looming, both teams just got a nitrous injection with the addition of more able bodies. Handcuffed for the first nine games due to the suspension of 2012 starting point guard Dominic Artis and much-needed big man Ben Carter, the men’s team seamlessly welcomed their two teammates back into the rotation, the two proving invaluable in the Dec. 21st 100-96 overtime win over BYU. After football season ends, come January a couple more players are likely to don Duck uniforms, last year’s redshirt Arik Armstead and freshmen twins Tyree and Tyrell Robinson probable to join an already very deep bench.

Chrishae Rowe has led the way in the Ducks’ onslaught of the scoreboard, named Pac-12
Freshman of the Week three times. (courtesy: GoDucks.com)

    On the women’s side, Oregon’s athletic equivalent of a Swiss Army Knife is back, four-sport do-everything and volleyball All-American Liz Brenner is back on the court following Oregon’s elimination from the volleyball NCAA Tournament. Brenner was Oregon 2nd leading rebounder in 2012-13, a big body to help in the paint.

     While Brenner for the women and Armstead for the men are not key cogs in the machine with Oregon’s teams already rolling, they are nice compliments to add to let Oregon only get stronger from here. Armstead could possibly bring a large body in the paint, the one chink in Oregon’s armor, a team that ranks a paltry 153rd in the country in rebounding.

    Whether or not the good times can be sustained will be tested when Pac-12 play starts in January. Always a strong basketball conference, the traditional powers in Arizona’s men’s team and Stanford’s women’s team are huge roadblocks that must be overcome to legitimize both Oregon teams as contenders.

  What they have proven thus far is that both are able to score, handily, on anybody. As long as they keep scoring, they should keep winning. For 2013, if Autzen Stadium is the House of Loud, then Matthew Knight Arena has become the House of Points. It may not be loud, it may often be close to empty, but the on-court performances more than justify a big audience.

The next opportunity to showcase their point prowess should be a fun one, with the men’s and women’s teams both playing at Matt Knight Arena this Sunday. Why not make a day of it? See if the scoreboard can keep up…First to 100 wins.

NEXT GAMES:

Oregon Ducks Men’s Basketball
Morgan State vs. Oregon
Sunday, December 29th, 2013 – 12pm (Pac-12 Network)
TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE

Oregon Ducks Women’s Basketball
Cal State Northridge vs. Oregon
Sunday, December 29th, 2013 – 4pm (Pac-12 Streaming online here)
TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE

Pit Crew has had plenty to cheer about in 2013, join in the fun this Sunday with back-to-back games. (courtesy: UOpitcrew.com)

Ducks Keep Getting Stronger: So Far So Good For UO Basketball, Tests Remain

Ducks Keep Getting Stronger: So Far So Good For UO Basketball, Tests Remain

Originally posted on CampusAttic.com on December 19th, 2013

Oregon Ducks head coach Dana Altman has had a lot to applaud so far in 2013. (courtesy: NBCsports.com)

    Just how good could the 2013-14 Oregon Ducks men’s basketball team be? At 10-0, so far so good. In the past four years since Dana Altman took over the program from Ernie Kent, Oregon has had to implement stop-gap measures to fill the roster, surviving on transfers to replace the constant departures from the program.

     At times it has felt like a tale of two seasons, as the team that starts the year barely resembles the squad that finishes it, with late additions to balance out players leaving. Familiar faces returned for the first time this year on Tuesday, when Dominic Artis and Ben Carter returned from a nine-game suspension, and in the near future yet more help could be on the way.

    Somehow, Altman has made it work. From the first recruit Altman ever signed, Johnathan Loyd — now a senior, to the masterful use of the graduate transfer rule that has allowed single-year stars to emerge like Devoe Joseph and Arsalan Kazemi, Altman and company have managed to find a way to keep the train on the tracks when so much could have gone wrong amidst a very fluid roster.

    Every year Oregon has improved on the previous season under Coach Altman. First there was the CBI championship in the inaugural season at Matthew Knight Arena, then the NIT, then reaching the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament; but now Oregon feels different. Before the Ducks were the overachieving up-and-comers, this year, they have officially arrived as a true west coast contender.

    At 10-0, Oregon is ranked 13th in the country, but easily playing at a top-10 level. It is the first 10-0 start for Oregon since the 2006-07 season, the last time the Ducks reached the Elite 8 of the NCAA Tournament. Despite being shorthanded due to the nine-game suspension of 2012 starting point guard Dominic Artis and big man Ben Carter, Oregon in 2013 has not only reloaded but grown stronger. Senior point guard Johnathan Loyd has expanded on his 2012-13 Pac-12 Tournament MVP performance to become an early season Pac-12 Player of the Year candidate, while transfers Joseph Young and Jason Calliste have made the Ducks one of the top scoring teams in the country.

    Every test has been passed so far, with the team surviving the Carter and Artis suspensions with flying colors, to the point where concern was raised that the return of the two sidelined Ducks this past Tuesday vs. UC-Irvine might actually upset team chemistry. After a 91-63 win over a tough Anteater squad that had beaten UW earlier in the year, that proved unfounded, but will reduced minutes for some result in inconsistent play in the future?

    Oregon hasn’t just reloaded like past years, but expanded the roster of an already-proven-to-be-very-good team to an elite level. If this team had one flaw, it was their size in the paint, a problem (hopefully) resolved with the addition of Ben Carter, and with Dominic Artis back in the point guard rotation it allows Loyd to bring even more energy to the floor. With one game done, sharing the ball between Artis and Loyd doesn’t appear to be an issue.

Dominic Artis’ return to the lineup Tuesday should pay great dividends going forward. (courtesy: CSNNW.com)

    There are many tests yet to come in a still very young season, the Pac-12 is as stacked with talent as any conference in the country this year. Proving the best team out west could perhaps come down to the last game of the year, when Oregon hosts the #1 ranked Arizona Wildcats in March before the Pac-12 Tournament.

    Joseph Young, Jason Calliste, and Mike Moser are all capable scorers added to last year’s leaders Dominic Artis and Damyean Dotson, while Artis and Loyd are both extremely capable and proven point guards. The only thing that could be lacking in this year’s version of the Ducks is a dominant rebounder/defender with the loss of Arsalan Kazemi and Tony Woods from last year’s squad. So far Oregon has been able to outrun and shoot past any inside presence hindrance, with so many quality role players able to take over a game any shortcomings seem more than possible to be overcome.

    Scary to think then that this Oregon team could actually still get deeper and stronger. Come January, once the football season ends, several Oregon football players may join the already deep basketball squad. Arik Armstead is a big body who redshirted last season, but could add another post presence off the bench backing up Carter and Waverly Austin.

    Then there is the matter of Tyrell and Tyree Robinson, freshmen on the football team who have expressed interest in also playing basketball, and the possibility that 2013 signee Jordan Bell, delayed in arrival due to a NCAA clearance issue, is scheduled to enroll next term and could add even more depth, though he seems a likely redshirt candidate.

    That brings the body count up to 19! 19 players on the Oregon roster — if Armstead, the Robinson twins, and Bell all join Oregon for the winter 2014 term. For a sport where teams rarely go deeper than a 10-man rotation, that’s tremendous depth and talent to keep legs fresh, allowing Oregon to run and play press defense, just the way Altman likes it.

    It’s an odd position for Altman to be in, who has had to scramble in the past just to be able to fill a roster, now having too many athletes than he knows what to do with. Only so many minutes to go around, so perhaps down the line the plethora of talent may in fact become an issue as had been speculated prior to the UC-Irvine game Tuesday, but if the positive results continue then nitpicking over minutes may be the only flaw anyone can find.

    Ask the coach though, and there is always room for improvement. Altman has made it known he expects better rebounding, more defensive intensity, better overall effort…ya know, typical coach-speak. Yet with areas to improve, even Coach Altman has to be smiling over the great start to the 2013-14 campaign.

    Before the 10-0 euphoria gets too big, however, it is important to remember that this Oregon team has yet to prove they can consistently play well on the road. Seven of the 10 wins have been in the friendly confines of Matt Knight Arena, with one neutral site game in South Korea, one overtime win at Ole Miss, and a very pro-Oregon “neutral site” game in Portland. The Ole Miss game in Oxford, MS proved the most difficult matchup so far, and Oregon barely survived, so does that show enough cause to be concerned for future road contests?

What size disadvantage? Oregon didn’t have a problem contending against UC-Irvine’s big men Tuesday.

    Dominant big man be damned, the other major concern for this year’s team, as Oregon quickly neutralized UCI’s 7’6″ monstrosity, Mamadou Ndiaye. So far that concern has also proven unfounded, but could an elite center or power forward be Oregon’s kryptonite come tournament time? The jury is still out.

    Oregon next hosts BYU, once again playing at Matt Knight Arena, this Saturday at 7:30pm (Pac-12 Network). Another home game to follow vs. Morgan State wraps up the 2013 portion of the season before the holiday break and Pac-12 play begins. Come January the true tests begin, with road games at Utah and Colorado commencing Pac-12 conference games. If Oregon proves they can win on the road in the Pac-12, only then should realistic expectations be raised that Oregon can and should exceed last year’s Pac-12 Tournament Championship and NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 finish.

    Consider BYU and Morgan State the last opportunities to polish fundamentals, dust off the rust on Artis and Carter, and solidify the team’s position as one of the top contenders out west before conference play begins. BYU can’t be overlooked though, at 8-4 the Cougars have suffered three losses to top-25 teams, while holding wins over Texas and Stanford already on the young season. BYU is top-10 in the country in points, rebounds, and assists per game, a difficult opponent that once again will go a ways in showing how well this deep Oregon lineup can play together.

    The early tests have been passed, with many more yet to come. The legitimacy of Oregon as a championship contender can’t be overlooked with the talent on the roster and undefeated start, but it is still very premature to start dreaming of nets being cut down.

    Finding consistency in the rotation, proving they can win on the road, surviving a difficult Pac-12 schedule, defeating an able-bodied BYU, proving they can overcome size disadvantages in the paint — these are the tests that still await Altman’s Ducks. With the recent additions and more reinforcements on the way, the Ducks just keep getting stronger. It’s a long season yet to come, but so far so good.

Oregon Ducks celebrate their win over UC-Irvine Tuesday. The team next hosts BYU on Saturday. (courtesy: GoDucks.com)

Ducks Keep Their Altman: Oregon Locks Up Dana Altman For Years To Come

Ducks Keep Their Altman: Oregon Locks Up Dana Altman For Years To Come

Originally published on CampusAttic.com on November 29th, 2013

    Ask around the country the initial perceptions of University of Oregon athletics, and the same key words will come up: uniforms, Nike, facilities. Yet despite all the toys and tools provided, at the heart of every athletic program at the University of Oregon, it is the people who make it successful.

    Long before the multi-million dollar modern arenas for each athletic program amidst the construction fervor of the past two decades, Oregon’s “stuff” could be considered at best quaint, yet teams remained successful because of the abilities of the student-athletes and coaches. Those days are gone, rundown structures replaced with modern sparkling jewels, but the individual talents of player and coach remain, and thankfully Oregon just locked up one of their best for years to come.

    Dana Altman, head coach of the Oregon men’s basketball team, signed a three-year contract extension earlier this week. Going into his fourth season, Altman has completely revitalized Oregon Ducks basketball, a once-proud program that had sunk to a sorry complacent state in the final years under former UO athlete-turned-coach Ernie Kent.

    Kent hadn’t been a bad coach, he remains the all-time leader at the school in career victories during his 13-year tenure, and had twice taken the program to the elite 8 in the NCAA Tournament, but in his final years at the helm a complacent malaise had tainted the program. Athletes went through the motions with an obvious lack of defensive effort and endless jacked-up three pointers, coach shouted his typical “move! move! move!”, but either the message or motivation had been lost. Fans stopped going to games, people just didn’t care about a program that was, at best, treading water.

    After finishing in the Elite 8, giving eventual national champion Florida their toughest fight of the NCAA tournament in 2006-07 led by senior guard Aaron Brooks, Oregon followed up an impressive year with a three year slide of disappointment. Bounced out of the first round of the NCAA tournament in 2008, it was followed by a 8-23 season in 2009, and a 16-16 campaign in 2010, finishing 9th in the Pac-10.

     Whether fair or not to Ernie after such a long run of success compared to previous coaching tenures, it felt like it was long overdue for a change. The players weren’t happy, the administration wasn’t happy, fans weren’t happy. Some public incidents made headlines that left some players ineligible and others embarrassed, fans weren’t attending games, and with the huge investment of building the new state-of-the-art Matthew Knight Arena set to open the next year, it felt like a change in identity was needed.

FINDING THEIR MAN

    It didn’t happen overnight. For over a month Oregon officials criss-crossed the country trying to find their new coach, getting denied repeatedly by one big-name coach after another. Not even the Nike allure and promises of monumental paychecks could pull away the top talent to Eugene from the nation’s elite college basketball schools, a program that seemed mired in mediocrity, no motivation to succeed even with a new arena soon to call home. But amidst all the rejections, one name kept popping up that was being suggested to Oregon’s officials — Dana Altman.

Olu Oshaolu and Devoe Joseph were two early transfers that found great success under Altman. (courtesy: KVAL.com)

    Dana Altman had begun his head coaching career with a four year stint at Kansas State, before taking over Creighton University’s program for 16 years. During that lengthy stretch, Altman had taken a mediocre Creighton program to its biggest heights, five trips to the NIT and seven to the NCAA Tournament, and a career 327-176 record — placing Altman third all-time in career wins in the Missouri Valley Conference.

     He became one of the most respected coaches in the game, a Naismith Award Finalist for national coach of the year, a true X’s and O’s man who got the most out of his players, winning through scheme rather than superior individual talent.

    Oregon wasn’t the first team that had come calling to lure Altman away from Creighton. In 2007 Dana Altman announced that he would be leaving Creighton, accepting an offer to become the new head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks, but the next day rescinded on his departure, citing that his heart was still at Creighton. Whenever coaching vacancies opened, Altman’s name would be floated because of his impressive accolades and abilities, but typically followed with a “BUT he probably won’t leave Creighton.”

    After striking out repeatedly for a month in the time since a tearful press conference firing at Mac Court by longtime football coach-turned-temporary-Athletic-Director Mike Bellotti and Ernie Kent, where Ernie declared “you may get a better coach than me, but you’ll never find someone who loves this university like I do,” and the ongoing search reaching publicly embarrassing levels making national headlines, Oregon finally took the advice they had received over the past month…they gave Dana Altman a call. The red carpet was rolled out as the top brass flew to Omaha, Nebraska, to meet with Altman, and within a matter of hours a deal was struck.

    The Ducks had finally found their man. Altman agreed to leave Creighton, after calling Omaha home for so long Altman setup shop in an apartment in Eugene while his family made the preparations to say goodbye to Nebraska and move west. Altman had a monumental task at  hand, return Oregon to relevancy.

    The Oregon program hadn’t always been successful, but with a national championship to its name and legendary names like Ron Lee, Stan Love, Blair Rasmussen, Terrell Brandon, Bobby Anet, Greg Ballard, and Jim Barnett, it had its place in history. The Kamikaze Kids under Coach Harter had been the second-best team in the Pac-8 for nearly a decade, one of the best programs in the country if not for having to play in the same conference as John Wooden’s UCLA teams of the 70’s. Mac Court had consistently been named one of the toughest places to play in the country, the Pit Crew student section made sure of that every time an opponent stepped on the floor.

Transfer Arsalan Kazemi immediately became a fan favorite in his one year of play at Oregon. (courtesy: Oregonlive.com)

    It may not have had the tradition and consistent success of a Duke or UCLA, but there were expectations for the Oregon program, which hadn’t been realized in recent years. Altman’s task was not only to recruit and right the ship, but with a brand new arena it fell on him to give fans incentive to care again about Ducks basketball. It didn’t take long for Dana to accomplish just that.

ASSUMING CONTROL AND RIGHTING THE SHIP

    For as animated as Coach Altman is during games, he is as unassuming off of it. A native Nebraskan with a slow drawl and soft-spoken approach, he is calm, cool, and collected at all times. Pleasantly boring might be another to consider his demeanor, one of a true workmanlike approach to tackling each day’s tasks with tunnel vision, taking on the huge task of managing a top-25 college basketball program. A humble family man, who presents a calming even-keeled persona for his players, focusing on the mental aspects of the game, a cerebral coach bringing in players who are hungry to compete in Altman’s style.

    No coach in the country has had to deal with more patchwork lineups than Altman each season over the past four years, taking full advantage of the NCAA’s transfer rules to bring in quality players with only one or two years of eligibility remaining. In an era when so much emphasis is placed on the one-and-done mentality of high school blue chip athletes who then leave school for the NBA as soon as the season ends, Altman takes the opposite approach, rarely finding the the freshman blue chipper, instead seeking out the seasoned college veteran looking for one final chance to prove themselves.

    He has a system, one in which defense and a team game creating space on the floor is emphasized. There is no room for the 1-on-1 iso game that seems so common in the NBA, an expansion of the playground superstar mentality. If a student-athlete comes to Oregon to play for Coach Altman, they are expected to play within the system. Play hard defense, pass the ball, buy in to a team ball mentality. If they can’t do that, they won’t last long.

    It hasn’t been by choice that Altman has had to repeatedly go the transfer route to fill a roster. For all the incoming transfers to Oregon, there have been just as many outgoing, some players barely sticking around for a couple weeks before deciding they don’t want to buy into the team approach Altman preaches and seek opportunities elsewhere. At times, Altman has had to hold open tryouts on campus just to fill the roster, yet somehow three years in a row and now going into his fourth campaign with arguably his best team to date, Altman’s teams find a way to succeed.

    It shows the supreme talent of Coach Altman, being able to somehow splice together cast-offs and outcasts together into a tight-nit group that has ascended to one of the premier programs out west. Every year the roster is amassed with all new faces Altman and staff have compiled, and as soon as we fans get a chance to know them, they’re gone.

    In Altman’s first season (2010-11), it was Ernie Kent’s few veterans who had chosen to stay, Joevan Catron and Garrett Sim, who carried the team to a 21-18 record and on to the CIB Tournament, winning the championship in Matthew Knight Arena’s first season, ironically beating Altman’s old team Creighton. With only five players returning who had played more than three minutes a game the previous season, transfers Jay-R Strowbridge and Tyrone Nared helped to fill the gaps. An uncertain year with little expectations going in, the general consensus being it could take 4-5 years to rebuild the program, the season ended with packed enthusiastic stands falling in love with Duck basketball all over again.

    For the 2011-12 campaign, it was transfers Devoe Joseph, Olu Ashaolu, Carlos Emory, and Tony Woods who carried the team to a 24-10 record, good enough for 2nd in the Pac-12, reaching the third round of the NIT tournament. It was supposed to be freshman prep superstar Jabari Brown leading the way in Altman’s first full year of recruiting, but after playing in only two games he left the program, and was quickly forgotten once Joseph became eligible, leading the team with a 16.7 ppg average.

    Each year Altman’s teams have improved on the previous campaign, despite all the roster changes. In 2012 the team reached the NCAA Tournament with a 28-9 record, giving eventual national champion Louisville their toughest test of the tournament in the Sweet 16. The team was led by yet another one year transfer, Arsalan Kazemi.

DANA ALTMAN DOING ALTMAN TYPE THINGS

    So far so good in Altman’s fourth year at Oregon, the unfamiliar faces becoming an all-too familiar trend. Despite the suspension of returning players Dominic Artis and Ben Carter for the first nine games of the year, the Ducks have been rolling, amassing a perfect 4-0 record to date thanks to the stellar play of yet more transfers. For this campaign it is Joseph Young, Mike Moser, Jason Calliste, and Richard Amardi that are the new faces making a big splash, just the new names in the ever-revolving door of Altman.

    While elite programs like Duke and Kentucky field rosters of primarily freshmen, it is Altman’s approach of compiling junior and senior transfers that has led to Oregon’s success. It’s a tall order to improve on the previous year’s campaign, and with the season so young it is way too early to judge how this year’s version of Altman’s patchwork will do, but based on the play so far there is no reason to expect anything less than an even better finish than the 2012 campaign.

Oregon opened the 2013 season with a win over Georgetown in South Korea. (courtesy: DaytonDailyNews.com)

    Altman has proven himself to truly be one of the absolute best coaches in the country. While the big names simply recruit the top future NBA talents and let them use their superior individual talents to win, Altman works for his team’s success. Every game he’s stomping the floor, directing traffic, scheming of ways to gain a tactical advantage over an opponent, not just 1-on-1 iso play.

    It is because of this tremendous consistency by Altman that he was rewarded this week with a three-year contract extension, locking up his services through the 2019-20 season, tacked on to the original seven-year contract Altman signed upon leaving Creighton. Forget the uniforms and facilities, it is the people that make it go, and Altman has proven to be as valuable an asset as any on staff at the University of Oregon.

    For his efforts, he receives a base salary of $450,000, plus $1.3 million for pay in a special deal for his media obligations and work with Nike, the same terms originally agreed to on his first contract. The 1.8 million base pay makes him the 20th highest paid college basketball coach in the country, but considering the overachieving performances of his teams despite all the hardship, he might well be grossly underpaid.

    Altman’s Ducks are 4-0 on the year, starting the season with a victory over Georgetown in South Korea at a military base in the annual Armed Forces Classic. Currently ranked #14 in the country, with eyes on the Pac-12 title and another NCAA Tournament run, the Ducks are once again flying high under Altman. Led by new transfers and a few key veterans, there is no reason to think that as long as Dana Altman leads the way, the faces may change annually, but the positive results won’t.

———————————————————

Oregon men’s basketball hosts Pacific Friday, November 29th at noon at Matthew Knight Arena. Fans should make a day of it, catch the basketball game, then head across the river to Autzen for the annual Civil War football game vs. Oregon State at 4 pm, then round out the evening with volleyball back at Matthew Knight Arena at 8 pm.