It was the inattention to detail, the missed free throws, the lazy defense that led to the game-winning, season-ending three-pointer.
Dana Altman was mad about all of it. And rightly so.
An unspectacular Oregon Ducks men’s basketball season ended in spectacularly sloppy fashion Tuesday.
But what Altman can’t be mad about, not really, is the fact that so few people were there to witness his team’s season end with a 61-58 NIT quarterfinal loss to Wisconsin.
Matthew Knight Arena seats 12,364 people. Against the Badgers, it was barely a quarter full. Official attendance: 3,384.
“Embarrassing,” Altman called it.
“We should have had more people here tonight,” he added.
Um … Did he watch his own team this year?
This one falls right back on Altman and the Ducks.
It feels like a watershed moment for the Oregon program.
It had not missed the NCAA Tournament in consecutive seasons since Altman’s first two years in Eugene. Never in his tenure have the Ducks failed to qualify three times in a row.
History would suggest Oregon will recover from this swoon. Altman is fourth among active NCAA coaches in wins. He’s recruited one of the country’s best classes for next season. But on Tuesday night, he sounded like a man who was kind of over it all.
“If it’s me,” Altman said, “then make the change. Make the change.”
Rob Mullens, Oregon’s athletics director, watched Tuesday’s on-court meltdown from a corner perch behind the Ducks bench. I wouldn’t spend too much time wondering if he is pondering taking Altman up on that invitation.
But the coach’s diatribe gave a rarely seen glimpse into Altman’s mind. He will soon be 65. He is a doting grandfather.
The words of Danny Glover’s iconic Roger Murtaugh come to mind: “I’m getting too old for this …” Altman almost seemed to be daring the university to call his bluff.
“Somebody will hire me somewhere,” he said. “I’ll go coach junior college ball. I love junior college. Those guys are dogs, they want to be in the gym all the time. I love them.”
It doesn’t take much reading through the lines to determine what that says about this Ducks team.
It should be noted that Altman specifically said he wants to keep coaching at Oregon. He also said his players worked hard.
We’ve seen plenty of veteran coaches call it quits in recent years, Villanova’s Jay Wright and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim just the latest among them. The game has changed. NIL, the transfer portal.
“My job is to coach,” Altman said. “My job is to get the team and coach.”
He was blowing off steam on Tuesday night, I get that.
Something was nonetheless broken with the Ducks this year. They never recovered from a lousy preseason that saw losses to UC Irvine and Utah Valley. They went on to consistently drop must-have conference games in their seemingly never-quite-over quest for an NCAA Tournament bid.
And try to reconcile that with the fact that the Ducks played some of their best and most cohesive basketball in this National Invitation Tournament for the not-quite-good-enoughs, when three starters including program fixtures Will Richardon and N’Faly Dante were sidelined.
Players like Keeshawn Barthelemy and Nate Bittle had the Ducks on the cusp of reaching the secondary tournament’s lowercase final four and will both most likely be back next season.
The arrivals of West Linn star Jackson Shelstad and five-star recruit Mookie Cook will make the Ducks eminently more interesting next season. But will they win? That’s the question that faces Altman after a second season that fell well short of expectations.
Maybe advancing in the NIT would have been small comfort, but it would have at least been something to build on.
Instead, when the Ducks had a chance to clinch, they clenched.
With 10 minutes to go, they led by eight.
With 1:06 left, they were up one.
Altman drew up a defense in the timeout to keep Wisconsin’s Chucky Hepburn from getting a shot, then watched as the Ducks left Hepburn wide open for the go-ahead three with 56 seconds left.
He saw Bittle miss the front end of a pair of free throws that could have tied it with nine seconds to go.
The Ducks were 4 of 12 from the free-throw line.
“I told them on Oct. 1 and I’ve told them 20 times since then, ‘There’s nothing more disappointing than playing hard, then losing a game at the line,” Altman said.
It’s good that Altman was angry. The standard should be higher. It has been.
The Ducks have been in the Sweet 16 five times in Altman’s tenure. A couple of Elite Eights, a Final Four. Repeatedly slumming it in the NIT isn’t what anyone signed up for.
“We’ve got to make some changes,” Altman said.
Few schools in the country enjoy the advantages the Ducks do. Altman routinely recruits top players to Eugene and sends them on to the NBA.
“We give these guys every advantage,” Altman said.
I don’t blame Altman for lamenting the lack of support from fans in the final game of the season. He’s entitled to a good vent session after an infuriating loss.
I bet it felt good. Cathartic.
Altman was protecting his product.
“We had recruits here tonight,” he said. “We had recruits watching on TV. Are we sending the right message?”
That’s the right question, but it has nothing to do with who’s in the stands.
— Bill Oram reported from Eugene.
boram@oregonian.com | Twitter: @billoram
