‘You gotta have guys who want it’: Has Oregon lost its edge, on and off the

Dana Altman chuckles. It is mostly rueful, with maybe just the slightest twinge of derision. He has been asked to explain the postgame hissy fit he threw some four months ago, the one in which he lambasted the Oregon fan base and offered to happily return to coaching junior college players if his services were no longer welcome in Eugene. The “blowup’’ – that’s Altman’s term for it – came on the heels of an uninspired home loss to Wisconsin in the NIT quarterfinals that wrapped another pedestrian season for the Ducks.

Altman admits now that he was madder at his team and at himself than at the sparse crowd – “3,300 people? That’s not good enough” – and figures, rightfully so, that the clip went viral because he was the one spewing the invective. “I don’t usually talk like that. I’m pretty vanilla,” the 65-year-old veteran coach explains.

Altman, in fact, makes vanilla seem decadent.

“That was just the frustration of the last two years,’’ Altman says. “I thought we were better than what we played like, and just like any coach, I want to maximize what we had. I don’t think we’ve done that.’’

Not too long ago, Altman mastered the art of maximizing and building his roster, steering an efficient NCAA Tournament machine. Oregon earned five consecutive bids from 2013-17, including three trips to the Sweet 16, one Elite Eight appearance and a Final Fourth berth. The Ducks, flush with their Nike cash, wild court design and fresh uniforms, would never be confused with a traditional blueblood, but they were among the steadiest of hoops’ nouveau riche.

But the last two seasons, Oregon has been ordinary – and not just on the court.

Parked in a Pac-12 in flux and ripe for the picking, the Ducks instead idled through two middling seasons. “They were good enough to be better than they were,’’ says an opposing coach whose team faced Oregon in 2022-23. He was one of four coaches granted anonymity in exchange for an honest appraisal of the Ducks. “They weren’t Final Four good. But they certainly should have been better than they were.’’

The on-court return to the mean comes at a time when Oregon’s off-court appeal has lost its uniqueness as well. Where once the Ducks stood out with their Nike swag, collectives and name, image and likeness deals now offer the same cash flow and branding opportunities at nearly every other power school.

It would be foolish to count Oregon out, not with a top 10 recruiting class and Phil Knight partnering on the Ducks’ own collective.

Which begs a simple question and a critical follow-up: What happened? And can the Ducks get their groove back?

He drove the van to games across the plains of the U.S., shepherding his Southeast Community College team from its Fairbury, Neb., base to otherwise ignored outposts such as Hesston College in Kansas and Iowa Lakes Community College. Games were played at a nearby high school gym, and practice was held inside the…