Oregon coach Dana Altman sharply criticized his own program’s fan base after the Ducks’ season ended with a 61-58 home loss to Wisconsin in the NIT quarterfinals on Tuesday night.
Just 3,384 fans attended the game in Eugene and Altman was disappointed with the meager showing.
“You see the commitment that Wisconsin makes, they got their cheerleaders, their band (at a road game),” Altman said afterward. “And we make a commitment — don’t get me wrong here. You can just see how important it is. It was important to them. It was important to me. We should’ve had more people here tonight, alright?
“These guys play hard, 3,300 people is not good enough. If it’s me, then get rid of me. If you need somebody else to be a promoter, do something, but 3,300 people is embarrassing. It really is.”
Altman, who is under contract through the 2027-28 season, said he’d be interested in being a junior-college coach. He served as one for four seasons over two schools before being a Division I assistant at Kansas State.
“Make the change. Somebody will hire me — I’ll go coach junior college ball again,” Altman said. “I love junior college ball; those guys are dogs. They want to be in the gym all the time. I love coaching. But 3,300 people? For Wisconsin? I was disappointed. I appreciate the people who came — the 3,300 people who did come, great. I sure appreciate it. The people who have stuck with us.”
Oregon (21-15) has underachieved with back-to-back 15-loss seasons after enjoying success for most of Altman’s 13 seasons. The Ducks went 64-13 over a two-season span and reached the 2016 Elite Eight and 2017 Final Four when Dillon Brooks was the team’s star.
Since then, Oregon has lost 13 or more games four times in six seasons. Altman, 64, is 321-140 at the school.
“My job is to get the team and coach them,” Altman said. “I’m not out there — I’m so bad at promoting and doing those things, but we have won 20 games for a long time and we have (regularly) been in the postseason. And I know, hey, this is the NIT, it’s not the NCAA, I understand that. I understand that.
“But our guys work hard and just a little disappointed. But they’re disappointed in us; we didn’t win and so it works both ways. We didn’t win enough games, so I understand fans’ disappointment.
Altman has a career record of 731-383 in 34 college seasons. He also has coached at Marshall, Kansas State and Creighton.
–Field Level Media