Sitting in half-full bleachers at a Las Vegas-area high school on a Saturday morning in October, watching potential recruits square off on the court, there’s no place Oregon coach Dana Altman would rather be.
Well, maybe one place.
“I probably would have liked to have hit a few golf balls today,” he says with a laugh. “But I like being here just fine.”
Under ordinary circumstances, an offseason recruiting trip would not be particularly noteworthy for a coach of Altman’s caliber. But toward the end of the 2024-25 season, as his 15th campaign at Oregon came to a close, some reports questioned how much longer he would want to stay on with the Ducks. At 67 years old, was retirement on the horizon?
Altman took haste to knock down those rumors in March, saying, “I have absolutely no intentions of retiring.” That’s a pretty unequivocal statement. But his trip to Vegas spoke much louder.
Oregon practiced on that Friday, and with Saturday being a mandatory day off for the players, Altman and his staff took the opportunity to jet down to the Las Vegas recruiting event. Altman shuttled between multiple high-school gyms throughout the day, took his notes, and was back on a plane to Eugene before the end of the night. On Sunday, he and his Oregon squad were back on the practice court. That’s not the itinerary of a man who has one eye on retirement. It’s not an easy schedule even for a young man, but Altman continues to embrace the grind. “It’s part of the job,” he tells Hoops HQ. “Coming and watching players that we’re getting close with, it doesn’t bother me at all. Today was our required day off, but coming here and watching players is something I want to do.”
Altman currently has three years and $11.7 million remaining on the six-year contract extension he signed in 2022, and he certainly has a good thing going at Oregon, with nine NCAA Tournament appearances (10 if including the canceled 2020 postseason), four Pac-12 conference championships and a trip to the Final Four (2017) since taking over in 2010. A run like that could entice a coach to become set in his ways and perhaps put it on autopilot, but circumstances have conspired to keep Altman engaged at all levels of the program.
The changing recruiting landscape has run off more than a few veteran coaches who didn’t want to deal with the rise of NIL and the transfer portal and all their complicating factors, but Altman is agnostic on the topic and has, most importantly, adapted to the new ways of the college basketball world. “We just want good players,” he says. “I don’t care if they’re from the portal, I don’t care if they’re from overseas. High-school guys are always great. I don’t have a preference. I just want guys who want to be at Oregon.”
The program’s position at the forefront of conference realignment has also helped stave off any threat of inertia. Oregon transitioned to the Big Ten last year, and in their inaugural season Altman guided the Ducks to a 12-8 league record (25-10 overall) and a seventh-place finish. That was good enough to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
The new league brings new challenges. Oregon will once again traverse a lengthy conference schedule that includes four trips to the Eastern Time Zone and two more to the Central Time Zone. It’s not a schedule for the faint of heart, but Altman liked the way his team handled the travel last year and is ready to attack it again in 2025-26. “There are a lot of new (scouting reports) to do, so that took a lot of time,” he says. “But the travel wasn’t bad. A little longer than what we’ve experienced, but we knew that going in. We want to be in the league, so we can’t complain.”
The Ducks should be in position to contend in the Big Ten after an offseason that was largely considered a success. The biggest roster-building victory came in May, when 7-foot center Nate Bittle announced his intention to return for a fifth season. Bittle averaged 14.2 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game in 2024-25, earning him an All-Big Ten Third Team selection as well as a spot on the league’s All-Defense team.
Oregon also returns starting guards Jackson Shelstad and TJ Bamba, who scored 13.7 and 10.5 points per game last year, respectively. It’s a strong foundation, and one that has Altman raring to take the floor. “We’re really excited with Nate coming back,” Altman says. “That was essential for us to compete. With Jackson coming back, TJ coming back, we felt like we really had to have those guys. Nate, because of his size, he blocked a lot of shots last year. Our defense and offense were both different when he was on the floor; our analytic numbers were a lot better with him on the floor. I’m really glad he came back.”
Good team, new league, new recruits, the millions left on his extension — it adds up to a coach who is not hanging up his whistle anytime soon. “I want to coach. I’ve got a few years left on my contract yet. As long as Oregon wants me to coach, I want to coach. My health is good, my energy is good. I’m out here on a Saturday morning recruiting. I like coaching.”
As he watches potential recruits fly up and down the court trying to make an impression, Altman lays out what he looks for in a young player. He may as well be describing himself.
“The passion for the game is something you always hope to see. Do they play hard? Do they look like they enjoy playing? We have the longest collegiate season of any sport. We got a full six months; we started practicing already and we hope to be playing right around April 1, so it’s a full six-month season. They’ve got to love the game.”
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