After the Oregon men’s basketball team beat Washington at home on Feb. 28, a reporter asked head coach Dana Altman if he enjoyed his work.
Oregon had just finished the season undefeated at home, was two games away from winning the program’s first Pac-12 Championship since 2002 and was on its way to its fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament. But throughout this success, Altman’s personality hasn’t changed.
“My wife always says ‘have fun,’ [but] you don’t go to work to have fun,” said Altman. “I’ve been fortunate enough to do this for 36 years. I’ve enjoyed being around the guys and I enjoy the team. But during the game, it’s competition, it’s a fight and it’s not fun.”
He can be seen barking at his players throughout the course of the game, but at press conferences, his voice stays at a low octave.
At the Feb. 28 press conference, Altman said his goal was to finish strong, and that’s what Oregon did under his leadership this season. The 2015-16 Ducks went 25-6 and won the Pac-12 regular season title. They haven’t lost a single game in February over the last three seasons.
In his six years at Oregon, Altman has been named Pac-12 Coach of the Year three times, has led six straight 20-win seasons, obtained two Pac-12 titles and achieved a school-best four straight NCAA tournament bids.
There is one stone left unturned: Altman has never advanced past the Sweet Sixteen.
Oregon head coach Dana Altman (Taylor Wilder/Emerald)
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To truly understand Altman, one must first understand what he stands for. Born and raised in Crete, a small town in southeastern Nebraska, Altman doesn’t believe in flashiness.
“Midwestern people, in general — I’m stereotyping here — are more about substance than style, more about action than about talk,” said columnist Austin Meek, who covered Big 12 hoops for the Topeka Capital-Journal for years before moving to The Register-Guard. Meek has covered Altman’s career since.
The 57-year-old midwest native is as well known for his foot stomping on the sideline as he is for his even-temper off the court.
But many criticized his demeanor when he responded to the May 2014 sexual assault allegations that resulted in the dismissal of three players. In a press conference just days after news of the alleged assault surfaced, Altman quietly told the media he was not aware of player Brandon Austin’s accusations of sexual assault at Providence College when Oregon recruited Austin.
Many onlookers were disappointed. Some, like Oregonian sports columnist John Canzano, hoped to hear Altman was making a change.
“Dana Altman can coach, but he lost me a couple of seasons ago at that moment-of-truth news conference, his eyes low, his voice stammering, the whole state wondering if he’d stand tall,” Canzano wrote last summer.
The program had to scrap for players to fill the roster through an open tryout, leaving the team with an uncertain future.
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Two years later, Altman’s team is entering the 2016 Pac-12 Tournament as the No. 1 seed.
Oregon is the No. 8 ranked team in the country, went undefeated at home and is projected as high as a No. 2 seed in the upcoming NCAA tournament.
He found a way to unify his team, no different from his 16 memorable years at Creighton, where 11 times Altman guided the team to 20-win seasons.
“For some reason, it always seems under the radar, but he’s an elite coach nationally,” said Pac-12 Analyst Kevin O’Neill, who was one of the few media members to pick Oregon to win the Pac-12 this season.
Altman’s best quality is his rare ability to get players from different walks of life to buy into two cornerstones of basketball: defending and rebounding. They’re keys to the game he constantly preaches, and his emphasis on fundamentals have become notoriously known around the program. The team even has warm up shirts that read: “Bend Your Knees.”
“If you look across the landscape of basketball – I’m including the NBA in this – he’s as great an X’s and O’s coach as there is,” said Oregon Athletic Director Robert Mullens.
Constantly hammering in the basics of the game, Altman has created a culture where improvement eventually morphs into second nature, where the concept of being satisfied is forbidden.
“Just the process of how we go throughout the whole year – it’s always all about getting better for the next game,” said Benjamin. “I guess that’s why we’re never satisfied.”
From a schematic standpoint, Altman has been able to devise a simple but effective system that has made it easy for players of all backgrounds to be plugged in right away and succeed at a high level.
“He’s the reason why I’m here,” said Benjamin, who transferred from a small community college called Mt. San Jacinto last year. “He’s a great coach, he’s a leader, he’s a genius.”
Even with a constantly changing roster, Altman has excelled. This year, Altman mixed two new faces – freshman Tyler Dorsey and transfer Chris Boucher – with three returning starters. The end result was a conference title.
“There’s so much turnover in college basketball these days,” said senior guard and aspiring coach Max Heller, “and to have a guy like coach be able to mold us all into one team is a big deal.”
As Altman prepares for his 12th appearance in the upcoming NCAA tournament, there’s a chance for him to make a little history of his own and get past the Sweet Sixteen.
But Altman won’t be focused on that. Regardless of how far Oregon ends up going or how much fans want Altman to show more personality, Altman will approach the game with the same foundation, tactics and white-collar dress shirt that have personified him for the past 36 years.
Follow Hayden Kim on Twitter @HayDayKim