Oregon at the Big Ten: Who was this for? 

“We’re going to need you to ask some questions.”

It’s not exactly what you want to hear from the moderator when entering a press conference, but really, I had no choice Tuesday night at the United Center.

The Oregon Ducks had just lost 70–60 to Maryland in the first round of the Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament. It was a game played in front of thousands of empty seats in Chicago — and rightfully so after a performance that saw Oregon hit just three shots and score 12 points in the first half.

Lookout Eugene-Springfield was the only Oregon media outlet on hand to see the end of Oregon’s first losing season in 17 years.

I was the only writer interviewing players during the 30 minutes of mandated open locker room time after the game. Then I walked over to the press room to find an empty press conference waiting for Dana Altman and players Nate Bittle and Kwame Evans.

I got handed the microphone.

I rattled off seven straight questions to the trio — there was an eighth and final question from a reporter covering Wei Lin — and then that was that.

The Ducks left the room, got on their bus, boarded their plane and flew back to Eugene for the longest offseason of Altman’s Oregon career.

I left Chicago the next day thinking all of this should have ended much earlier.

Expanded conference tournament

The only reason the Ducks were playing in Chicago last week was because of the Big Ten Tournament’s new format, which expanded the field from 15 teams to include all 18.

When that news was announced a year ago, no reasonable Oregon fan — or member of the program — assumed the change would affect them. The Ducks were coming off back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances and, though the Big Ten is a significantly tougher basketball conference than the Pac-12, Oregon returned a core featuring Bittle and guard Jackson Shelstad that positioned them, at the very least, for another run at March Madness.

Of course, that didn’t happen.

Bittle played in 25 games but battled nagging ankle injuries over the second half of the season that limited his explosiveness. Meanwhile, Shelstad spent Oregon’s lone Big Ten Tournament game on the bench, having been out since Dec. 28 with a hand injury that limited him to just 12 games this year.

A season that began with moderate expectations quickly turned into one the fan base simply wished would end.

Oregon won 12 games. It lost 20.

Sweet 16? Try the No. 16 seed in the Big Ten.

A year ago, Oregon’s season would have been over weeks ago. Instead, the team flew across the country for yet another trip — and I spent much of Tuesday wondering why.

Oregon had about 100 fans in the building. Even with the shorter commute, Maryland didn’t have many more. The Terrapins didn’t play particularly well in beating the Ducks, and there wasn’t much compelling basketball in the follow-up session between Northwestern and Penn State, either.

The arena DJ continually tried to pump up a non-existent crowd. Ushers removed fans who attempted to move from nosebleed seats down to the wide-open lower bowl. There were more Wei Lin Nanjing Monkey Kings jerseys in the stands than Oregon jerseys belonging to any Ducks player.

Lin finished with five points and two turnovers in 12 minutes.

It seemed fitting that the night ended in thunderstorms. And those who made the four-hour flight from Oregon were treated to a Wednesday filled with airport delays as a snowstorm moved into the city.

One looming question

Who was this for?

It certainly wasn’t for added competitive drama. Iowa knocked out Maryland by 11 on Wednesday. Northwestern, the tournament’s No. 15 seed, did notch a win over No. 10 Indiana, but Purdue dispatched the Wildcats the next day to set up an eight-team quarterfinal made up entirely of the tournament’s top-eight seeds.

It certainly wasn’t for Oregon, either.

The Ducks didn’t come ready to play, nor did the university’s support system seem eager to be there. Athletic director Rob Mullens was nowhere to be seen. Oregon’s in-house media wasn’t there. The only prominent figure with ties to the program I spotted was former athletic director and longtime booster Pat Kilkenny — the man who hired Altman back in 2010 — who sat a few rows behind the bench and spent much of the game with his arms crossed.

When Altman’s teams were rolling, the Pac-12 Conference Tournament was the place to be.

Fans flocked to watch the Ducks play opponents with history and rivalries attached. Phil Knight was often there. You didn’t have to walk far on the casino floor before running into someone from Oregon’s football staff. With warm weather, strong basketball and an easily accessible destination in Las Vegas, it was one of the few events I used to recommend without hesitation.

The Pac-12 didn’t do much right. But it nailed the conference tournament.

It had a feel to it.

The feel of this week’s Big Ten Tournament was something entirely different.

Soul-sucking.

Surely it’s different for the Michigans and Michigan States and Nebraskas of the world. Those programs have a legitimate opportunity to win this conference tournament. Those teams are already locks for the NCAA Tournament.

But I can’t recommend this event for those in Oregon’s orbit — not with the program in its current state.

The players looked miserable. Altman spent much of the game pacing the sideline with balled fists and stomping feet. There was clearly some pent-up frustration among the coaching staff about how this season unfolded.

Altman’s plan this year blew up.

He didn’t recruit enough shooting to survive injuries to players like Shelstad. He let players the team and fan base gravitated toward last year — like Jadrian Tracy, who averaged 10.1 points while shooting 37 percent from three this season at VCU — walk in the offseason.

“The expectations were for us to win again and we didn’t,” Altman said. “Part of that’s injuries. Part of that’s poor decisions that I made in recruiting and not getting enough experience.”

The 67-year-old Altman says he’s driven to be better next year, and Oregon appears willing to give him that chance.

But unless the coach changes his approach — and unless the university starts treating men’s basketball with the same level of support, urgency and imagination it gives football — the question I had walking out of the Big Ten Tournament is the same one I have about this version of Oregon basketball.

Who is this for?