Trying to add a payment method? You can do this on the 
QuickTake:
After a disappointing season and a growing list of departures, the men’s basketball coach said the Ducks have money — just not much room for error.
To be clear: Dana Altman didn’t decide to go rogue Thursday morning.
The Oregon men’s basketball coach held a 20-minute end-of-season press conference, during which he talked at length about the struggles Oregon faced this season and the challenge ahead rebuilding a roster that’s losing every contributor other than Sean Stewart.
The Ducks have lost big-name players in recent weeks like Jackson Shelstad and Kwame Evans Jr. They’ve also lost bench players such as Wei Lin and Devon Pryor.
None of those, Altman said, came as a surprise.
“We are working with a budget and some guys were going to lose their NIL and most of them were taking a reduction — a big reduction,” Altman said. “We just weren’t good enough this year, and I made some mistakes with valuation and inexperience.”
Altman did not say that the UO hoops program was going to see a significant reduction in NIL money available — as multiple outlets reported following the conclusion of Altman’s availability.
The Ducks have money, Altman said. What they don’t have is top-of-the-line money, which after a 20-loss season meant the coach and his staff had to take a hard look at where they were spending it.
So, no, the roof isn’t exactly caving in at Matthew Knight Arena. The problem, however, is that the roster hole is still very real.
That has Altman feeling a different emotion heading into the 16th offseason of his Oregon career.
“Well, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous,” the 67-year-old said. “Knowing the schedule we have in front of us, with the Big Ten and the nonconference, with some of the games that we have — we got to get the right guys.”
Altman said he’s been on Zooms with potential players nonstop since the transfer portal opened on Tuesday. He was a few minutes late to his Thursday press conference because, he said, one of them went longer than he expected.
He needs a starting point guard. He needs a starting center. He needs better depth, improved 3-point shooting and a few guys who aren’t Ducks right now to become leaders in a matter of months.
And while Altman said the Ducks aren’t taking a payroll dip, he did make clear what they’re up against. Michigan, which just won the national championship, is going to be mining the same portal he is. So, too, are Connecticut, Michigan State, Purdue and all of the sport’s biggest teams. A year ago, with fewer holes to fill than they currently have now, the Ducks failed to put together the pieces they needed to contend in the Big Ten.
“We did our due diligence last year. We made 100 calls on every player,” he said. “We just got to be able to hit a little better than we did a year ago.”
Because his Ducks weren’t playing in the tournament, Altman got plenty of time to take in the games of those who did. He noticed that most contending rosters had been transformed by the portal. He also noticed that Cinderella doesn’t exist much these days — 11-seed Texas was the only double-digit seed to advance to the Sweet 16.
It’s the schools that invest in basketball that are succeeding at basketball. The question that looms over Oregon’s head is how much remains for Ducks hoops at a time when the university is all in on being a football contender.
Altman wouldn’t quite take the bait on that one.
“I have an MBA. I’m a business guy. You go with what’s making money. I don’t begrudge football,” he said. “When I first got here, Chip (Kelly) was unbelievable to me. Mark (Helfrich) — I just saw Mark the other day. I didn’t really get to know Willie (Taggart) when he was there. Then Mario (Cristobal) — I’m on my fifth football coach. But Dan? Dan is special. He’s doing a tremendous job.
“So I understand all that, and we’re not underfunded. I’m not going to blame it on that. I didn’t do my job, and I got to do a better job this year to put us in that position.”
