Dana Altman’s final play at Oregon was knowing when to walk away

Given the occasion, a hastily arranged press conference to discuss his sudden decision to retire, it was natural that the Final Four was on Dana Altman’s mind.

Of Altman’s 792 career wins, none were more important than the four his Ducks rattled off in March of 2017 to reach the NCAA Tournament’s semifinals.

The Ducks came one point from reaching the national championship game, or as Altman reminded a conference room filled with his staff and players, a Jordan Bell blockout away from downing North Carolina.

Bell, now a member of Oregon’s staff, was in the room Wednesday, Oct. 7, holding a box of tissues and sharing tears with the coach who helped turn him into an eventual NBA champion.

It was a special time, Altman said. The Ducks were on the national stage and one of the winningest coaches in men’s college basketball history was finally getting proper recognition among a peer group of bigger names.

Maybe a national championship is still in Oregon’s future. But it won’t be under Altman, who shocked the college basketball world with his sudden retirement Wednesday after 16 seasons with the Ducks — just eight days before Oregon’s first preseason game.

“I always ask the players to look in the mirror and ask themselves if they’re giving everything they have to be their best. And for us to be a good team, they have to look in that mirror and be their best,” Altman said. “And I looked in the mirror and I’d be a hypocrite if I lied to myself and said I was the best coach for the job.”

He said his health was a small factor in his decision, but ultimately the catalyst was pretty simple: After 37 years as a head coach, he just didn’t have the drive in him anymore.

His Ducks were coming off the worst season of his tenure, nearly his entire roster had turned over through the transfer portal and, after a two-week vacation in August, he opened up practice with the team in September hoping to fall back in love with the grind.

When he didn’t, he knew it was over.

Because above all the accolades that were thrown around Wednesday — “Before Dana arrived in 2010, Oregon men’s basketball had played in the NCAA Tournament 10 times in its history. Dana’s took us there nine times,” said Oregon Athletic Director Rob Mullens — and the talk of his legacy, the thing that Altman will remember for the rest of his days is the process.

More than anything, Altman thrived off those quieter moments when the sweat prevailed.

When asked about what the Final Four meant to him, he quickly pivoted to a snowstorm two years later.

Oregon was 15-12 in February of 2019, had lost three consecutive games and was sitting in 10th place in the Pac-12 when a storm dropped 8.5 inches of snow on Eugene.

“School was closed and I mean everything was locked down and I got everybody to the gym and I locked the doors and we were there for four hours,” Altman recalled. “I mean I killed them, and brought them back the next day and did the same thing and boy, those young men responded.”

Led by Payton Pritchard, those Ducks rattled off 10 consecutive wins — not losing again until the Sweet 16.

That year stood out to him. Same with those years when N’Faly Dante and Nate Bittle battled through injuries to reach the Tournament.

Altman didn’t just love winning. He loved the work it took to turn losing into winning.

When the Ducks went 12-20 in 2025-26 and went out with a whimper with a first-round Big Ten Tournament loss to Maryland in an empty United Center in Chicago, there was a small part of the coach that told him he could do it again.

“I didn’t do my job,” he said in March, “and I got to do a better job this year to put us in that position.”

But there was another voice. The one that grew louder as losses kept him up at night. The one that knew that, despite Altman’s attempt to transition into this new era of NIL and routine cross-country travel, he was losing the battle.

He couldn’t stand talking to agents. While he believed players deserved to get paid, he wasn’t adapting to how much of a priority money had become in the game. He wasn’t as healthy as he wanted to be — “nothing serious,” the coach said — and he started to think more about the things he was missing off the court.

He regretted not being there as much as he could when his kids were growing up and vowed, “I’m not gonna make that mistake as a grandpa.”

And as the season grew closer, a comment Michigan State coach Tom Izzo made last March when asked about his own potential retirement struck Altman.

“He said, ‘The minute I don’t feel good, the minute I don’t feel I’m giving my AD, president and school every ounce of energy I have every day, or that energy drops, you don’t have to worry about me being here,’” Altman said. “And I had two weeks off in August and I thought my energy would return and it didn’t. And some people I trust and truly respect told me just to delegate more and take it easier, back off a little bit. And I tried that for a couple weeks in September. And that’s not me. It’s not what I’ve done for 37 years.”

It was then that Altman realized he needed to exhibit the trait so many of his favorite players had shown before him.

Like in the fall of that Final Four year, when Chris Boucher asked the coach to stay late after a meeting so he could tell Altman he was volunteering to come off the bench to make room for Dillon Brooks’ return from injury.

Altman tells that story all the time. Now, he realized it was his turn.

So on Tuesday, he met with Mullens, then let his longtime assistant coach Tony Stubblefield in on the news. He told his team Wednesday morning.

It’s Stubblefield’s team now, and will be for the entirety of the upcoming season as Oregon conducts a national search. Stubblefield spent 13 of Altman’s 16 seasons at Oregon, leaving in 2021 for a three-year stint as the head coach at DePaul before returning in 2024.

“I think Tony will do a better job than I would with this team,” Altman said. “He’s got more energy. He’s ready. The guys believe in him.”

The “guys” had huddled against the wall for the entirety of Altman’s press conference. The coach hadn’t known they would be there, and their presence made him emotional. He countered by ribbing several of them throughout the hour-long event.

But in the final moments of his final press conference as Oregon’s coach, Altman turned to his players and shared a last bit of wisdom from his nearly five decades in college basketball.

“There are going to be some ups and downs because every team has them,” Altman said. “There hasn’t been an undefeated team since 1976 in college basketball. So, work your tail off. You’ll go through the ups and downs. This is a great place, great staff. You’re going to meet a lot of great people here and just soak it all in and enjoy it.

“Everybody’s always looking at the next job – the next thing. Enjoy what you got because this is a great place.”