Dana Altman staying in Oregon

The problem is that Altman is probably only going to be useful for this team until they make the NCAA tournament twice, unless if he legitimately improves as a coach. What Dana Altman needs to do is to bring in the top in-state recruits and bring them into Oregon. It’s crazy how Oregon State recruits better than us in most years, because the Ducks are obviously the better and bigger school. This promising NIT run helps us, but I think Dana Altman has two more seasons to recruit well and bring us into an NCAA tournament. The former is the most important, because that has been his major weakness so far. If he can’t bring in those prized recruits (especially the ones in Oregon) and can’t develop them successfully, then it’s time to part ways.

So far, our basketball coach has done a great job in bringing us to this point. I think he bags a solid recruiting class this year, and I hope those guys don’t transfer within the first year (another Altman problem). I think he ultimately gets us into the Big Dance and improves as a recruiter, but  I think he ends up lacking as a developer and never materializes as a player’s coach. Only time will tell, but I think he does end up improving the program and builds us into a barely-there NCAA squad. After that, it will come time to bring in a better coach. Dana Altman is good, but he isn’t the type of coach who can turn us into the Pac-12 powerhouse that we can become with our resources. He needs to start developing the talent he has after seeking us. Again, give him a couple of years to see if he has improved. He should have more success here, and I can’t wait to watch more basketball in the coming seasons. We will be an NIT team next season, but I can see improvement on the horizon. With or without Dana Altman, but hopefully with. It’s hard not to root for him.

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