Tuesday night in their Big Ten opener Oregon fell to 4-4 with an 82-77 loss to USC and Dana Altman sounds as low as he's even been in 15 seasons with the Ducks.
Though they played without star center Nate Bittle and battled hard, taking a 61-60 lead with eight minutes to play at Matthew Knight Arena when Kwame Evans hit a free throw, they fell to a late Trojan run, dropping behind by five when SC's Chad Baker-Mazara hit a 3-pointer with a minute to play.
Altman has always taken defeats hard, but he sounded ready for therapy or a retirement speech in the postgame press conference.
"My job is to get my team to do what we need to do to win and play the way we got to play to win, and I'm not doing it," Altman said. "I don't know if it's their girlfriends or their agents or their parents. I'm not sure who's advising them right now, but I know I'm about seventh on the list."
He's still saying "my team" and "we," so he hasn't given up yet.
In spite of the loss and Altman's understandable frustration, there were encouraging signs. They played the No. 24 Trojans to a 39-39 halftime tie and shot better, hitting 43 percent from three and throwing up bricks at the Player's Era Tournament.
Kwame Evans hit 6-12 from the floor scoring 23 points to go along with nine rebounds. Takai Simpkins found the range from three, connecting on 4-6 on his way to 17, and while Jackson Shelstad still hasn't found his 3-ball stroke, he's driving the lane effectively and creating.
Part of the problem seems to be defense and defensive effort. It seemed the visitors could get a bucket or an open shot whenever they wanted one. Bittle is nursing an ankle injury he sustained at the Player's. Getting him back would make the whole operation more tenable, and might keep Altman off a regimen of daily welfare checks.
The Ducks play at 5-2 UCLA on Saturday, 3 p.m. PT on Peacock.