Oregon Week’s Burning Question: How To Build A Successful Program With Player Uncertainty?
Posted by Connor Pelton on August 13th, 2012It’s that time again, as Adam Butler of Pachoops.com joins us again for our Burning Question for the Oregon program, concerning whether or not Dana Altman can build a successful program with constant player departures.
Oregon has become the poster child for one of the biggest problems facing college basketball today: transfers. In his two seasons at Oregon, Dana Altman has seen four players transfer and five more who left the team that still had eligibility remaining when they land elsewhere. That’s an average of four and a half players that have left per year, an astronomical number for a 13-scholarship limit. It’s not like all of these players were sitting on the bench and not making an impact either; Malcom Armstead, Brett Kingma, Jabari Brown, and Bruce Barron were either making an impact or were expected to by the end of the season when they left. So the question is, can Altman build a successful program in Eugene with the constant cloud of player and rotation uncertainty hovering above, or does he need to change the way he recruits and coaches to find and keep players who will stay for three or four years?
Player Departures Since Altman Took Over In 2010-11
- Teondre Williams – Transferred to Clayton State
- Martin Seiferth – Transferred to Eastern Washington
- Malcolm Armstead – Transferred to Wichita State
- Nicholas Fearn – Left team but has yet to enroll in another school
- Matt Losli – Left team but has yet to enroll in another school
- John Elorriaga – Left team but has yet to enroll in another school
- Brett Kingma – Left team but has yet to enroll in another school
- Jabari Brown – Transferred to Missouri
- Bruce Barron – Left team but has yet to enroll in another school
Altman Has Had Much To Celebrate In His First Two Seasons At Oregon Despite Losing Nine Players Since He Took The Job
Adam Butler: Yes. Dana Altman has proven he can build a winner – he did so at Creighton – and I believe he’ll do the same in Eugene. He’s already exceeded expectations in his first two years with a pair of postseason appearances after the Ducks took one of the fastest falls from the Elite Eight to a 2-16 conference team that anyone has ever seen. And maybe that’s where we need to start. Sinking ships tend to have jumpers (Never let go, Jack), and so round one of the transfers I’m comfortable chalking up to the old guard recognizing they were Kent guys in the wrong place. Altman isn’t your guy and you’re not his. A mutual parting. To address the others and to do such without making grandiose excuses for nine total transfers in two years, perhaps we need an analogy.
