Oregon played a basketball game against Detroit last night as part of ESPN’s college basketball tip-off marathon, and the announced attendance was 5,051.
The actual attendance wasn’t even that –the loudest noises at Matt Knight on Monday night were sneakers on the floor. Of course, the start of the college basketball season never draws very much attention and is dwarfed by the conclusion of the college football season. But this was especially bad.
Let’s take it back for a moment.
Last March, Oregon was completing a successful basketball season that ended in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
But soon after the season ended, the on-the-court storylines were quickly enveloped as a sexual assault case involving Oregon players Dominic Artis, Damyean Dotson, and Brandon Austin came to light.
On March 8th, 2014, the three players allegedly raped a young woman. A day later, the victim’s father called the University of Oregon, making them aware of the allegation.
On March 13th, the victim went to the Eugene Police Department. According to embattled Oregon head coach Dana Altman, he didn’t find out about the allegations until the 17th, and didn’t find out the identities of the players charged until three days after that, when Oregon was playing in the NCAA Tournament.
Altman contended that he didn’t pursue an investigation into the incident he was made aware of because he was told not to by the Eugene PD, and furthermore, according to Altman, the Eugene PD also expressly told the coach that the players in question should keep playing basketball and not be suspended.
Unfortunately for Altman, the Eugene PD would be a position to know whether they told Oregon that they should keep playing their players who were under investigation for rape, and their quote through a spokesperson was that the, “police are not going to be concerned about who participates in a sporting event.”
In other words, they didn’t care if Artis, Dotson, and Austin played in the Pac-12 and NCAA Tournaments or not.
At best, there was a strange miscommunication between the Eugene PD and Oregon basketball. At worst, Altman lied and played three kids who were being investigated for serious crimes to win basketball games.
That repudiation of Oregon’s position started flooding out in late April and early May, and things built to a crescendo when Oregon called a press conference in mid-May to kick the three players off the basketball team and send Altman out behind a gothic black backdrop to give one of the most anemic press conferences in school history.
Whether anyone was listening while they tried to figure out how a major college basketball coach could, for one, not know which three of his players were being investigated by the police, and secondly, not want to know.
But that was it. Artis, Dotson and Austin were gone, and Altman disappeared for the summer.
And it wasn’t a great summer by any means for the Ducks basketball program. Two players were arrested for shoplifting; a five-star recruit didn’t enroll in any classes.
But Oregon isn’t a basketball school, and no one took much notice even as more and more questions were being raised about Altman’s recruiting policy that has been increasingly predicated on junior college transfers and young men of questionable character.
Now, though, Altman is out of hibernation. Oregon’s basketball season has started and the coach is back in the public eye.
Altman appeared on John Canzano’s radio show last Friday afternoon. If he wasn’t expecting to be held accountable for what happened to his program in the spring before he disappeared, he was just being naïve.
But Altman mumbled through his interview, with long pauses, sighs, and patches of dead air. He couldn’t answer for his team or his actions. It was barely human.
And if Altman can’t give a good interview, fine. I don’t believe that to be true, but it’s not something to be fired over.
The problem now is that Oregon has a coach in Altman who seemingly wants everyone to ignore that he is in charge of the program and leave him alone.
The trouble came, and Altman ran. It seems like he’s still running now.
One of those players who was investigated for rape – Austin – was suspended for a year at his old school Providence for a case sexual assault.
Knowing the story of his past fully, Altman brought him to Oregon on a transfer, and if his incoming class this year has given any early impression, it’s that they’re hardly the men of character to turn the Oregon basketball program around.
I think it’s fair to say that support at and for Matthew Knight Arena has not been what people hoped it would be. The basketball program has been overshadowed in a big way by the football program, and at this point, it is just plain hard to root for.
Altman has done a decent job as a coach. He’s entering his fifth season, and he’s gotten Oregon back to competitiveness – while never hitting the heights of Ernie Kent’s best years.
Roy Williams will probably ride out the academic fraud scandal at North Carolina, but just because he has a kind of basketball capital Altman can only dream about.
A major college basketball coach should be the face and voice and biggest advocate for his program. The buck stops with the head coach. He’s responsible.
So while Altman has been busy trying to cover himself in anonymity, I’m left wondering if Oregon recruits so many JuCo guys with shaky character because he can’t go into living rooms and sell families on Oregon basketball.
There’s no way a program with Oregon’s name and brand recognition, money and facilities should be getting all their players on transfers.
If anyone had really wanted Altman gone in the summer, he might be out of a job right now – but that is the relative anonymity the Oregon job gives you.
The Oregon basketball job does not give Altman enough anonymity to run away from the all the parts of his job that aren’t coaching basketball.
You don’t have to be preachy or moralistic to see that something is not right with Ducks basketball. The number of incoming transfers and discipline problems are raising red flags.
Oregon isn’t going to be good on the court this year either. They’ve been picked to finish eleventh in the Pac-12. It won’t take long for Altman’s seat to get hot.
I think Dana Altman is a smart guy and a good coach, and I want to believe he’s better than his behavior this year. But as long as he slinks in the shadows and lets the state of his program speak for him, we’ll never really know.
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