The brackets are set. It’s Oregon and Oklahoma State on Friday afternoon in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Some are saying this is a good matchup for the Cowboys. I think the Ducks are going to blow their doors off, just like they did in 2012 as a #12 seed led by the likes of EJ Singler and Arsalan Kazemi.
The game is in Omaha, Nebraska – less than an hour and a half from Oregon head coach’s Dana Altman’s hometown of Crete. How’s that for a sign?
If you’re scoring at home, this is Altman’s third straight NCAA Tournament appearance with the Ducks, and it’s the best coaching job of his long and storied career.
This Ducks team was supposed to go nowhere. They lost all their major contributors from last season, they were reeling from the fallout from the sexual assault case that rocked the campus after the tournament in 2014 – more on that in a minute – and the Ducks were nowhere after losing in overtime to Washington State on the second weekend of the conference season.
Then Altman started working his magic, Joseph Young turned into a star, and the Ducks shot through a dreadful Pac-12, only losing two regular season games the rest of the way home.
After a thrilling run all the way to the Pac-12 championship game in Las Vegas last weekend, Oregon’s tournament hopes went from no hope to no doubt.
Accompanying this underdog story, as per usual, has been plenty of backslapping and congratulations. Altman was named the Pac-12 coach of the year, Young the player of the year.
The Ducks should be showered with praise, and they are be. They’re not world-beaters this year, but their team have overcome plenty of adversity, and should continue punching well above their weight into a rematch with #1 seed Wisconsin this Sunday.
But all of this positivity begs the question. Does anybody remember the alleged sexual assault, and how Altman handled it?
Anyone? Anyone at all? Because Altman was wagering all along that as long as he kept treading water, and kept winning, and kept cashing in NCAA Tournament berths, Ducks fans and the media would forget.
He wagered that we’d forget Altman’s nearly yearlong symphony of mumbling and bumbling. He wagered that we’d forget his clinic in passing the buck and not taking responsibility.
He wagered that we’d forget his bizarre radio interview with John Canzano before the season started, and he wagered that we’d forget all of the misdirection and plausible deniability that made Altman and the University of Oregon look like buffoons.
To recap: Three Oregon players were accused of rape last March. Altman let them play on into the tournament, claiming that the Eugene PD told the school not to suspend the players.
The Eugene PD denied that, and then watched agog with the rest of us as Altman failed to stand up and take any responsibility whatsoever for the situation he helped create.
The three players were dismissed. That was the right move. Oregon’s current players shouldn’t be punished for their sins, and largely, they aren’t.
The alleged victim sued Oregon in January. Incredibly, Oregon sued her back, only dropping that lawsuit against “Jane Doe” a few weeks ago.
The Ducks have sucked throughout this entire matter.
It has ruined their fantastic basketball run for me this season. Maybe you are ready to move on. I’m not – at least, not yet.
Altman needs to make a mea culpa. He needs to stand up, and own his mistakes. He needs to clear the air. He needs to apologize. That’s the only way to expel the elephant that currently resides in whatever room he’s in.
It would have been a hell of a lot easier for Altman before the lawsuit, is my guess. He was most likely told not to speak about the matter by the university. Problem is, his credibility on basketball matters is shot forever until he stands up and regains credibility on handling sexual assaults.
It’s a shame. I love Altman as a coach. He never screams at his players or the referees. His teams play attractive, up-tempo basketball and consistently overachieve.
The college athletics landscape is incredibly dirty – perhaps more now than ever before. In hoops alone, Syracuse, Kansas, Louisville, North Carolina, and Duke are all in trouble with the law.
If the sexual assault episode had never happened, I’d tell you here that Altman stands for all the right things. That he’s the perfect guy to root for.
But here’s what Altman himself hasn’t accepted: The sexual assault did happen. There’s no reversing that, and there’s no reversing his behavior in the immediate or withdrawn aftermath.
It won’t just go away. Altman should have been fired months ago. For the record, Jim Boehiem and Roy Williams should have been too.
At the tournament in Vegas, Ducks Athletic Director Rob Mullins said that Altman was never even on the hot seat. That isn’t true. If Altman couldn’t coach the hell of a basketball team as he proved again emphatically this year, he’d be gone.
So yes, Altman can win basketball games. He’s a super coach. The book is just about written on that count. But that does not matter until Altman properly addresses what happened a year ago.
Until then, we should be better than to let him off the hook.
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