Oregon basketball loses another player

Oregon's offseason just got worse, which is saying something considering their summer was about as bad as it gets.

First, Ernie Kent was fired after struggling through another disappointing season. After seeing what seemed like every single coach in the country turn down the position -- despite having gobs of money thrown at them -- Dana Altman decided to finally take the job 41 days later. The uncertainty resulted in the transfer of Drew Wiley, Josh Crittle, and Matt Humphrey, and they nearly lost Malcolm Armstead as well. Throw in some injuries, and Altman was forced to cancel a team trip to Europe.

That wasn't the end of the defections. Michael Dunigan left and headed to Israel, which happened to correspond to Oregon acknowledging that they are investigating the eligibility of several former players, including Dunigan.

And now?

Senior LeKendric Longmire, who may be best known for being on the receiving end of this aerial assault by Russell Westbrook, looks like he will be ineligible this season due to academics. Oregon is now down to just eight players.

The ironic part in all of this?

In 2007, Altman accepted the Arkansas job, reneging 24 hours later after finding out how much of a mess the program was.

I wonder how many times that thought has crossed his mind over the last five months.

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Malcolm Armstead is the latest transfer from Oregon

You should be able to forgive Oregon fans if they don't recognize anyone on the Ducks next season.

Gone is Ernie Kent, replaced by former Creighton head coach Dana Altman. Gone is leading scorer TaJuan Porter, who graduated. Also gone are Drew Wiley, Josh Crittle, Matt Humphrey and Jamil Wilson, all of whom left the Ducks program for a variety of reasons.

And now?

Reports are coming out that Malcolm Armstead has asked for, and received, his release. Armstead averaged just over 10 ppg last year as the second leading scorer for Oregon. With five players transferring out of the program, Altman is going to have his work cut out for him in his first Pac-10 season. He is down to just nine scholarship players, and with Porter and Armstead both leaving, the Ducks are left with a very limited back court.

It is going to be a long first year in Seattle Eugene. (Yikes!)

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Oregon has finally ended their coaching search

The longest running joke in college basketball may finally be over.

Almost two months after news first broke that Oregon was going to fire Ernie Kent, the Ducks have finally found a willing replacement.

According to Jeff Goodman, Oregon reached a deal with Creighton head coach Dana Altman (assuming he doesn't pull another Arkansas). Altman has been with the Bluejays for 16 seasons and led them to seven NCAA Tournaments between 1999 and 2007. Prior to this year's 18-16 campaign, he had a string of 11 consecutive seasons of 20 plus wins.

Dana Altman is headed to Oregon.
(photo credit: BlueXU)

This is a solid hire for the Ducks. Its not the big name that they had been searching for, but Oregon isn't a good enough job to pull a big name coach away from a good job. And by all accounts, Altman is one of the better coaches around. You aren't going to find many basketball minds that understand the "x's and o's" better than Altman.

But coaching isn't what Altman is going to need to worry about.

At a school like Creighton, you can win games and league titles with coaching. At a power conference school like Oregon, success lies in recruiting.

Altman's success in Eugene is going to be determined by how well he can recruit.

At Creighton, Altman was able to land kids from Chicago and Detroit that flew under the national radar. And at Creighton, that is all you need. The Missouri Valley isn't exactly known for putting out NBA caliber players.

But in the Pac-10, a league that had 21 players taken in the 2008 and 2009 NBA Drafts, Altman is going to need to start landing some blue-chippers. He can start by making a last ditch effort to bring in Portland natives Terrence Ross and Terrence Jones. It may be too little too late -- Ross alluded to the fact that he would be committing to Washington on an upcoming visit on his facebook page, and Jones heads to Kansas today (Sunday) for a visit at Kansas.

Oregon has already had three players announce their intention to transfer out due to the coaching change, but the news isn't all bad for Altman as Dwayne Polee, an athletic 6'7" small forward that was considering St. John's and Georgia (among others), has decided to hold off on a commitment until after he makes a visit to Oregon.

Oregon's coaching search took 37 days. They embarrassed themselves with the pursuit of coaches that had no interest in Phil Knight's Nike cash.

But the Ducks ended up with a pretty good hire in Dana Altman.

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