Dana Altman Calls out Lack of Fan Support After Season-Ending Loss to Wisconsin
The Oregon Ducks Men's basketball season came to an end Tuesday night in Eugene with a 61-58 loss to the Wisconsin Badgers in the NIT quarterfinal.
The Ducks lead 54-48 as the game entered its final minutes but a hot run from the three-point line by Wisconsin and some crucial misses at the free throw line from Oregon lifted the Badgers over the Ducks.
Head coach Dana Altman, usually easygoing and reserved, didn't hold back when voicing his frustration at the small fan turnout, a season-long issue, as just 3,384 fans filled a 12,364-seat Matthew Knight Arena.
"What the heck, we should have had more people here tonight," Altman said. "The guys had played hard. 3,300 people. It's not good enough. If it's me, then get rid of me. If you need somebody else to be a promoter, do something--but 3,300 people is embarrassing. It really is. I'm not in a very good mood you can tell that."
Altman did acknowledge the fans that have been loyal to the program--which has 20 won no less than 20 games each year with him at the helm.
"I appreciate the people who came. 3,300 people who did come? Great. I sure appreciate it. The people who have stuck with us."
The Oregon head coach tried to wrap his head around the lack of interest in the program and put himself in the spotlight, inferring that he could do a better job promoting the program, even though that's not typically who he is.
"Again, I'm not a promoter. I'm not out in the public," he said. "I don't have the Twitter and all the stuff. My job's to coach. My job's to get the team and coach 'em. I'm so bad at promoting and doing those things."
The Ducks saw their season end in the NIT for the second straight season, but Altman still advocated for his players, who have endured a long season and historically been viewed as one of the better teams in the Pac-12.
"We have won 20 games for a long time. We have been in postseason 13 years in a row. I know this is NIT it's not the NCAA I understand that. But our guys work hard and (I am) just a little disappointed. They're (Fans) disappointed in us, we didn't win. It works both ways.
"We didn't win enough games so I understand fans' disappointment. I want guys that want to be here and staff that wants to be here. I want to be here. But I want our fans to want to be here too. I watched Wisconsin play the other day against Liberty and I think they had 10,000 people. We had recruits here tonight. We had recruits watching on TV. Are we sending the right message?"
One thing is clear in Altman's vision, he's going to recruit the players that fit his system and his culture, not what will create buzz around the program.
"We don't recruit to put fans in the seats. We recruit to win basketball games. We recruit to get guys here who want to compete. We had great crowds when Dillon Books who was number 150 and Jordan Bell was 99 and Chris Boucher was on nobody's list. Peyton was maybe our highest-rated guy at 56. Those guys just played hard and we won. We're gonna get winners. We're gonna get competitors. Our program's gonna be about guys that want to be in the gym, want to compete here and want to get better."
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