A lot has changed for the Oregon men’s basketball team since playing Wisconsin in round two of the NCAA tournament last year. With the departure of Damyean Dotson, Brandon Austin and Dominic Artis amid the alleged sexual assault case, the Ducks are in full rebuilding mode.
On top of all of this, five-star recruit JaQuan Lyle was denied admission into the University of Oregon, something that has only further limited Dana Altman and his staff from creating the fresh start they hoped and wished for.
Heading into the year, the Ducks have a lot of questions to answer.
“Our team faces some challenges this year,” Altman said. “We have a limited roster, not much experience back and so our guys are going to have to stay healthy, we’re going to have to make progress throughout the year.”
Pac-12 Media Day
At this year’s Pac-12 Media Day in San Francisco, California, Altman and redshirt senior guard Joseph Young represented the Ducks at the podium. The two answered an array of questions ranging from losing key players to dealing with inexperience, but one theme continued to preside: uncertainty.
“The new guys are going to have to do a better job of following Joseph (Young) and Elgin’s (Cook) lead. “Just trying to spend as much time with the new guys as possible to get them ready to go as quickly as possible.”
Due to the lack of experience and depth on the current roster, which lists just 10 players, Altman laid out a long list of tasks ahead for his team in order for them to be competitive in the ultra competitive Pac-12 conference.
“We’re going to go through some ups and downs,” Altman said. “Our guys are going to have to continue to fight, continue to get better and if they can do that, I think we’ll have a good ball club. I like our talent, we just don’t have much experience.”
Among them were team rebounding and learning from the three remaining veterans: Young, Elgin Cook and Jalil Abdul-Bassit, things that have been preached since day one of Altman’s career at Oregon. Having said that, these tasks at hand will be much more difficult this season with the lack of chemistry and talent.
On the bright side, Young, the unquestionable leader of this team, feels improved from a year ago and plans to showcase his leadership ability. This summer, Young attended both LeBron James and Deron Williams’ camps.
“It all started this summer,” Young said. “I went to LeBron camp, Deron Williams camp. Learned a lot from the experience guys, especially LeBron. I just want to take what I learned and bring it to the team. Such as leadership: make sure everybody is on time, make sure everybody is getting the extra work in and that’s one of the things that we’ve got to have more of this year. More team bonding and everyone has to come together as one whole.”
Moving forward 
Oregon will be welcoming six new players to their team this year and according to Altman, all of them will serve a role in some capacity. Altman said he was pleased with their talent, but understood they had a long way to go before they could show real results. Currently, half of the Ducks roster are underclassmen.
In regards to dealing with the mayhem that was the alleged sexual assault case, Altman stood by the word that he had no idea about the charges against his three players during the tournament, a legitimate question that has since loomed over the program. It also, led to the eventual resignation of President Gotfredson, the 17th in Oregon history. Altman believes the Rob Mullens and the administration made the appropriate decisions under the circumstances and simply wants to move forward.
“At the time, I wasn’t aware of the extent of any of the charges against the young men, so I didn’t really have a decision making play in the decision that was made by the athletic director, by the president,” Altman said. “I think the three of us made the right decision.” 
Altman and his staff have already made small progress towards reviving the program’s image. Whether it be forcing the team to live with the graduate assistants in the same apartment complex or cooking a team dinner together, the bottom line is that the team is trying. Oregon may have been pre-ranked to finish eighth in the Pac-12, but even that is something that will have to wait and see.

Oregon officially begins their season on Nov. 14 against Coppin State.
Follow Hayden Kim on Twitter @HayDayKim