Oregon men’s head basketball coach Dana Altman has dragged a program from bad to mediocre in his two seasons as head coach. His tenure has been marked by surprise transfers, a CBI championship and poor play down the stretch of last year’s Pac-12 Tournament. Should he be nervous this year?

Yes — It sounds premature. After all, it’s only his third season and he’s done great things here — things former coach Ernie Kent couldn’t do at the end of his run as coach of the Ducks. But this is Oregon. Mediocrity isn’t tolerated in the new world order of Rose Bowls and #nationalbrands, and fair or not, if Altman doesn’t get the Ducks to the NCAA Tournament this year, it will be a massive disappointment. Consider his predicament a product of Oregon’s overwhelming athletic success: a top-five volleyball team; arguably a top-two football team; a softball team that shook up the College World Series and a baseball team that came within an out of doing the same. Our acrobatics and tumbling team won the national title. Not to mention, all these wins in all these sports come out of TrackTown USA. Call Duck fans spoiled, but the bar has been raised. Altman’s now expected to hold his own, and with two years under his belt, he can’t blame Kent if the job doesn’t get done.
Five of Altman’s Ducks have flown the coop early, too. Five-star recruit Jabari Brown left practically before he got here. Most recently Brett Kingma found his way out of town. At some point that becomes part of the discussion. Of course if the Ducks have 20-plus wins in January, this will all seem rather foolish. But that’s up to Altman now, isn’t it?
— Matt Walks
No — True story: In Dana Altman’s first year as head coach I was discussing the Ducks’ schedule with a friend of mine while walking back from a football game and I wondered aloud if this team might be capable of a 20-win season. A passerby heard the words “the Ducks could win 20 games this year” and  immediately interjected to ask if I was high.
Of course, the Ducks did win 20 games that year, and a CBI title.  Much of the college basketball world might laugh at that, but a title — any title — meant so much to the students that they rushed the court. EJ Singler’s game-winning shot off the glass and the backcourt violation that set it up remain among my favorite memories at any Duck sporting event.
In Altman’s second year the Ducks again won 20 games (and how many schools can say they have had 12 win football teams and 20 win basketball teams in two straight seasons) and made a serious run at the NIT title, which admittedly is still not something I bring up when I chat with friends at Ohio State.
But consider what Altman took over for.
In Ernie Kent’s last season as head coach the Ducks needed a win over Washington State on the last day of the season just to finish at the .500 mark. Ask a fifth-year senior about their freshman year (you might need to buy them a drink first) and you’ll hear about the Ducks losing their first 14 conference games before finally beating California. It was one of a whopping eight wins that season.
The improvement Altman has made in his short tenure at Matthew Knight Arena cannot be denied and, barring some unspeakable debacle this year, there’s no reason he won’t be stomping around Kilkenny floor next year too.
— Isaac Rosenthal