“It was a long time coming,” Oregon basketball head coach Dana Altman said in a Feb. 24 press conference following the Ducks’ improbable, 71-70, last-minute comeback victory against the USC Trojans.
Facing a six-point deficit with just over a minute to go, Oregon’s track record this season would suggest it had no chance at redemption from the situation it put itself in on Saturday afternoon at the Galen Center down in Los Angeles.
The Ducks now sit at 10-17, with the win against the Trojans becoming the first Power Four team with a winning record that they’ve taken down. That record suggests something glaringly obvious when analyzing Oregon’s play in the final minutes of close games: this was a surprise.
“We just made the big play,” Altman said. “We had the opportunity against Purdue, but we missed a couple shots. We had two or three looks against Purdue that would have given us a four-point lead under a minute and we missed them. Sometimes, it’s just about making a play and (Kwame Evans Jr.) made two big ones there.”
It also helped that Oregon began to shore up on the other side of the ball. For the final two-and-a-half minutes, USC didn’t hit any of its six field goal attempts and managed to turn the ball over twice, most crucially to Ducks’ guard Dezdrick Lindsay on the final possession of the game.
While it proved a revelation regarding the actual play, Altman focused on just how much this boosted the team’s baseline mood going forward.
“Making some plays down the stretch and finishing one like that felt really good,” Altman said.
Altman mentioned that because of the recent success, he hasn’t coached Oregon to a season under 20 wins during his tenure, there’s always lofty expectations going into the season. In his 17th season as the Ducks’ head coach, he stares at a grim reality that this might be the outlier.
This could also become Altman’s second season since 2017-18 not featuring in the AP Top-25.
“All the guys have tried to keep their heads up, it’s difficult. When you go into the year with expectations like we always do, and obviously fall short of those expectations, it wears on everybody. But the guys have done a great job,” Altman said.
At this point, while Altman would never explicitly say it, an appearance in the NCAA Tournament likely sits out of the reach of Oregon this season. That could certainly defeat any team’s motivation and prevent even the day-to-day successes that come with individual improvement.
Altman admitted his team hasn’t shown any of that, and while he’s the typical old-school brand of coach, he sees no benefit in pushing players too hard even if it would translate to a few more wins here and there.
“As a coach, you want to be hard on them, you want to push them, but the bottom line is you want them to have a good time,” Altman said. “You want them to enjoy the experience and pushing them and being hard on them translates into some wins, but when it doesn’t it does take the fun out of it. To see them in the locker room, everybody’s smiling, it was good…It’s their passion, it’s their love, you want them to enjoy the experience.”
Altman also added that former Oregon point guard Payton Pritchard made an appearance in the Ducks’ locker room after the win, noting that his presence showed his team that, “What you put into it is what you get out of it.”
Looking ahead to Wednesday’s game against Wisconsin, the Ducks aim to build on that positive momentum with another win against an NCAA tournament-hopeful squad. Altman lauded their strong guard play from both Nick Boyd and John Blackwell as key points for his team in this matchup.
That game will tip-off from Matthew Knight Arena on Wednesday at 8 p.m.
