According to sources, DuckTerritory can confirm that Oregon men’s basketball head coach Dana Altman decided to retire. This was first reported by ESPN’s Pete Thamel. Altman is Oregon’s winningest head coach in program history and one of the school’s most decorated coaches in any sport.
Altman, 68, won 382 games in 16 seasons at Eugene (382-182, .677) from 2010-11 through 2025-26 and was 792-425 (.651) in 37 seasons as a Division I head coach, the 15th most wins in NCAA history and fifth among active coaches. He took the Ducks to nine NCAA tournaments and the 2017 Final Four while winning four Pac-12 regular season championships and four Pac-12 tournament titles.
The school later issued a press release announcing Altman’s decision, which Altman commented on his retirement.
“I had to make two very difficult decisions during my coaching career,” Altman said. “The first was leaving Creighton, a place that my family and I loved dearly, to come to Oregon. This is the second. I loved every minute of coaching here, and walking away is difficult and definitely painful. I love coaching, it’s what I know best and what I’ve been fortunate to do for almost five decades. I’m going to miss my coaches, my players and our incredible fans more than I can express. But I know it’s the right thing to do. do right now. I want to thank former AD Pat Kilkenny for giving me a chance here, Phil Knight and Tim Boyle for their constant and unwavering support, my coaches and players past and present, Rob, President Scholz and of course our incredible fans. It has been the honor of my life to coach the Ducks.
Oregon also announced that Oregon assistant coach Tony Stubblefield will serve as interim head coach this season.
“Dana has built a program at Oregon to a level that very few coaches build anywhere else,” Mullens said. “Winning 382 games in 16 years, including nine NCAA Tournaments and a Final Four, is an incredible accomplishment. But the record books only tell part of the story. Dana and Reva gave so much of themselves to this university and the young men who played for it, and we thank him for all of his contributions to Oregon student-athletes, basketball and the University of Oregon.
“Tony has been on Dana’s staff for most of his time in Eugene and knows this program as well as anyone. Our student-athletes know and trust him, and he is the right person to lead the Ducks this season.”
“For 16 years, Dana led a very successful and competitive men’s basketball program here at the University of Oregon,” said University of Oregon President Karl Scholz. “He represented Oregon with class and won at an extremely high level. On behalf of the entire university, I want to thank Dana and Reva for everything they have done for the Ducks and for our community, and we will miss him as the leader of our men’s basketball program.”
Altman and the Ducks joined the Big Ten Conference ahead of the 2024-25 season and the Ducks went 37-30 in his two seasons in the Big Ten, with a conference record of 17-23. Last season was Altman’s only losing season in his 16 seasons with the Ducks as Oregon finished the year 12-20 due to a rash of injuries to several star players.
Ahead of this season, in September, he previewed the team welcoming 10 new players to its roster as the Ducks experienced a massive wave of transfers and graduations of players from last year’s roster.
We have a good group – talented, young and inexperienced. But Jasper Johnson, there’s a reason he was in the top 30 regardless of his number. Dwayne Aristode, there’s a reason he was in the top 50. These guys are talented…I really like Tyrone Riley’s talent. Tajh Ariza, there’s a reason he was top 20, top 30. We have talented young men. Some of them are young,” Altman said in September.
“Fred Payne, the guard we recruited from Boston College, is tough, uncompromising and has some experience.”
Altman said Oregon’s roster this year was built largely because of the work assistant coach Tony Stubblefield and the rest of the staff were able to do.
“The group that Tony and the team put together – Stub did a great job. He took a lot of things away from me. I’m not very good with agents. I’m combative with them and they control everything now,” Altman said. “It’s a difficult change in our sport, where agents have so much influence over guys. It’s no longer about recruiting.
Altman’s teams have reached the NCAA Tournament nine times, including five straight from 2013-17, the first such time in school history. Oregon has advanced to the second round in all nine of its appearances and went 8-0 in first round games. The Ducks reached the Sweet Sixteen in 2013, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2021 and the Elite Eight in 2016 and 2017.
The 2016-17 team won a school-record 33 games and 16 conference games and reached the Final Four for the first time since the 1939 Webfoots won the first NCAA championship. Altman and Hobson are the only coaches to take Oregon to the Final Four. A year earlier, the Ducks swept the Pac-12 regular season and tournament titles for the first time and earned the program’s first No. 1 seed in the NCAA program.
Oregon won Pac-12 regular season titles in 2016, 2017, 2020 and 2021 and tournament titles in 2013, 2016, 2019 and 2024. Altman is the winningest coach in Pac-12 tournament history and joined Arizona’s Lute Olson as the only coaches to win it four times. His 2019 team won four games in four days to win the tournament before reaching the Sweet 16, and his 2024 team beat UCLA, No. 6 Arizona and Colorado in Las Vegas to win the last one.
Altman was the 2013 Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year and Pac-12 Coach of the Year in 2013, 2015 and 2016, three times in four years, a run matched only by Olson. He was one of four active coaches named Coach of the Year in four different conferences, alongside Rick Pitino, Kelvin Sampson and Herb Sendek. He won at least 20 games in 15 of his 16 seasons at Oregon and 27 times in his career.
His players garnered national honors throughout his tenure. Payton Pritchard won the 2020 Bob Cousy Award and was Oregon’s first consensus All-American in 80 years. Chris Duarte won the 2021 Jerry West Award and was taken 13th overall in the NBA draft, the highest pick in the Altman era. Joseph Young (2015), Dillon Brooks (2017) and Pritchard (2020) were the Pac-12 Players of the Year, and Duarte was the AP’s pick in 2021. Oregon players under Altman who advanced to the NBA include Joseph Young, Dillon Brooks, Jordan Bell, Tyler Dorsey, Chris Boucher, Troy Brown Jr., Bol Bol, Louis King, Payton Pritchard, Chris Duarte, Eugene Omoruyi, and N’Faly Dante.
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