Musings on Dana Altman to Oregon

Did Oregon hold off as long as they did to gut their roster?

That's the question that came to mind when I saw Oregon went with the safe, bargain hire of Dana Altman.

The Oregon Hoops cupboard is full of sophomore bodies and short on talent. The recent departures of Drew Wiley, Matt Humphrey, and Josh Crittle (all sophomores) may scare the fan base, but the reality is it makes Altman's job easier.

So, I ask, was this a calculated effort? Did the search committee, after striking out on the big, sexy names, knowingly and silently settle on Altman long ago then wait, wait, wait, naturally gutting the talentless roster?

It would make sense and it makes a rebuilding process much easier for a coach to start from scratch rather than having to atrition-out the talent (or lack thereof). And the search had become such a national joke, what's another couple weeks?

Altman himself has had success but this is a true rebuilding gig. There's certainly no blueprint for how to build a program other than give it time. Will the Nike brass be patient? They certainly were in the hiring process.

Let's see how the winning process plays out.

A Major Cluster-Duck

University of Oregon: Get. It. Together.

On this very site, BH and I have written extensively of your successes and sang your praises. Chip Kelly did a fantastic job following the season opening disaster last year. Finally, as tardy as it was, you let Ernie Kent go. You created a baseball program. You had a top-five football team heading into next season. Oregon, you’ve been doing well...

...and then Spring 2010 arrived. FYL (that’s short for F your life):

• The series of football arrests and subsequent suspension/dismissal of Jermiah Masoli
• The leaking of the Ernie Kent firing
• The departure/firing/buyout/whatever of Mike Belotti after one year
• The coaching search

These poorly orchestrated events are not good. It doesn’t look good, it doesn’t smell good, it doesn’t taste good. In fact, it’s bad.

The arrests, while they reflect poorly, are what they are. Sometimes kids make very unfortunate decisions, but I sincerely do not believe it is due to a lack of institutional control on Kelly’s part. He created a Rose Bowl birth after the meltdown that was Boise State last September and the dude can flat out coach. By no means am I condoning the behavior of his football team, they screwed up; but this seems to happen in lots of places and is not exclusive to Oregon. As hard as it was, Kelly is instituting discipline and the offenders are paying the consequences. It looks bad, but next issue.

Leaking the Ernie Kent firing was not that big of a deal, but it was certainly not classy; especially because the eventual firing was glaringly obvious, and Kent had been a loyal Duck. Kent served as head basketball coach of his alma mater for 13 years--he deserved better than what he got. I’ve never been a huge Kent fan but I do believe he got shown the door in a less than professional manner and Belotti – or someone in his office – dropped the ball on that one.

Speaking of Belotti: what the hell happened there? My conclusion on that awkward separation is that he clearly was a figurehead, a puppet, for the long, strong arm of Phil.  Phil Knight that is.  Phil Knight of Nike that is. I know the University of Nike thing gets a bit played out, but seriously, Phil’s hand is in that Athletic Department and when Athletic Director’s are leaving with subsequent Attorney General investigations, something’s not quite right. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

So without an AD, what now of the vacant – STILL vacant – Men’s Basketball coaching position? We could also look at the question like this: who will uber-boosters Pat Kilkenny and Knight find or pay? Right now, no one. And it’s getting ugly. Numerous deadlines have come and gone and there’s seemingly been very little interest in the position. Are we looking at a Steinbrenner-esque situation imposed by Knight/Kilkenny where no one wants to be micromanaged by the hand of God? Is the Head Basketball Coach at the University of Oregon a toxic seat?

And then there’s the factor that this is a huge hire that Oregon should not screw up. The changing face of college hoops says that you can win anywhere. Just ask Brad Stevens. Yeah, yeah, the dude just got paid, but he fell in love with Butler first and, more importantly, won there. While Butler is in basketball crazy Indiana, it sure ain’t Chapel Hill or Westwood. But you know what? Butler won. UNC and UCLA didn’t.

That’s not to say that these schools will never win again; by all accounts they’ll be very good, very soon. The point I’m trying to make is that you can win anywhere and with any resources. Coaching matters. Lord Phil’s money will never make Tajuan Porter a better decision maker (he was awful) or anyone play better team defense. The longer the school waits to make this hire the more it’s going to end up settling and letting down a fan base ready to usher in a new era in a new arena that makes the Taj Mahal look like a cheap condo.

To settle would not be okay and would embarrass a University already dragging itself through an inferno of embarrassment. The right coach will do a good job and can certainly put together a perennial competitor in Eugene. It’s a good job.

On the heels of the worst Pac-10 basketball season ever, West Coast basketball can’t afford to have one if its major Universities screw this up either. The Pac-10 has not had a team in the Top 25 since December and the only positive headline it's had since November was Washington's run to the Sweet 16--as an 11 seed.

The Oregon coaching search is doing nothing to smooth the currently rocky face of West Coast hoops.

If Oregon indeed wants to compete with the likes of UCLA, Arizona, Gonzaga, or even Saint Mary’s – and it can – they need to get this right. The longer they wait, the wronger they get. The silver lining is that a troubled athletic department can come out of this smelling like roses if it makes a good hire.

It’s been 4+ weeks since the inevitable Kent firing and there’s still no one there to usher in recruits for 2010-11. The only thing keeping this “search” from becoming the laughing stock of college basketball is that no one cares about basketball on the West Coast right now; deservedly so.

Hence, Oregon needs to get the right man in there and get him soon. The Western basketball community is depending on it.

How bad is Pac-10 basketball this year?

I've spent my entire life trumpeting the under appreciated talent of Pac-10 athletics--especially basketball. I can't stand Digger Phelps, Dick Vitale and the rest of the East Coast cronies that go to bed before basketball gets played out west, and wake up the next day to talk it down anyway. However, even a Homer can't totally check reality at the door: this may be the weakest Pac-10 ever.

To be fair, no one thought the Pac-10 would have a great year, but no one thought it would be as weak as it is...

Two Pac-10 teams entered the season in the pre-season top 25: Cal (13) and Washington (14). By week two Cal had fallen out of the top 25 after getting run out of the 2K Sports Classic where they suffered an embarrassing loss to Syracuse (95-73) and dropped another to Ohio State (76-70). As this week began Washington was the only team in the Pac-10 still ranked in the top 25 at number 24, but fell way out after dropping consecutive 17 point losses to the Arizona schools. There was a chance that Washington State might replace Washington in the top 25 this week, but put that notion to rest after getting dropped by Arizona State 71-46.

So here we are in week nine and for the first time since 1987 not a single Pac-10 school is ranked in the top 25. In fact, both Cornell and Harvard got more votes in the AP top 25 than any team in the Pac-10. If that sounds bad, a closer look reveals that the Pac's top 25 absence is just the surface of Pac-10 futility.

Pac-10 teams have had alarmingly poor results against all levels of competition, the worst of which was Oregon State's 99-48 destruction at home to Seattle University (a sub 500 independent league team). To make matters worse, Oregon State had already lost at home to Sacramento State, at Nebraska, and at University Illinois-Chicago.

Oregon State is not the only team being embarrassed--even the perennial power UCLA is getting in on the action. UCLA opened the season with a 68-65 loss at home to Cal State Fullerton of the Big West. UCLA also managed to tick off five straight losses including a 74-47 beat down at the hands of Portland State and a 79-68 loss to Long Beach State University.

Oregon had to get in the mix as well. Not only has Oregon played their traditionally soft non-conference schedule, this year they mixed in some ugly losses: 88-81 loss to Portland; 13 point defeat to Montana; and received a 106-69 shellacking from Missouri.

Arizona was expected by no one to compete for the league title during their transition year and they have responded by getting blown out by Oklahoma (79-62) and San Diego State (63-46) and were handed their worst home loss in history by BYU (99-69)--a game in which Jimmer Fredette dropped 49 points on Arizona (a McKale Center Record).

Stanford has chipped in a loss to Oral Roberts at home, and opened the season with a with a loss to 7-9 University of San Diego team. USC has thrown in losses to Loyola Marymount and Nebraska. Outside of Pac-10 play Arizona State has only lost at Duke, at BYU and at home to a 12-1 Baylor team, but they managed to put up just 37 points against USC.

The two teams that were picked to lead the Pac this year (Cal and Washington) have won the non-conference games they were supposed to, but have dropped every game where they faced real competition. In addition to Syracuse and Ohio State, Cal was blown out by Kansas and lost to New Mexico. Moreover, they lost to a surprisingly bad UCLA team at home. Washington only lost to Gonzaga and a 13-1 Kansas State team, but their wins include Eastern Washington, Alaska Anchorage, Nicholls State, Idaho, San Diego and Air Force. Plus they laid egg in the desert last weekend.

So the Pac-10 is anyone's guess. The two teams considered the best (Cal and Washington) are currently first and last in the Pac-10 standings and almost every team has followed a puzzling loss with a win, or followed a puzzling win with an expected loss. At this rate there will be 10 Pac-10 teams at 9 and 9; probably just one team dancing and two at best*; and no one should be surprised if a sub-500 hundred team sneaks into the winner's circle at the Pac-10 Tournament.

My guess is Cal takes the Pac-10 regular season crown and has an outside shot to lock in an at large berth in the NCAA Tournament. As for the Pac-10 tournament the only team I would bet against winning it is USC, because they won't be participating in it at all.

*A Power 6 conference has never gotten just one team into the NCAA tournament since it expanded.

Old School, Smash Mouth, Rhetorical Bull Crap

In the final week before bowl selections, bowl season and individual awards I found myself watching the game of the weak: the Big East showdown between the "revived" Pittsburgh Panthers and the now Brian Kellyless Cincinnati Bearcats. It was a very exciting game--no way around it.

But there was also no way to avoid the battle cry of all beleaguered East Coast/Midwest teams: "We're not some new aged offense, we just play old school football" (or some variation thereof), referring to an interview with Dave Wannstedt taken before the game.

At any rate that set me off...

There is nothing that gets older than listening to squeaky wheels drone on about how they're playing football the way it was meant to be played: old school, running, smash mouth, simple, field position. You know, none of this new aged, Pac 10, double option, athlete at quarterback crap. Who would want speed on offense when we could have corn fed white boys pushing up the field and eating the clock. 'Did you see that 7-6 ball game the other day? What a dandy, I love that old school brand of football.' Give. Me. A. Damned. Break!

You know what I take? I take athletes at every position and speed, speed, speed. I don't care how may field goals Jim Tressel teams kick, Jeremiah Masoli is going to eat his team alive and Terrelle Pryor will be left to wonder what could have been in this years installment of the Big 10's Woes Bowl. Every year people get excited about Big 10 defenses matching up with Pac-10 offenses. Enough! Every team that played in the Big 10 would put up great defensive numbers and so would any college team that played high school teams (except Washington State--sorry Cougs).

I don't care how old school you are, even old schoolers play to win: Since 2002/2003 the Pac-10 has gone 22-11 in bowl games and the Big 10 has gone 15-28. Ohio State has been invited to the BCS National Championship twice in the past 5 years and lost by a combined 41 points. Put your "old school brand" back in the closet with your wooden golf clubs. Even Florida got a quarterback who can run!

Why W.C. Homer

We are sports fans, outdoors enthusiasts, liberal supporters, competition junkies, ASU haters, and proponents of the left side of the country (pun intended).

A Homer is a supporter of his roots. We have roots in the West Coast. We support it. We are West Coast Homers.

We love Arizona Basketball, 10pm E.T. kickoffs, afternoon Super Bowls, shorts in November and sandals year round. We love the National League and playoffs at the lunch hour. We take our sunsets over the ocean, our highways without out tolls, and our horizons without ends. We play in National Parks, ski in the spring, and surf in the winter. We love Highway 1, Hood-to-Coast, high peaks, and hacky-sack. We love San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle. We love the Rockies, the Rose Bowl, road trips, and Rodeo Break. We love the PAC-10, west coast offenses, NCAA Softball, and Mexican food at 2am. We watch College Game Day before the sun rises, we didn't play lacrosse, and our long boards have wheels. The southwest is our home, our street names are in Spanish, and we're W.C. Homers born and bred.

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