Oregon HC Dana Altman Surprisingly to Retire From College Basketball

The Oregon Ducks will now be looking for a new permanent head coach to lead their basketball program forward.

According to Field of 68, longtime coach Dana Altman will be retiring ahead of the 2026 season. College basketball insider Pete Thamel confirms the news of Altman surprisingly stepping away.

The Ducks were scheduled to open the year in less than three weeks, making the timing of this very interesting. Assistant coach Tony Stubblefield will serve as Oregon’s interim coach for the upcoming year.

Altman was set to begin his 17th season with the Ducks and his 38th overall as a college head coach. Over his long career, Altman has performed well, seeing success with Creighton for 16 years, posting a record of 327-176.

During his tenure with the Ducks, Altman saw all sorts of success, taking the team to nine NCAA tournaments, which includes one Final Four appearance in 2017.

Overall, the veteran coach had a record of 382-182 in 16 seasons with the Ducks, bringing the program to relevance. 

Last season was a tough one for the Ducks, with the team going 12-20 overall, including them going 5-15 in conference play. This was the worst season for the team under Altman, and it seemed to cause some issues around the program.

With the new era of college basketball now in effect, the Ducks weren't able to withstand the changes. Like many other coaches have done, Altman may not have wanted to deal with the ongoing changes, including NIL and the transfer portal.

But his reasoning for retiring remains unknown at this time. Longtime coach Bruce Pearl stepped away before the beginning of last season as well, citing the changes to the sport.

For the Ducks, they will try to get ready for the upcoming season without their head coach, and this could be very tough to do. But Oregon is looking to bounce back after a tough year last season.

Stubblefield will now be tasked with leading this team through this situation, and if he can perform well, maybe the job could be his down the line. The assistant does have head coaching experience, having spent three seasons as head coach at DePaul.

But this situation will be a challenge for him, and the Ducks program could possibly look to land a big-name player at some point. However, for now, all the focus will be on the upcoming season and getting this team back to the NCAA tournament this year.