Dana Altman owns one of the most complete résumés in college basketball. The 67-year-old head coach of the Oregon Ducks has collected 780 career wins, reached a Final Four, won 10 conference tournament titles, seven regular season crowns, and earned coach of the year honors in four different leagues a total of nine times.
Altman has also built a steady postseason track record. He holds an 18-17 record in the NCAA Tournament and is 13-11 in NIT appearances. As Oregon begins the 2025-26 season, the Ducks will look for a third straight NCAA Tournament berth after winning a game in each of the past two tournaments.
A Proven Winner Across Decades
In 2023-24, Oregon earned an 11 seed and rolled past South Carolina in Salt Lake City before falling to Creighton in overtime, finishing the year 24-12. Last season, the Ducks grabbed a 5 seed, beat Liberty, and then fell by four points to Arizona in Seattle, closing at 25-10.
Under Altman, Oregon has won 20 or more games in every season he has coached, even in years they missed the NCAA Tournament. The program’s modern peak came during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 campaigns when the Ducks reached the Elite Eight and Final Four in back-to-back years, posting a combined 64-13 record and claiming two Pac-12 titles.
Now, the Ducks are charting a new course in the Big Ten. Their debut season produced a 12-8 conference mark, tying for seventh place. Oregon remains one of the few Big Ten programs with a national championship in its history, dating back to the inaugural 1939 NCAA Tournament.
From Small College Guard to Big-Time Coach
Altman’s basketball journey began as a guard at Southeast Community College and Eastern New Mexico. After his playing days, he immediately entered coaching, first as an assistant at Western Colorado and later as head coach at Southeast and Moberly Community College, where he amassed 123 wins in five years.
He then joined Kansas State as an assistant before landing his first Division I head coaching role at Marshall, where he went 15-13 in his lone season. His success there led to the head job at Kansas State, where he compiled 68 wins and earned an NCAA Tournament berth in 1993.
Altman’s next stop was Creighton, where he transformed the program. Over 16 seasons, he went 327-126, making five straight NCAA Tournament appearances before moving to Oregon in 2010. Since then, he’s delivered a decade and a half of winning basketball, keeping the Ducks nationally relevant every season.
Oregon opens the 2025-26 campaign on Tuesday, November 4, at home against Hawaii inside Matthew Knight Arena. The Ducks will play four straight home games before heading to Las Vegas during Thanksgiving week for matchups against Auburn and San Diego State.
SEO-Friendly URL Ending:
dana-altman-oregon-basketball-2025-season-preview
Meta Description (160 characters):