I don’t know what you were doing first-thing Monday morning, but Dana Altman looked like a guy who woke up, got dressed, let the dog out, mowed the lawn, and decided the next thing on his to-do list was, “Send Iowa packing.”
Seventh-seeded Oregon blasted the No. 2-seed Hawkeyes, 95-80 on Monday.
The Ducks were the better team. Altman was the superior coach. The Hawkeyes, touted as a hard-scrabble, defense-minded outfit from the Big Ten, looked helpless against Oregon’s attack. It went down as an upset. I’m sure the Ducks’ victory burned down some brackets, but for the rest of us the result felt as surprising as the mail showing up.
Said Altman after: “I don’t think we’ve ever scored 95 points.”
So there’s that. Still, in 11 seasons in Eugene the Ducks have now advanced to the Sweet 16 five different times. Twice, Altman then reached the Elite Eight. He’s got one Final Four, too. Which is only to say that Oregon’s coach is going to have to win a couple more games before any of us falls over in disbelief and believes this tournament has lost its marbles.
March is Altman’s month.
Cycle out the talent. Alter the venues and years. Bubble it all up, if you’d like. Doesn’t really appear to matter in the end. What’s become certain is that Altman is going to find a way to put his team in position to succeed in the NCAA Tournament. He’s particularly lethal on short notice, facing elimination.
Oregon hadn’t played in 10 days, remember?
The Ducks were supposed to start slow, and find themselves out of rhythm. Altman guarded against it before tip and told his players, “They’ve played a game. They’re not going to be tired the first 10 minutes. We’ve got to come out, move the ball, make plays for each other, get some easy shots, and not let them get easy baskets.”
Come out and move the ball, check.
Make plays for each other, check.
Get some easy shots and avoid giving up easy ones -- check and check.
What Iowa struggled most with, though, was staying with Oregon’s talented and versatile personnel. Everyone talks about Chris Duarte. He’s UO’s best player and the program spirit animal. But Altman has a pile of gifted, interchangeable parts. His rotations are designed to foster a migraine by splintering opposing defenses and leaving opponents to pick between a series of less than ideal options.
Hawkeyes coach Fran McCaffrey said, “Yeah, anybody can bring it. Anybody can go. Everybody makes threes. They spread you out.
“It’s a hard team to cover in so many different ways.”
If the Ducks don’t shoot well, they lose. If they shoot it decent, they win. But if they shoot it really well, they run you out of the gym and that’s what happened on Monday in Indianapolis. I particularly liked that Oregon had 25 assists on 38 field goals. It went down as a clinic.
“We tried man, zone, we tried pressing them,” McCaffrey said.
None of it worked. A couple of minutes into the second half it became evident that Iowa’s season was melting away. A few minutes after that, it was clear the Ducks weren’t leaving the bubble and needed to think about who was going to do laundry for the week.
Winning isn’t boring. I want to make that clear. Altman is just predictable and business-like. He makes success look easy. Victories, particularly in an NCAA Tournament, should not be taken for granted. But there was something routine and formulaic about the way Altman’s team dismantled its Big Ten opponent and advanced in this tournament.
March Madness is a magnet for great stories. Sister Jean is back in the bracket. Oregon State and Wayne Tinkle are in the Sweet 16 along with No. 15-seed Oral Roberts. The Pac-12 has played lights-out. There’s just so much to see here right now but let’s not overlook the excellence of Dana Altman.
Oregon did it again on Monday. Altman’s team survived and advanced. They were rusty. Only two players on the roster had real NCAA Tournament experience. Iowa looked formidable. Still, Ducks played as well as anyone has on this stage. They won easily and beautifully.
It was the most Dana Altman thing ever.
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