5 Candidates Oregon Basketball Could Turn To After Dana Altman’s Retirement

Dana Altman announced his retirement as the Oregon basketball coach on Wednesday. At 68-years-old, with 16 seasons in Eugene under his belt, his decision to retire had been speculated. Still, the timing of his decision is abrupt, with the college basketball season less than a month away and the Ducks’ featuring a roster with nine transfers and two highly-touted freshmen, all of whom Altman recruited. Oregon will now have to rebound from its first season since Altman was hired in 2010 in which the program did not win at least 20 games, without the legendary basketball coach. Assistant coach Tony Stubblefield was promoted to interim head coach, and will be tasked with maintaining a group of players that will be eligible to enter the transfer portal in 31 days. But athletics director Rob Mullens confirmed Oregon will embark on a national search for its next head coach. Here are five potential candidates for the job. Schertz has proven he can win at multiple mid-major college basketball programs. He went 66-40 over three seasons at Indiana State and 48-21 over the last two seasons while at Saint Louis. In his first NCAA Tournament appearance, last season, he and the Billikens dominated Georgia 102-77. Schertz runs a fast-paced scheme with a five-out offense that prioritizes quick possessions and a high volume of 3-point shots. He’s one of the best Xs and Os coaches in the nation, which has allowed him to maximize mid-major talent. At Oregon, he would have more money to afford better players, and mix more talent with an elite scheme. Schertz hasn’t had a high-major head coaching job before, so he’d have to adapt to the business world that is vastly different in the Big Ten than in the Atlantic 10. Olen led New Mexico to a 26-11 record in his first season after spending 12 seasons at UC San Diego. So he’s proven he can take over a team and find success immediately. Because of his success in the Big West and Mountain West, he’s a notable name on the West Coast. It would be a quick turnaround for him to jump to Oregon shortly after getting hired at New Mexico, but high-major jobs at programs with money and a history of success, don’t open often. Olen’s certainly capable of leading the Ducks. Stubblefield returned to Oregon as an assistant coach in 2024 after three seasons at DePaul. He had spent 11 seasons as an assistant with Altman at Oregon before that. In his three years as DePaul’s head coach, he went 30-66, and the Blue Demons have found success, hiring Chris Holtmann after his departure. While the results might not be there, Altman certainly trusts him, and Stubblefield will have an opportunity to earn that confidence from Oregon’s program this season as he was named the interim head coach. Multiple Big Ten programs have gone this route recently, as Michigan promoted interim coach Mike Boynton Jr. to head coach and Ohio State promoted Jake Diebler from interim to head coach after the 2023-24 season. Bryce Drew has turned a hungry Grand Canyon basketball program into a mid-major power. He’s gone 140-52 with four NCAA tournament appearances over six seasons. He helped the Lopes jump from the Western Athletic Conference to the Mountain West last year. Grand Canyon has one of the most expensive rosters of any mid-major school, so Drew knows how to recruit and maximize a budget. That is a skill many other mid-major coaches couldn’t bring to Oregon. Drew is also the brother of Baylor men’s basketball coach, Scott, and the son of Homer, the longtime Valparaiso coach he played for and later succeeded, so he comes from one of the most successful coaching families in college basketball. Sprinkle won 109 games over five seasons at Montana State and Utah State, including an NCAA Tournament appearance in his one season in Logan, Utah. However, he has struggled during two seasons in the Big Ten at Washington. He could rediscover that success if he switched to a program with a greater budget, but it would also be shocking to see a coach jump from one side of the Washington-Oregon rivalry to the other.