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Oregon's Altman, Ducks making a name for themselves

David Leon Moore, USA TODAY Sports
Oregon head coach Dana Altman instructs his team against the Oklahoma State Cowboys during the second round of the 2013 NCAA tournament.
  • Oregon won the Pac-12 tournament championship
  • The Duck beat Oklahoma State in the NCAA tournament Thursday
  • Oregon plays No. 4 St. Louis on Saturday

SAN JOSE, Calif. – When Dana Altman was hired to coach basketball at Oregon in 2010, the first thing sophomore Ducks forward E.J. Singler did was Google "Dana Altman."

It's not that Altman hadn't done a lot as a basketball coach. He had, but at Creighton, nowhere near college basketball's fast lane. He lacked the name recognition of Tom Izzo or Mark Few, just two of the names bandied about when Oregon fired Ernie Kent after 13 seasons.

Altman arrived in Eugene about the time Oregon football, under Chip Kelly, was becoming all the rage.

An electric style, electric uniforms, Kelly's electric personality and lavish, Phil Knight-funded facilities had made Oregon football not just a championship contender and not just trend-setting but cool and the place to be for hotshot recruits.

Suddenly, it was Oregon, not USC, that was the top Pac-12 power.

All that gave Altman something to shoot for with the basketball program.

After all, Oregon won the first NCAA basketball tournament – in 1939.

Why not another?

Couldn't Oregon basketball, like Oregon football, become a perennial title contender?

"We sure hope so," Altman says. "That's our goal. They are lofty goals, because there are a lot of good programs in the Pac-12. But we want to have a program that's competitive year in and year out and one that can stay in the hunt every year. It's a big challenge for us, but the football team has done a great job and their success has helped us."

Altman, 54, has made some very significant strides. He and the Ducks have gotten better every year, winning 21, then 24 and, this year, 27 – including a Pac-12 tournament championship and a second-round NCAA tournament upset victory Thursday against Oklahoma State.

"We've gotten a lot better the past couple of years," says Singler, a senior forward who is the younger brother of Kyle Singler, who won a national championship with Duke. "A lot of it is because of Coach Altman and the guys he's brought in. I feel like it's only going to continue to get better."

Altman has done it playing an attractive, up-and-down style in a beautiful new arena and, this year, he's done it with two high-profile recruits that have shined as an all-freshman backcourt.

Both newcomers, 6-1 point guard Dominic Artis of San Francisco and 6-5 shooting guard Damyean Dotson of Houston, have made major impacts all season.

Will a wave of national recruits follow, making Oregon basketball cool and the place to be – and, after years of the Pac-12 being dominated by Arizona and UCLA – a fixture in the polls and the postseason?

"That's definitely the goal," says Artis. "It's going pretty good so far."

Artis says his and the Ducks' accomplishments this season exceeded his expectations.

"I definitely think we can stay in the headlines in the Pac-12," he says. "We've just got to keep winning games."

Dotson, who says he really had no idea how good the Pac-12 would be when he arrived from Texas, says the Ducks' chemistry continues to improve and he believes what they're doing now will definitely make Oregon attractive to future recruits.

"Those two freshmen have been unbelievable for us," Singler says.

Standing between the Ducks and a trip to the Sweet 16 is No.4 seed St. Louis and 6-5 junior forward Dwayne Evans, a versatile and prolific scorer who is averaging 22.3 points, 8.5 rebounds and shooting 73.2% from the field and 84.8% from the line in his last four games.

"He can go inside, he can go outside," Altman says. "He presents a lot of problems."

Oregon basketball, though, more and more, appears to be in the problem-solving business.

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