With day one of March Madness in the books, several teams have already punched their ticket to the round of 32. In one of the more intriguing matchups of the second round, the Oregon Ducks and head coach Dana Altman will square off against his former team, the Creighton Bluejays.
Oregon advanced to the next round by ‘upsetting' the No. 6 seeded South Carolina Gamecocks, 87-73. It wasn't much of an upset though as Oregon was probably under-seeded. Nevertheless, Altman will get a shot at knocking off his old team in another potential upset.
Following the Ducks' win, Altman spoke about his time at Creighton and what it means to him as well as what his time at Oregon as meant, as per Brenna Greene of KOIN News.
“You spend 16 years at a place, I got great feelings about Creighton. As I said yesterday, you can leave a place but that doesn't mean that you still don't love the place,” Altman said. “I've had 14 great years at Oregon and I love this place. When I'm done, I'll feel the same way about Oregon as I do about Creighton. I'm the luckiest guy, I've coached 30 years at two great schools.
Dana Altman has been the head coach at Oregon since 2010. During that time, he's led the Ducks to eight NCAA Tournament appearances in 14 years. He also has four NIT appearances and one CBI appearance. The Ducks have never had an overall losing season under Altman and have only finished under .500 in Pac-12 Conference play once.
Altman has an overall record of 345-151 at Oregon. The Ducks have one Final Four appearance and one Elite Eight appearance under his belt.
But before that, Altman was the head coach at Creighton from 1994-2010. During that time, he led the Bluejays to seven March Madness appearances in 16 years. He also had five NIT appearances and one CIT appearance. Altman compiled a record of 327-176 at Creighton.
The Bluejays improved every season under Altman and by the end of his tenure there, they were routinely winning 20+ games a season. Altman was succeeded by Greg McDermott who has been the head coach for the Bluejays ever since. McDermott oversaw Creighton's move from the Missouri Valley Conference to the Big East Conference and he's continued Altman's winning ways.
Under McDermott, the Bluejays have made the NCAA Tournament in nine seasons out of 14 seasons. They are coming off last season's Elite Eight appearance. Creighton has had only one losing season out of 14 under McDermott.
It will be an interesting matchup. Creighton is coming off a 77-60 thrashing over Akron in the first round and will most likely be favored as the higher seed. Altman spoke about what it would take to beat Creighton as per Matt Prehm of 247Sports.
“We'll have to play as great as we've ever played to get them,” Altman said.
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