The Oregon Ducks were not good enough to get an invite to the 2023 NCAA tournament, but Dana Altman and his team were still able to make it to the National Invitation Tournament. However, the dreams of Oregon basketball of winning the NIT ended on Tuesday when they got eliminated by the Wisconsin Badgers in a 61-58 loss.

The defeat was another disappointing development for Oregon basketball, a punch to the gut of the program that, for Altman, was compounded by the apparent lack of support from the Ducks' fan base. The Wisconsin game was played at Matthew Knight Arena, but Altman noticed the sparse crowd in the stands.

After the game, Altman was not able to hold his feelings back, as he aired out his frustration over the interest, or lack thereof, in Oregon basketball by its own fans. He even dared the program to hand him his walking papers if he was the reason why Oregon basketball was not able to draw a big crowd to postseason games played in Eugene.

“You see the commitment that Wisconsin makes, they got their cheerleaders, their band (at a road NIT game),” Altman said during the postgame press conference (h/t James Crepea of The Oregonian). “And we make a commitment — don’t get me wrong here. You can just see how important it is. It was important to them. It was important to me. We should’ve had more people here tonight, alright? These guys play hard. 3,300 people is not good enough. If it’s me, then get rid of me. If you need somebody else to be a promoter, do something, but 3,300 people is embarrassing. It really is.”

The Ducks won their first two games of the NIT against UC Irvine and UCF both of which also did not attract a considerable size of Oregon basketball supporters.

Oregon, which has missed the boat to the Big Dance for the second season in a row, finished the 2022-23 college basketball campaign with a 21-15 overall record. The Ducks went 19-14 in the regular season and 12-8 against Pac-12 opponents.

Dana Altman has been Oregon basketball's head coach since the 2010-11 season.