Dana Altman retires as Oregon's winningest men's basketball coach

Dana Altman, the winningest coach in Oregon men's basketball history, is retiring after 16 seasons with the Ducks and nearly 40 years at the Division I level, the school announced Wednesday.

Altman, 68, has been the Ducks' head coach since 2010. Assistant coach Tony Stubblefield will serve as interim head coach for the upcoming season.

"The main factor is that I looked in the mirror, and I'm not the guy to take these guys where they can get to," an emotional Altman fought back tears while explaining his decision to retire with less than a month remaining until the start of the season. "Guys feed off energy, they feed off confidence. And if I don't have that energy, that confidence for them to feed off, then I'm not the leader."

Altman's retirement has been speculated toward the end of each of the past few seasons, but he had constantly pushed back against the rumors. "I've never felt like I'm ready to quit yet," he told ESPN last October.

Altman, who also coached at Marshall, Kansas State and Creighton during his career, retires with a 792-425 record in his 37 seasons as a Division I coach, the 15th-most wins in NCAA history and fifth highest among active coaches.

"I hope they say I worked hard and that my teams played hard," Altman said. "Other than that, I was just the caretaker. Oregon basketball is going to be great moving forward. It was good before I got here, and it's going to be even better after I leave. I was just the caretaker for 16 years."

Altman said he informed his players of his decision Wednesday and apologized to them about the timing of the announcement.

Prior to last season's 12-20 campaign, Altman had won at least 20 games in each of his 15 seasons in charge of Oregon, reaching the NCAA tournament nine times. He guided the Ducks to the Final Four in 2017 and won at least one game in all nine tournament appearances during his time at Oregon, including five trips to the Sweet 16.

Altman won four Pac-12 regular-season championships and four Pac-12 tournament titles.

"Dana built a program at Oregon to a level that very few coaches build anywhere," Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens said. "Winning 382 games over 16 years, including making nine NCAA tournaments and a Final Four, is an incredible track record. But the record book tells only part of the story. Dana and Reva have given so much of themselves to this university and to the young men who played for him, and we thank him for all his contributions to Oregon student-athletes, the game of basketball, and the University of Oregon."

Altman also made seven NCAA tournament appearances during his 16 seasons at Creighton and went to the tournament once at Kansas State.

"It wasn't a decision that I'm walking into lightly. You don't leave something that you love doing it lightly," Altman said. "So it was tough, and it's hard to admit that you've lost a step, that you're not the best, that you should be. I guess I had to admit that."

Wednesday's announcement marks the third consecutive fall to feature a surprise retirement from a power-conference men's college basketball coach. Virginia's Tony Bennett stepped down in October 2024, and Auburn's Bruce Pearl retired last September.

Stubblefield, who has spent 13 seasons as an assistant coach under Altman, will take over the Ducks for the 2026-27 campaign before the school begins a national search for Altman's replacement.

The Ducks lost nine players to the transfer portal and three to graduation following last season.

Known as a high-level recruiter throughout much of his assistant coaching career, Stubblefield also served as head coach of DePaul from 2021 to 2024.

"Tony has been on Dana's staff for most of his time in Eugene and knows this program as well as anyone," Mullens said. "Our student-athletes know him and trust him, and he is the right person to lead the Ducks this season."

Oregon's first exhibition game is Oct. 15 against Seattle, and the Ducks open the regular season against Montana on Nov. 2.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.