Dana Altman addresses retirement rumors: 'I'm not retiring'

Dana Altman addressed the rumors that he could hang his clipboard up at the end of Oregon‘s 2024-25 college basketball season. On Sunday after beating Washington in overtime, Altman revealed that he has no plans to retire.

“I’m not retiring,” Altman said. “If the school — if Rob [Mullens] and the president [Karl Scholz] decide that it’s my time, then it’s my time. But I love coming to work everyday. So, as long as I’m healthy, my family is healthy, I’d like to coach. Like I said, maybe [the media] knows something I don’t.

“I have absolutely no intentions of retiring. So I’m not sure how all that got started last year, but I’ve never talked to anybody and about that and every time somebody’s asked me, I don’t plan on it unless somebody tells me it’s time to quit, and I plan on going.”

The rumors have surrounded Altman for the last couple of seasons. He’s been the Ducks’ head coach since 2010, and Oregon finished the regular season 23-8 overall this year. All of their losses came against Big Ten competition, meaning they ended up winning the first nine games of the season this year.

Despite their success record-wise, Altman eclipsed 40 years in the coaching industry in 2020. He began his career in 1980 as an assistant at Western Colorado and has been a Division I head coach since 1989 when he was hired to become the head coach at Marshall.

He spent just one season there before taking the Kansas State job in 1990. Altman moved on to Creighton in 1994 where he stayed until the 2010 season. At 66, he’s now in his 15th seasons as the head coach of Oregon.

“Do I act that old? I’m not that old,” Altman said with a smile.

If Altman did decide to call it a career, aside from the final games of Oregon’s season this year, he’d finish with a 778–403 overall record. That included leading the Ducks to their first Final Four in 78 years in 2017, and he has since become the school’s all-time winningest head coach.

For now, the Ducks are set to take on the Indiana Hoosiers in the second round of the Big Ten Conference Tournament on Thursday. Tip-off is scheduled for Noon ET and will air live on the Big Ten Network. The winner will take on top-seeded Michigan State in the quarterfinals.