Dana Altman calls N'Faly Dante's performance 'a heck of an effort'

Senior center N’Faly Dante has been holding down Oregon’s paint all season long. Now, after another dominant performance from the 6-11 big man, Dana Altman is running out of things to say about how impactful he has been for the Ducks.

Altman applauded Dante for 35 minutes of hard work following Oregon’s 69-67 win at Oregon State. He gave him credit for doing what he needed to do down low in order to help his team get out of Corvallis with a victory.

“It was a heck of an effort…In 35 minutes, he gave us great effort,” said Altman. “We got it in to him, he made some good plays. He had a bad turnover too. But I thought he played really hard and gave us an opportunity.”

Dante finished with the eighth double-double of his season, and third straight, with 16 points and 18 rebounds. He led Oregon in scoring by shooting 7-13 on the night and, over the Duck’s last three games which all came on the road, he has averaged 15 points and 14 boards on 57.5% shooting.

With Dante and his teammates on the outside looking in of the NCAA Tournament, they’ll need his best over these next two weeks. As their leading scorer, rebounder, and shot-blocker, the Ducks will put a lot on his plate in order to potentially get them into the postseason starting with this week’s games and then the Pac-12 Tournament.

Altman reveals where Oregon stands as a team

Dana Altman believes Oregon can reach a higher ceiling than they’ve shown thus far.

The Ducks currently sit at 16-13 on the season, fifth in the Pac-12 after amassing a conference record of 10-8. They snapped a three-game losing streak their last time out with a victory over Oregon State, and now Altman has his sights set on getting his team ready for the Pac-12 Tournament.

“We’ve just got to go home and keep putting things together. We’ve got to play really good against Cal. They got us last year at home. Then we have a tough one with Stanford,” started Altman. “We’ve got to get better, we’ve got to find a way to win a couple of games. We’ve got to get better. Learn from our mistakes. Rebound the ball. Handle it better. Execute better. We’ve been a really good shooting team from two, but haven’t show it well from three or the free throw line. Tonight we kind of turned that around. So if we get back to shooting those twos well and can hit a few threes like we did tonight, I think we’ll make a little run here.

“But we’ve just got to go home, get better and we know that Cal and Stanford will be hungry for wins, and we’re going to have to play.”

As Altman mentioned, Oregon will have to go through Cal and Stanford before the Pac-12 Tournament. The Ducks defeated the Golden Bears earlier this season, but fell to the Cardinal by seven on the road.

Dana Altman’s squad could be a fun bunch to watch come March, though, especially if they’re rocking on all cylinders this week.