Dana Altman: ‘Sh*tty job’ coaching led to comeback loss vs. Michigan State

It was a tale of two halves on Saturday night for the Oregon Ducks as they saw the Michigan State Spartans come from behind to avoid a home upset against them. It was a game that Oregon head coach Dana Altman would go on to attribute to his own poor coaching.

After the game, Altman praised Michigan State while being critical of himself and how the Ducks played in the second half.

“It was a great environment,” Dana Altman said. “We just got our asses kicked the second half. We were up on the boards the first half — we end up getting beat by 14 in the second half on the boards. Our activity defensively was pretty good in the first half. We gave them four open threes to start the second half, and the game kind of changed on that. Our ball movement in the second half was awful. We took some really bad shots. So, I’m not sure who was coaching that team in the second half but he did a sh*tty job. I know that.”

At halftime, Oregon led 50-36. However, Michigan State won the second half 50-24 and went on to win the game by 12 points. A lot went into the difference, including the Ducks going cold from three in the second half and failing to make a three-point shot in the final 20 minutes. A 9-0 run to open the second half then got the crowd back into the game and had the Ducks on their heels.

Dana Altman knew Oregon was in for a counterpunch in the second half. However, Oregon simply wasn’t able to handle it and bounce back.

“We told them they’d come out and throw a punch and be really aggressive and we just didn’t handle them very well. We gave up some really easy baskets and closed that gap pretty quick with smoking threes. I know the first four they hit were all wide open. So, again, I thought that really changed the momentum of the game, and then their aggressiveness took us out of what we wanted to do. I thought we took some really bad shots,” Altman said.

“We didn’t make them guard two or three sides we just attacked on and with their size and their athleticism that just was not a good way to attack them.”

With the loss, Oregon lost its fifth game in a row and the second game of the Ducks’ current road trip. Now, Oregon is just 5-8 in Big Ten play, which puts them in a three-way tie for 11th in the conference standings with seven regular season games remaining.

Altman and Oregon will look to bounce back on Tuesday when they return home to take on the Northwestern Wildcats.