Where oh where did it all go wrong?
The 2025-26 Men’s Basketball season looked, for all intents and purposes, like an exciting ride that would hopefully end up in perhaps the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
Then they actually played.
Things felt off from the get-go, as the Ducks (returning their Big Three and fresh off a second straight appearance in the Big Dance), barely survived Hawaii and Rice at home in Eugene.
They followed those up with a couple double digit wins over South Dakota State
and the Beavs, but neither was dominant by any means.
Early season lag, perhaps? Not quality enough opponents?
The Players Era Tournament, which Oregon won the season prior, turned out to be a nightmare the following year.
Oregon lost three straight games by double digits, hardly even looking competitive. And upon returning home again, lost two more games against Big ten opponents USC and UCLA.
Suddenly, in early December, Oregon was already under .500.
Two actually dominant wins at home put them back above and they battled Top 10 Gonzaga closely before rebounding with two more wins.
At this point they were 8-6 overall and 1-2 in conference with a chance to pull to 9-6 and 2-2. Finally, things seemed to be evening out.
Then the roof completely caved in.
A head-scratching close loss to Rutgers started an unheard of 10-game losing streak, nothing the likes of which had ever been witnessed in the 15 years Dana Altman was Oregon’s head coach. Only about three of those 10 games were even reasonably competitive. Along the way, the Ducks lost Nate Bittle for a month and Jackson Shelstad for the season.
There was no hope in making any sort of postseason play happen at that point, and the best the team could do would be to play for pride and maybe a pinch of momentum heading into next season.
Interestingly enough, they finished the regular season 4-3 after the losing streak, which one would suppose counted for Altman’s “strong finish”.
Maryland, one of the few conference teams they had actually beaten in 2026, swiftly dismissed them from the Big Ten Tournament.
Now, instead of excitement, questions abound moving forward.
All key players minus Bittle are eligible to return, but will they? Should they?
After taking and keeping UO Basketball at a place it had rarely been beforehand over the course of 15 years, is Dana Altman finally losing his touch?
Will Phil Knight, who’s not getting any younger, want to invest more in the program to ensure they have more sustained success like Football?
We don’t know the answers to any of this yet, but a lot will become clear over the next six months or less.
All we can do now, unfortunately, is be thankful the 2026 season is over.
