If Altman had never left, how good would our program be?

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I remember when it happened. Frank mailed it in hardcore on that hire. It later became obvious that he didn't really have a plan when Stan Heath was canned. Altman came, took one look at the state of the program, specifically academics, did a half-hearted hog call, and then turned around and went back to Creighton.

I remember my thought process as well. I *thought* Heath was getting fired after an NCAA tournament berth because they had a big name guy coming to campus. I remember googling Altman and looking at his record (65% win percentage at that time, coming off a first round exit) and remember wondering if we should have kept Heath. Then after he turned us down, then came the embarrassment at having to resort to our 77th pick in Pelphrey, who I was actually excited about at the time.

Altman was successful at Creighton, and probably would have been successful here, but at the same time, he had a win percentage slightly over 60% before he went to Oregon (where he has a 74% win percentage). At the time, neither he nor the fanbase were fully enthralled with the hire.

I sure miss being a high seed and the Sweet 16 being a foregone conclusion. That dude would have made us that EVERY YEAR. Being a high seed every year must be nice.

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Frank fired Heath because he thought he had Billy Clyde to replace him. Frank fired Heath then BCG stopped answering the phone and went to Kentucky.

Frank sold Altman a bill of goods and before the ink was dry on the contract and while Altman clearly was experiencing buyers remorse, hightailed his old wrinkled arse to Augusta for the Masters.

Meanwhile, John White, who is also a piece of crap - refused to let Altman bring in his own academic advisers to fix this steaming pile of academic casualties that Heath left.

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It sucks. I'm so tired of Oregon being great because they have a great coach. I wanna see us take a high seed, be the favorite, and win because we are just better. I would love to see that the way I saw Oregon beat a team tonight.

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We dodged a bullet there if Altman can't do better than 74% at a basketball legacy like the Oregon Ducks. When you think college basketball, you think Oregon Ducks. The Dunking Ducks! Let's sing it together.

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Note I said that Altman probably would have done well here. However, like I said earlier, his winning percentage at the time was lower than Eddie Sutton's, Nolan's, or Mike Anderson's. It was perfectly reasonable to not be enthralled with the hire at the time. Hindsight is 20/20.

Its very depressing thinking about some of our teams this past decade. Was a recent time when julysses nobles, ricky scott, and mike sanchez were key players.

In perspective, we've certainly come a long way.

I think most have forgotten that Altman got the Oregon job only after Mike Anderson turned them down.

I think many have forgotten all the heat for the thuggery going on in his program just a few years ago as well.