Tag Archives: Dana Altman

Dana in the Oregonian in 2014, after the killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner:

12/10/2014: Coach Dana Altman thinks National Anthem is the wrong time to protest racism

Our fool of a basketball coach thinks he owns those players. They shouldn’t protest when he’s trying to collect his $2M paycheck, off their free labor.

Fortunately we’ve still got people who can hear someone sing “O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave” and actually understand what it means.

Want to ask the players what they think? No. Duck AD Rob Mullens and his PR flack Craig Pintens have a rule about players talking to reporters without permission, and “Benjamin and Bell have not been made available to comment.”

Dana yesterday, on Twitter:

Mighty generous of President Schill, spending other people’s money. Altman’s  multi-million dollar contract is here. It seems GC Kevin Reed forgot to include a Force Majeure clause. You can’t make this shit up:

Meanwhile,

But then when have Duck coaches ever sacrificed anything? From this year’s State Employees Charitable Fund Drive:

He’s losing out to something called Tool, a South African comedian, a Circus, and Women’s BB. Still ahead of Acrobatics and Tumbling though!

Say it ain’t so!

The Daily Emerald’s Michael Tobin reports that UO General Counsel Reed is not investigating, but he is interested in going to LA to meet Michael Avenatti and receive more information from him. But not to investigate. UNLV is investigating, but Reed is just probing the situation.

I hope Mr. Avenatti and Mr. Reed will resolve their semantic differences and provide the public with documentation showing that the Duck’s $3.5M Dana Altman did indeed provide Mr. Bol Bol with the customary emoluments that a Duck basketball player should reasonably expect as compensation for their service:

“Now the question is, did Bol Bol receive this money or not, what has the university done to look into it and what’s the university’s explanation for these payments?” Avenatti told the Emerald. “This really isn’t complicated. The only reason that it becomes complicated is if the university is trying to cover it up.” …

“I’m going to be frank – this smacks of a coverup,” Avenatti wrote in a May 18 email to Reed. “If you haven’t opened an investigation, why not? What have you opened – a probe, an inquiry? Why the word-smithing?”

Reed responded the same day, writing: “I have taken care not to characterize your conduct. I would appreciate it if you would similarly refrain. I am, however, interested in facts. If you have facts to share, I would appreciate the chance to receive them. Let me know if you have further evidence.”

Reed also told Avenatti that he could be in Los Angeles on May 30 or 31, saying that, at the time of writing the email, he was still interested in meeting Avenatti and receiving more information that what Avenatti had previously shared on social media.

Avenatti declined to share information with Reed.

“Let me know when and if the University gets serious about getting to the truth by hiring an unbiased third-party to lead a real investigation,” Avenatti wrote.

In an interview with the Emerald, Avenatti said that the UO is “playing games” and that the question of whether UO opened an investigation comes down to semantics.

“So is there an inquiry? Is there a probe? Is there an investigation? I mean this is ludicrous; they’re acting like they don’t want to know the truth,” Avenatti said. …

Which is good, because someone should pay college basketball players, and apparently Dana Altman refuses to give them a cut of his bloated salary and bonuses. Jeff Manning and Brad Schmidt have the story in the Oregonian here:

Earlier this week, Avenatti accused Nike of paying “large sums” to Bol, a California Supreme alumni and prized recruit who is joined the Oregon program in 2018. The Ducks, a Cinderella story in the NCAA March Madness tournament, tip off against Virginia at 6:59 p.m. Thursday. But Bol, who is injured, has been watching from the sidelines.

Oregon coach Dana Altman told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Tuesday that he didn’t have any information about the allegation against Bol. Altman said he had “no reason” to believe the accusation against Bol was accurate and a university spokeswoman echoed that sentiment.

“We are unaware of any evidence that would support these allegations,” Molly Blancett said in a statement. “Diligent inquiry last summer into the amateur status of our student-athletes revealed no indication of improper payments made to any student-athletes or their families.”

$3.5M in salary plus bonuses for 2021-2.

Talk about bad timing. UO’s lobbyists are at work in Salem, trying to get UO a bigger share of the state budget. If they fail, UO will have to cut staff, limit hiring, and/or raise in-state tuition.

The legislature is already asking why a university with such an expensive athletics program can’t pay the academic side’s costs without a bigger state subsidy or raising tuition. This news is not going to help:

The University of Oregon has agreed to terms with head coach Dana Altman on a contract extension, athletic director Rob Mullens announced on Thursday:

According to the school, Altman and Oregon are finalizing a deal that would run through the 2025-26 season.

“Dana and Reva Altman are an important part of our community, and we are thrilled at the opportunity to continue to build on the tremendous success we have had over Dana’s nine years as the head coach at Oregon,” Mullens said. “We are thankful for Dana’s commitment to the Ducks, and we look forward to the continued strong performance of our men’s basketball program as well as Dana assuming his rightful place in the Hall of Fame in the future.”

“Important part of our community?”

I assume Mullens means the community of greedy Duck coaches. Mullens, Cristobal, Altman and the other coaches, with a total payroll of ~$23M, gave a total of $50 to the Oregon Community Fund Drive last year:

Altman’s original contract with UO paid him a bonus if ticket sales went above $4M. He failed, so AD Rob Mullens just rolled this into his base pay, then gave him another raise, then in 2017 still more. Last year Altman brought in $2.6M in ticket sales but cost $2.8M just in base salary and a new “retention payment”. Starting in April that increases to $3M.

So how’s he doing?

https://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2018/11/live_updates_dana_altman_orego_1.html

His contract and incentive bonuses are here.

This guy always looks so angry. You’d think he’s trying to get appointed to the Supreme Court. At least this time it’s not about his unpaid student-athletes protesting for #blacklivesmatter. The Oregonian has the latest info on the University of Oregon’s second highest paid employee:

By Brad Schmidt and Jeff Manning | The Oregonian/OregonLive

University of Oregon basketball coach Dana Altman and assistant Tony Stubblefield denied offering any payments to land a top basketball recruit last year and contend their Nike-backed program got played to drive up the black-market price for Brian Bowen Jr., according to newly released documents stemming from an internal university investigation.

Altman and Stubblefield told the university’s top attorney in October that a middle-man for the Bowen family used a trip to Eugene to leverage more money from Adidas to ensure the five-star recruit played for one of its flagship programs, the University of Louisville.

“We were never going to get him,” Stubblefield told University of Oregon General Counsel Kevin Reed, according to a summary of facts from the investigation released to The Oregonian/OregonLive on Friday. “The kid wasn’t making the decisions.” …

Yeah, that must make it harder, when the kid you’re trying to exploit is getting advice from an adult.

And here’s an earlier Oregonian story on GC Reed’s lackadaisical earlier investigation of the possibility Altman and Stubblefield were attempting to violate the NCAA cartel’s rules and slip their players a little something on the side:

I wish Altman and his assistants the best of luck in avoiding any difficult questions about reconciling the above with this statement in the latest report:

Oregon entered the competition for Brian “Tugs” Bowen Jr. in the spring of 2017. Christian Dawkins, a longtime friend of the family and an aspiring agent, did much of the talking for the Bowen family.

Stubblefield told Reed on Oct. 3 that he spoke with Dawkins on the phone 15 to 20 times. Dawkins’ phone logs, introduced as evidence at the trial, showed those conversations totaled about two hours.

Finally! I for one have been disturbed by the fact that he hasn’t come up in this investigation earlier. Surely a successful recruiter and coach like Dana Altman has figured out a way to pass at least a dribble of the millions UO pays him on to his volunteer “student-athletes”. Surely Oregon isn’t the only school where greedy coaches are able to keep all the NCAA cartel’s profits for themselves!

While the latest report is far from conclusive proof that Altman has been doing the right thing and sharing with his players, the latest news is good. Jeff Manning has the story in the Oregonian here:

Federal prosecutors in the basketball corruption trial that began Monday in New York reportedly told prospective jurors that 12 colleges could come up during the proceedings — the University of Oregon among them.

As first reported by Yahoo Sports, prosecutors wanted to disqualify any potential juror whose allegiance to a school might make them less than impartial. An Oregon-based Adidas executive and two others are accused of paying talented prep players to steer them to certain universities. …

But wait, there’s more. Oregonian reporter James Crepea:

The attorney for Adidas executive Jim Gatto claimed Oregon offered “an astronomical amount of money” in its recruitment of Brian Bowen before he signed with Louisville.

Gatto’s attorney, Casey Donnelly, made the remark, according to numerous reporters, during her opening statement in his trial, which began in the Southern District of New York on Tuesday. …

Just kidding. I’m sure Coach Altman is 100% behind Colin Kaepernick’s use of free speech and athletics to bring attention to racism in America, now that the big money is too.

Of course a few years ago Altman’s views were a little different. From the Oregonian: