When Oregon Ducks men's basketball coach Dana Altman officially retired on Wednesday, he didn't point to his age, his accomplishments or the years he spent building the Ducks into a consistent NCAA Tournament team.
Instead, Altman referenced comments made by Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, 71, a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer who has led the Spartans since 1995, about knowing when it was time to step away from coaching.
"Last March, someone I truly respect, Tom Izzo made a comment. Somebody asked him about retirement, and he said, 'The minute I don't feel good, the minute I don't feel I'm giving my AD, president, and school every ounce of energy I have every day, or that energy drops, you don't have to worry about me being here,'" Altman recalled during Wednesday's press conference. "And I had two weeks off in August, and I thought my energy would return, and it didn't."
Izzo made those comments following Michigan State's Sweet 16 loss to UConn in the NCAA Tournament. When asked where he saw himself in five years, the longtime Spartans coach pushed back against retirement speculation and explained that he would know when it was time to leave if he could no longer give his athletic director, university president and school everything he had each day.
For Altman, that standard became a reality. After more than a decade leading Oregon, including the program's run to the 2017 Final Four, he recognized that taking time away wasn't enough to restore the energy he felt he needed to continue coaching at the level Oregon deserved. Rather than waiting until he could no longer give the program his best, Altman made the decision to step away.
"I always ask the players to look in the mirror and ask themselves if they're giving everything they have to be their best. And for us to be a good team, they have to look in that mirror and be their best. And I looked in the mirror, and I'd be a hypocrite if I lied to myself and said I was the best coach for the job," said Altman.
Dana Altman Leaves Behind a Legacy at Oregon
Altman leaves Oregon as the winningest coach in program history. He finishes his 16-season tenure in Eugene with a 382-182 record.
During his retirement press conference at Matthew Knight Arena, Altman explained why he felt stepping away was the right decision.
"The main factor is that I looked in the mirror, and I'm not the guy to take these guys where they can get to," an emotional Altman fought back tears while explaining his decision to retire with less than a month remaining until the start of the season. "Guys feed off energy. They feed off confidence. And if I don't have that energy, that confidence for them to feed off, then I'm not the leader."
Altman acknowledged that walking away from coaching was not an easy decision, especially after spending 16 seasons building Oregon into a program that consistently competed for conference championships and made deep NCAA Tournament runs.
Despite finishing eight wins shy of the 800-win milestone, Altman's accomplishments at Oregon extend far beyond his career total.
He led the Ducks to nine NCAA Tournament appearances, including five consecutive trips from 2013-17, and reached the Sweet 16 five times. Oregon also advanced to the Elite Eight in 2016 and 2017 before making its first Final Four appearance since winning the inaugural NCAA championship in 1939.
"I hope they say I worked hard and that my teams played hard," Altman said. "Other than that, I was just the caretaker. Oregon basketball is going to be great moving forward. It was good before I got here, and it's going to be even better after I leave. I was just the caretaker for 16 years."
Altman leaves the program in the hands of assistant coach Tony Stubblefield, who will serve as interim head coach for the 2026-27 season. Stubblefield spent 13 seasons on Altman's Oregon staff across two stints, giving him familiarity with the program and the foundation built during Altman's tenure.
Dana Altman's Retirement Marks Another Shift in College Basketball
Altman's retirement marks another significant departure from a generation of college basketball coaches who built their legacies over decades at the same program. Mike Krzyzewski, commonly known as Coach K, retired from Duke in 2022. He joined Roy Williams at North Carolina, who stepped away in 2021, and Jay Wright at Villanova, who retired in 2022. Now, with Altman leaving Oregon after 16 seasons, fewer of the sport's longtime coaching icons remain on the sidelines.
Michigan State's Tom Izzo and St. John's Rick Pitino are among the most recognizable names still coaching after decades in the sport.
Both have experienced the changes in college athletics firsthand, from the traditional recruiting process to the introduction of name, image and likeness (NIL) compensation and the transfer portal, which have changed how coaches build and maintain their rosters.
Those changes have made the job increasingly difficult for Altman to navigate.
"It's a different time. Different era. And it's been a hard adjustment for me," said Altman. "Other press conferences I've done, I'm done dealing with agents because all I did was argue with them and got combative, and so then we lost players because I just didn't want to listen to them. We used to have the parents, AAU coaches, girlfriends. I was about sixth on the list. Well, then you had agents. Now I'm seventh on the list of people they listen to."
Altman's comments offer a glimpse into the challenges that come with coaching in an era when roster construction extends well beyond recruiting high school prospects and developing them over several seasons. NIL negotiations, transfer decisions and relationships with player representatives have become increasingly important parts of the job, which requires coaches to balance the basketball side with the business surrounding it.
The sport has always evolved, but the combination of NIL opportunities, player movement and the growing role of agents has changed the responsibilities that come with leading a program.
Altman's retirement is another reminder that the coaches who helped define college basketball over the past several decades are gradually leaving the game, even as the sport they helped build continues to change around them.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/oregon as Dana Altman Explains How Michigan State's Tom Izzo Shaped Retirement Decision.