Dana Altman says Quincy Guerrier was in car wreck before UC Riverside game, 'nothing serious'

It probably wasn’t evident because of the 35 minutes played, 10 rebounds grabbed and six points scored, but according to Oregon head coach Dana Altman, transfer forward Quincy Guerrier was in a car crash hours before tipoff against UC Riverside on Wednesday. Fortunately, it appears no one was seriously harmed.

After the game, Altman was speaking about the injuries, illness and other things that crop up that coaches and teams work through when he shared the anecdote about Guerrier from earlier in the day. And while these things can test more than a coaches basketball acumen, in the case of Guerrier on Wednesday, what he need from his coach in that moment was simple: A ride to the arena.

“Quincy was in a car wreck. I get a text — he was getting to the gym, 4:15, 4:30, he was in a car wreck. And I had to go pick him up. So we get to the arena at 5 o’clock. And nothing serious, but just heck, it’s one thing after another with college guys, you know? But when I got that text, he didn’t tell me if he was hurt or not, he just said he was in a car wreck. Don’t like hearing that on game day,” Altman said jokingly after Guerrier played his usual allotment of minutes as a starter for the Ducks.

While ‘starting forward crashes his car hours before tipoff’ is more than likely a one-off occurrence, injuries — something the Ducks have been beset with recently — aren’t.

And Altman knows there can be other oddities around the bend. He also knows his team will keep hanging in.

“But anyway, those are just things you gotta overcome, those are things we gotta overcome. The guys that are playing are doing a good job of fighting,” Altman said.