How will Oregon juggle transfer portal, NCAA Tournament preparation?
Over the past several seasons, Dana Altman and his Oregon staff have been prolific when it comes to utilizing the transfer portal to reshape their roster.
After an underwhelming 2022-23 campaign that ended with a home loss to Wisconsin in the NIT, Altman vowed that UO would conduct a top-down evaluation of its program and find ‘guys who wanna be here.’
Fast-forward a year later, and Oregon is in a much more advantageous position than it was last March. After an improbable run to the Pac-12 title in Las Vegas last week, the Ducks (23-11) stole a bid to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2020-21. They are slated to face South Carolina in Pittsburgh on Thursday at 1 p.m. PT.
But the college basketball calendar stops for nobody. Like so many other programs in the country, Oregon will have to juggle its NCAA Tournament preparation with the transfer portal, which officially opened Monday.
“Myself and one of the assistants will work on South Carolina and the other guys will be on the phone, taking calls,” Altman said. “We’re not gonna be in any rush. We’ve gotta figure out who wants to be here. Agents are so involved now, it’s a different time.”
True to his word, almost as soon as last season ended, Altman went to work re-configuring his roster. Tyrone Williams (Old Dominion), Kel’el Ware (Indiana), Lök Wur (Grand Canyon), Rivaldo Soares (Boston College), Quincy Guerrier (Illinois), and Ethan Butler (Northern Illinois) all opted to seek opportunities elsewhere.
In turn, the Ducks added Jadrian Tracey (Florida Southwestern), Kario Oquendo (Georgia), Jesse Zarzuela (Central Michigan), and Mahamadou Diawara (Stetson).
“As I mentioned, though, I want guys who wanna be at Oregon,” Altman said. “We’ll try to take care of them. But if they don’t wanna be here and go through the ups and downs and be part of the team, it’s kind of hard to be successful — I think. So, yeah we’ve gotta get a certain level of talent. But they’ve gotta be all in and wanna be here and wanna work with our staff.”
