10 years after an Oregon triumph, Jason Calliste and the Arizona Wildcats meet again
Now on Dana Altman's staff, the former Oregon point guard knows the formula to beat a college basketball blue blood.
EUGENE — Jason Calliste knew it was time.
After five years of college and a decade-long professional career that took him across the world, the former Oregon guard’s body had just been through too much after a pair of hip surgeries and thousands of miles on his 33-year-old frame.
“I love playing the game, but I want to be able to chase around my youth and have a fun and normal day without any pain,” Calliste said. “I’ve been fighting for like 14, 15 years and it’s like, bro, it’s time to start making some money with my mind.”
Calliste retired and joined Dana Altman’s Oregon staff this season as a graduate assistant, a natural fit when you consider the 6-foot-2 Canadian devoured up film during his one year playing in Eugene. Calliste came to the Ducks then after four years at Detroit Mercy, joining an Oregon squad in 2013-14 largely reassembled after reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time under Altman. He averaged 12.7 points coming off the bench, a new role for him at the time but one Calliste said he needed to accept that year in order for the Ducks to have success. It took some time to gel, but after a 15-8 start, those Ducks closed the regular season on a seven-game winning streak to secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
That streak, of course, was punctuated by a home upset of No. 3 Arizona, the team the Ducks host this Saturday for the final time as Pac-12 rivals. For Altman’s 14 seasons as head coach, no team has consistently provided higher highs and lower lows for them than the Wildcats. Arizona has blown the barn doors off a few of Altman’s squads, and the Ducks have countered with a few memorable swings of their own: Oregon ended Arizona’s 49-game winning streak in 2016 and followed up the next year with an 85-58 win at Matthew Knight over the No. 5 Wildcats.
Arizona has won six conference regular season titles since Altman came into the league. The Ducks have won four. The Wildcats have won five conference tournament titles since Altman came into the league. The Ducks have won three. They’re two programs that have largely been the toast of the 12-team conference, but back when the No. 3 Wildcats were coming to town in 2014, Altman just knew them as the blueprint.
“When we came here, UCLA had been off a couple of Final Fours and Arizona won the league our first year here. Washington was really good. We looked at those three schools as our main measuring stick,” Altman said. “That’s who we had to catch.”