The Oregon men's basketball offseason tracker
On Nate Bittle, Jackson Shelstad and where the Ducks stand with the transfer portal closed
After the Oregon men’s basketball team’s season came to an end in March with a 87-83 loss to Arizona in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Ducks’ coach Dana Altman came to the podium and tried to explain how the Ducks were going to puzzle this thing back together.
The 2024-25 Oregon Ducks were a success, a team led by a star guard and a star center, who helped UO reach the NCAA Tournament for a second consecutive year. With both players — Nate Bittle and Jackson Shelstad — harboring remaining eligibility, the Oregon coach could have been elated at the prospect of taking the core of this team into a third season together. Heck, the last time the Ducks did something like that, Jordan Bell, Dillon Brooks and Tyler Dorsey took UO to the Final Four.
But college basketball has changed since that 2017 run. And while the Ducks have used the transfer portal to their advantage, Altman’s lost some good players over the years, too.
And with Bittle’s NBA Draft decision looming on the horizon, Altman sounded like a coach who knew what could be, but was worried about it all coming together.
“I want our guys to be happy. I hope they can be happy at the University of Oregon,” Altman said. “You can’t be your best in any relationship unless you’re happy and you want to be in that relationship. I hope and pray that the guys want to stay, because I want ‘em to stay. Everybody that can come back, I want ‘em to come back. But they got to be wanting. Like I said, every relationship is two-fold. I’ve been married for 41 years, I’m all in, I hope Reva is all in, but that’s any relationship.”