Dean of Valley Basketball Coaches, Dana Altman, long-time coach of the usually very successful Creighton Blue Jays has apparently taken the extremely lucrative Oregon Ducks head-coaching job. ESPN's online report is here. Altman coached at Creighton for 16 years, compiling a record of 327-126, and prior to going 18-16 this year, he'd been on an 11-year 20-win streak. He took the Jays to the NCAA Tournament seven times, and won the MVC regular season title three times. The Bluejays were always well-coached while he was there and it's a blow to the Valley to see him go.
Just a couple of years ago, he'd accepted a job offer to Arkansas which he eventually backed out of for a variety of reasons before being welcomed back to Creighton. I kind of thought he might get black-balled out of new job offers because of that, but I guess not. He was apparently Oregon's seventh choice, but that didn't stop them from apparently agreeing to a rumored 7-year contract at 2 to 2.5 million dollars per year. Oregon should be a sweet job backed by an absolute ton of Nike money. The facilities are evidently state-of-the-art and beautiful.
Altman always had Bradley's number so I won't be totally sad to see him go, but I do believe it weakens the conference. An interesting side-affect is that it leaves (often disrespected) Jim Les the Dean of Coaches in the MVC entering his ninth season at Bradley. Rumored replacements at Creighton include Indiana State's Kevin McKenna, who played and was an assistant coach at Creighton. That could really set Indiana State back, as I believe he had them on the right track.
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