Not Breaking the Bank

After apparently going after Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon, among others, the Oregon Ducks have finally landed a basketball coach in Dana Altman of Creighton. Dixon's name didn't land in the article, which also included a pretty good line from Altman:

The hiring ends more than a monthlong search during which several high profile names -- including Michigan State's Tom Izzo and Minnesota's Tubby Smith -- where rumored to be on Oregon's wish list. Missouri coach Mike Anderson said the Ducks approached him, but he turned down the job.

Altman joked about the process.

"You look at my wife, you look at me, I wasn't her first choice either," he said.

The contract, $1.8M per season, is a large amount, but not the potentially bank-breaking (well, at least as much as the bank could be broken in Oregon/Nike's case) amounts thrown out there during the search. I'm sure Dixon, Tubby, or Izzo would have surely been offered more.

Also in the basketball carousel is an article about recently departed Pitt women's basketball coach Yolett McCuin and her reasons for leaving the Pitt program by her hometown paper in the Bahamas.