Dana Altman has a new question to answer for Ducks

To call the last two weeks of Oregon Ducks basketball a roller coaster would be an understatement.

Two weeks ago, on January 5, the Ducks suffered a 68-41 loss to the Colorado Buffaloes in Boulder. It was a performance that acted as a low point of the season, which is saying something when the Ducks’ record already featured home losses to UC Irvine and Utah Valley. The lack of energy and effort was apparent, and a way forward wasn’t clear.

Two days later, Oregon beat a good Utah team by 10 points on the road, showing some of the fire and veracity that this team had. The shooting improved, and the effort was there. The night is darkest before the dawn, and it appeared that dawn was coming in Eugene.

That is until Thursday’s game against Arizona State, however. While spirits were high going into Thursday night’s matchup against the Sun Devils, things took an all-time turn for the worse when Oregon got blown out, 90-73, putting the March Madness hopes on life support. It was a loss that arguably hurt more because of the success that the Ducks had just days prior against the Utes.

It’s a loss that left head coach Dana Altman up at night, unable to sleep with too many questions circling in his brain.

The 64-year-old coach got in the car and started driving south down Interstate 5, hoping to find an answer somewhere between Eugene and an undetermined destination.

“I didn’t know if I was gonna stop or not,” Altman joked on Saturday. “I made it close to Roseburg, you know, just trying to clear my head. ‘What do we gotta do to get them going?’”

While he may not have been able to verbalize what the actual answer to that question was, it was clear that a solution came somewhere on the open road.

The Ducks had their best game of the season on Saturday afternoon, upsetting the No. 9 Arizona Wildcats at Matthew Knight Arena, 87-68. It was a victory that featured 13 steals, a +10 rebounding advantage, and a +10 advantage in paint points as well. Oregon came out aggressive, saw some shots hit the bottom of the net, and never let up, picking up a victory that could be the difference between an NCAA tournament bid or a second-straight trip to the NIT.

You’d think after that showing, Altman would be relieved that he found an answer to the question that left him sleepless for so many hours.

“I’m really happy that we performed the way we did, but also disappointed,” Altman said. “I’m disappointed in our maturity and the fact that we…