And the job falls to...Dana Altman.

Make no mistake. Dana Altman wasn't our first, second, or even third choice. The process of searching for a coach, after firing Ernie Kent, was monumentally bungled. When you hear Joe Giansante spin stories about how magnificent the search process was, its not true.

With all that said, we probably ended up with a better coach than the search process warranted. We didn't do him any favors in giving him the job 2 weeks after the Spring signing period began, and for that reason Dana Altman hired a month ago is a much better hire than Dana Altman hired today. However, Dana Altman is a very good coach.

I've seen mixed reactions from Duck fans, and fans from other programs, many of whom have never heard of Altman. If you haven't heard of him, its because you don't really follow college basketball. Altman's name was always brought up for major conference job openings, along with guys like Mark Few, a handful of years ago. His star has faded a bit since he backed out of taking the Arkansas job a few years ago, but he was a very hot name in coaching awhile back. Back during our first Elite 8 run, Creighton was actually in our bracket. They knocked off Florida in the first round and then fell to the same Illinois team that beat us. That was the tail end of a stretch of 5 consecutive NCAA tournaments that Altman had taken Creighton to, and he was thought to be the "next big thing", in coaching.

In hindsight, he probably should have bolted then, while his star was brightest. In athletics I'm a believer in the philosophy, "if you can go, you should go". I just think the odds are against you sticking around, as unfair as it might seem. Look no further than Taylor Mays this weekend. Could have been a top-10 pick last year. Falls to the 3rd round, after Pete Carroll passes on him 3 times, this year.

Loyalty is a great quality. Unfortunately its not rewarded in sports. When you are a hot name, nobody even considers the downside. When you stick around past that point, people begin to nitpick and to really study you more in-depth. Again, if you're a hot name, and you ever want to move on you should just do it, because odds are there's nowhere to go but down.

I think you could make the same argument about Ernie. Shortly after that first Elite 8, Ernie could have gone. If he did, nobody would have ever thought anything other than that he was great here. His first 6 seasons resulted in 3 tournament appearances, including that Elite 8, a Pac-10 championship and we finished in the top half of the conference 5 out of those 6 years. Ernie could have walked away a legend, gotten a better job and again, if people took my advice of leaving when they are hot, we might have ended up with Dana Altman right then as well.

I'll be doing a lot more, in-depth, blogging on Altman in the coming days and weeks. With some detailed looks, and probably video, of his Creighton teams. With scores and analysis of how they play against top competition, and lesser competition. And how I think he'll utilize the roster we have returning.