Coach's corner: Oregon's Dana Altman

Nicole Auerbach | USA TODAY Sports

You never know what moments will stick, the ones that stand out in your mind and ultimately become memories.

Sometimes, it's nothing more than the sound of silence.

A week ago, Dana Altman stood with his Oregon basketball players, listening to the national anthem alongside more than 2,000 military personnel at a U.S. Army base in South Korea.

When the anthem ended, Altman and his players raised their hands to applaud — but paused when they realized no one else was clapping. Instead, silence reverberated throughout the gym.

"There wasn't a peep," Altman said. "They marched those flags off, until those flags were out of sight. Then the place erupted."

Altman had chills.

Later that night, his 18th-ranked Ducks defeated Georgetown to open their season, despite being shorthanded because of two player suspensions and foul trouble. The game's outcome hardly mattered; the night was about more than just hoops.

Now, a week later, it's all basketball all the time. Oregon is 2-0 after Wednesday's 107-83 win against Western Carolina, which featured a career-high 36 points from Houston transfer Joseph Young.

Altman spoke by phone with USA TODAY Sports national college basketball reporter Nicole Auerbach about the Ducks' season-opener in South Korea, two players handling nine-game suspensions and how he makes the most of college basketball's never-ending transfer turnstile.

Q: This time a week ago, you and your team were about to play Georgetown at Camp Humphreys, a U.S. Army base in South Korea. What was that experience like, from meeting members of the military to playing the actual game?

A: It was really a very good experience for our players and our coaching staff. We were able to go over there and interact with the servicemen and ladies. The troops treated us unbelievably well. They went out of their way to make us feel good, and we were over there to thank them for all they do for us. We did a clinic for the kids. We served the troops lunch one day. They gave us a tour of a helicopter site they had there, which was really neat. We had a lot of interaction with the troops, and that was a lot of fun. We had a good game with Georgetown; we were able to win. But win or lose, it was a great experience. Probably the thing that left the greatest impression was the national anthem. To see 2,100 troops at attention. They get done with the anthem, and our team is just about ready to start clapping their hands. Nobody did. There wasn't a peep. They marched those flags off, until those flags were out of sight. Then the place erupted.

Q: Prior to that game, you found out you'd be without Ben Carter and Dominic Artis (who were each suspended nine games by the NCAA for selling team-issued gear) for some games. Were you happy with the way other players fell into certain roles and that pieces seemed to come together well enough the first game of the season — even with some guys in foul trouble?

A: I was pleased with our competitiveness. I was pleased with the way we fought through some adversity. We had bad foul trouble, probably even more than Georgetown did with our limited numbers. Defensively, we gave up easy baskets. The game gave us a lot of things to work on. Our execution has to get much better. Defensively, we've got a lot of work to do. I was pleased with our efforts on the boards. We did a lot of things well, but there's no area that doesn't need a lot of improvement.

Q: You may have known weeks ahead of time or at least have been somewhat prepared for playing without Ben and Dominic. (Oregon self-reported the violations.) For you as a coach, how much shuffling around does that take, especially when it's nine games?

A: It's going to be tough. We have seven games left. It's a tough nine-game stretch, just from a depth standpoint. We've got a couple of guys who are banged up, so we basically had eight scholarship athletes. Our depth isn't quite what it should be, but fortunately for us, all eight of those guys are capable of playing extended minutes. We've got to keep those eight guys healthy. We've got to get a few guys healthy in this next week or two so they can help us in these next seven games. I think the guys made a great adjustment. (Detroit transfer guard) Jason Calliste probably had to make the biggest adjustment, moving him to the point and getting him ready to play that. He's a vet. He's capable of doing that. He really is the one we're asking to make the biggest adjustment. He's got to be a jack-of-all-trades for us. He's got to play any one of the perimeter spots for us. We're asking him to play a lot of point guard.

Q: How are Ben and Dominic handling their suspensions?

A: It's hard. You know, you work all summer, you work all fall to get ready to play. You made a mistake back in the spring, and it's tough. They both are really good young men, and they both realize they made a mistake. They've been very mature about it.

Q: We've talked about this before, and I'm sure you're asked about it a lot. But it's another season, and you've once again got a bunch of transfers. On Wednesday, Houston transfer Joseph Young had a huge game. (UNLV transfer) Mike Moser is another big name. How do you get guys like them to almost seamlessly transition into your roster each year? How do you approach that, and how do they approach that?

A: It's mostly how they approach it. When a young man decides to transfer, and he contacts us or we contact him and we talk, we kind of lay out the plan. Fortunately, we've had some young men who have been successful with their transfer situations into our program, so guys see that it has worked. Fortunately for us, the guys who have transferred in have been very mature, have really wanted to make it work. Sometimes, high school players think it's all about them. When you've been in a college situation and you've been around other really good players, you realize it's a team. It's not all about you. We've kind of taken advantage of the guys coming in here and understanding it's a team concept. Here are their goals, here are the team's goals. We've got to blend them together. They've done a good job of understanding that. Mike (Moser) has come in, and Jason (Calliste), Joe (Young). They want to have good years, but they realize for them to have a good year, the team has to have a good year. Everybody's got to work together to make that happen.

Q: There are so many transfers available each offseason nowadays. Besides what you're talking about — maturity, buying into the team approach — what are other things you look for when you're trying to land a transfer?

A: This year, there were unbelievable tie-ins. Mike Moser is from Portland, so that helped us there. Joe Young and Damyean Dotson played high school ball together, so that helped us there. Jason knows Devoe Joseph, who played for us. So, those guys really were recruited by our team. Circumstances really helped us out this year.

Q: A topic everyone's been talking about so far this season is the new officiating rules, which eliminated hand-checking. Two games in, what's your experience with it? Are we making too big a deal out of these rule changes?

A: There's going to be a little adjustment period here, there's no doubt. The hand-checking is really being enforced. The new block/charge rule is really being enforced. I haven't seen much difference in protecting the cutters. I still think there's a lot of checking going on there, so I don't think they're looking at that as strongly. The other two, I really think they're trying to set the tone for the defense to move their feet and get their hands off. If we can get through this initial stage, I think it is good for the game. Our players have to adjust. All players have to adjust. Eventually, it will be good for the game to have freedom of movement, to get a little better pace to our game.

Q: You make a good point about block/charges. I don't think I've seen a charge yet in games I've watched.

A: I think we've had one. I think those two areas — the hand-checks and the block-charge — are really, really being enforced.

Q: Who do you consider your coaching mentors? Who has influenced you the most in your career?

A: I've been really fortunate because I've played for good guys, and I worked for Lon Kruger — the coach who gave me my Division I start. I was a junior college coach before then. My high school coach was Dave Oman, who was a really, really good coach. My junior college coach was Gary Bargen, and I really enjoyed playing for him. I played for Larry Riley, who up until a year ago was the GM for the Golden State Warriors. His twin brother, Mike Riley, I did my graduate assistant work for. I worked for Coach Kruger. I was a very young coach in the old Big Eight; Eddie Sutton, Johnny Orr and Norm Stewart were really good to me. I was 30 or 31 when I took the job at Kansas State. … Charlie Spoonhour, who's passed away. He was an assistant at Nebraska when I had my first junior college job at Fairbury junior college. Then I went to Moberly, and Charlie had coached at Moberly. He introduced me to a bunch of people there. Charlie Spoonhour was one of those personalities in basketball who will never be replaced. He was a special guy. … That's a long list, but those are the guys, with Coach Kruger being the most influential. I spent three years with him. I went to work for him when I was 27.

Q: What did you learn most from Kruger?

A: I played Division II ball, and I coached junior college ball, so just the whole of Division I. It was a change. Offensively, I thought Coach really saw things. He was an old point guard who had a great understanding of the game. I learned a lot of details of the game from him — offensive perspective, organization, running a program at that level.

Nicole Auerbach, a national college basketball reporter for USA TODAY Sports, is on Twitter @NicoleAuerbach.