The Oregon Ducks’ 2023 season has officially come to an end.
With a frustrating finish on Tuesday night in the quarterfinals of the National Invitation Tournament against the Wisconsin Badgers, an arduous season was put to rest. It felt merciful, on one hand, but also left a lot of questions going forward.
In back-to-back years, Dana Altman and the Ducks have seen their season come to a close in the NIT, rather than the NCAA Tournament. For a program that has seen 5 Sweet Sixteens, two Elite Eights, and one Final Four run over the past couple of decades, that’s not going to cut it.
“We set the bar at Sweet Sixteens,” Altman told John Canzano on Wednesday.
Now that this season is behind him, Altman plans to dive head-first into evaluations of the program, working day and night to try and figure out how to turn things around and get back to the tournament, reaching that bar once again. Looking ahead, we know that he will have a few nice pieces to work with for sure, but also a lot of unknowns to traverse.
The Ducks have 13 scholarships to work with in 2023-24. A few of those already belong to players who have announced that they will return to Eugene for another year, and a handful of others will go to the three high school recruits who have signed with the Ducks in the 2023 class, with potentially a fourth being reserved for another addition. The rest will be given to “players who want to be here,” as Altman said in a legendarily revealing press conference that he gave on Tuesday night.
So with all of that in mind, what will the Ducks’ roster look like at the start of next season? It’s far too early to know for sure, but here’s our best guess on how things will shape out, and which players decide to do what.