It wasn’t only Dana Altman who knew what he was getting when Oregon went into the transfer portal and signed men’s basketball players TJ Bamba and Brandon Angel.
Both players, veterans of the Pac-12 and former Oregon opponents, also knew what Altman could do for them.
“He’s a proven winner,” said Angel, who spent the past four seasons at Stanford before finding a new home in Eugene. “That was my biggest thing in the transfer portal; I need to win. It’s not a want, it’s I need to win, and I think I found that at Oregon with (Altman) and the history that they’ve had.”
The new-look Ducks will make their season debut at 7:30 p.m. Monday with a nonconference game against UC Riverside at Matthew Knight Arena.
Among Oregon’s offseason departures were the two players – seniors N’Faly Dante and Jermaine Couisnard – who practically willed the Ducks to the 2024 Pac-12 Tournament title and an NCAA Tournament first-round win against South Carolina.
Several familiar faces return, though, such as point guard Jackson Shelstad and forward Kwame Evans Jr, who started nearly every game of their freshman seasons, and senior guard Jadrian Tracey, a valuable role player last season.
Also back are center Nate Bittle, guard Keeshawn Barthelemy and forward Mookie Cook, whose 2023-24 seasons were all ended early by injuries.
To fill out the roster, Altman added freshman guard Jamari Phillips and then went into the transfer portal for five players, including Bamba and Angel, who are expected to be immediate contributors at a program that has won at least 20 games in each of Altman’s previous 14 seasons, including last year’s 24-12 record.
“I think we have a good combination of experience and young guys who are coming a long really well,” Angel said. “We only have one freshman and then the pieces we brought in have turned us into a pretty tough, veteran-led team. Coach Altman’s been known to put the pieces together.”
Angel, a 6-foot-8, 240-pound forward, averaged career highs in points (13.0) and rebounds (4.7) per game this past season, as well as 1.7 assists.
He was also a top-10 shooter across the board in the Pac-12. Angel was seventh overall with a field-goal percentage of 56.7%. He led the conference in 3-point accuracy at 44.7% (34-for-76) and had the eighth-best shooting percentage from the free-throw line at 81.6% (84-for-103).
Angel played in 112 career games for the Cardinal with 60 starts — all coming in the past two seasons.
Bamba, a 6-5 guard, played for Villanova last season after spending his first three seasons at Washington State.
He averaged 10.1 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.8 assists last season when he started all 33 games and made 37% of his 3-point attempts.
During his career with the Cougars, Bamba made 51 starts and averaged 9.7 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.0 assists. As a junior in 2022-23 he started 31 games and averaged 15.8 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.7 assists.
“Every time we prepared for (the Ducks), I went into the game thinking they’re so hard to guard because of the action, because of the confidence they play with and the confidence coach instills in his players,” Bamba said. “In my last and final year, I wanted to be coached by a coach of coach Altman’s caliber. I wanted to be pushed to an extreme … and I wanted to win.”
Oregon’s other transfer additions are forward Supreme Cook from Georgetown, forward Dezdrick Lindsay from Florida Southwestern Community College and guard Ra’Heim Moss from Toledo.
Cook (knee) and Lindsay (shoulder) will not play Monday in the season opener as they deal with injuries.
The Ducks also added Oleksandr Kobzystyi, a junior forward from Ukraine who played professionally for KK Mega Basket in Belgrade, Serbia last season.
With all the new additions, Altman acknowledged he’s going to lean on Angel and Bamba’s experience and maturity as the Ducks try to establish new leaders.
“Both these guys have the respect of their teammates,” Altman said. “They have great work ethics. We’re just gonna have a long season and they’re gonna have to lead us through.”
Chris Hansen covers University of Oregon football, men’s basketball, track and field, cross country and softball for The Register-Guard. You can reach him at chansen@registerguard.com and you can follow him on X @chansen_RG.
