I was a junior during Harter's first year at Oregon. They were pretty bad. Steve Belko left the cupboard pretty bare when he retired. Harter's first team finished in last place and only won about four games total. The next year they were much improved and it was apparent that Dick Harter could both coach and recruit. The legendary John Wooden coached at UCLA. Only the conference champion got to the NCAA tournament in those days.
Ralph Miller, Bob Boyd, Marv Harshman, George Raveling and other great coaches patrolled the sidelines during his tenure. Several of his teams would have made the expanded tournament and would have probably enjoyed some success. I often wonder how his teams would have fared with the advent of the shot clock and three point shot given that style of play. He did coach some in the professional ranks so maybe he would have adapted. His teams always played great defense. Those are great memories of watching games in Mac Court.