I wanted to expand on my comments about Arkansas head men's basketball coach Mike Anderson the other day.
It is really difficult to compress eight years, and really a career's worth of information into one column, even though the Razorbacks are attempting to compound just about every issue from Anderson's career into one season.
I don't know if anyone could label Anderson's tenure as a "failure," but the lack of higher-end success is difficult to reckon. I thought at the time and still do believe the hirings by Jeff Long of Anderson and Bret Bielema to be two of the best I have ever seen by the Razorbacks.
They had name recognition, they had confidence and they had proven track records of success. Anderson had been directly ingrained in the university and the basketball program for years as an assistant to national championship head coach Nolan Richardson. Bielema had all of the bravado and a signature style of physicality perfectly fit for Arkansas' traditions and the Southeastern Conference.
Then, Bielema lost, and he kept losing. Then, he won some, and then he lost some more. It is still difficult to understand.
Even if he had a blueprint from Barry Alvarez at Wisconsin, he still had to follow it. A 4-8 season meant winning some non-conference games against weaker competition and falling flat in SEC play.
To go 4-8 in year six was deemed unforgivable. Getting rid of Bielema and Long to hire Chad Morris and Hunter Yurachek to their positions put the athletics department on the hook for about $25 million.
What's the recipe for 14-12 as an SEC basketball team? That means winning some non-conference games against weaker competition and falling flat in SEC play.
In year eight, is that still forgivable?
It is difficult to surmise a chance for Arkansas to have success under Anderson better than the Razorbacks have achieved in his first eight seasons.
Arkansas had a near-lottery pick in the NBA Draft in Bobby Portis, winning SEC Player of the Year over a litany of stars from Kentucky. A running mate with @MrWALKONAIR himself, Michael Qualls, made for one of the best inside-outside games in the country.
One win and done in the NCAA Tournament.
Then, Anderson gets the free pass for which former head football coach Houston Nutt was comdemned by many a fan. I still don't know how you are not prepared for a player of Portis' caliber to leave early. Qualls himself would have been a fine professional and is still trying to work his way to the NBA after suffering an injury shortly before the draft.
Jaylen Barford and Daryl Macon were spectacular signings to make up for losing most of the best players the state had produced in several years, including KeVaughn Allen at Florida and Malik Monk at Kentucky. Arkansas developed throughout the season and peaked late in the year.
One win and done in the NCAA Tournament.
You keep the core of that team and add another possible lottery pick in Daniel Gafford and manage to lose even more? The Razorbacks were 26-10 before Gafford, but somehow went 23-11 in the first year with him.
One and done in the NCAA Tournament. Not even a win this time.
So, what is the ceiling? What is the potential when Arkansas has been unable to get past the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament even with Anderson's most talented teams??
I don't know.
I don't think anyone labels Anderson as a "bad" or "poor" coach. He definitely has an approach many of us disagree with, but it gets results -- sometimes. Well, it did.
But he does a lot of things typical of "bad" or "poor" coaches. He is extremely vague when he speaks to both the media and his players.
Anderson harps on energy and intensity and making shots. That is what fans talk about.
If you are around many coaches and talk to them, you will hear a lot about matchups, schemes, strategy, lineups, technique, etc. However his approach may be defined, it is showing diminishing returns.
Anderson's record actually lines up pretty close to the rest of his career. He was 89-41 at Alabama-Birmingham and 111-57 at Missouri in his first two head coaching stints. Those records made for winning percentages of .685 and .661, respectively.
Arkansas is currently 165-98 in almost eight seasons under Anderson. That is a win percentage of .627.
Anderson took UAB to the NCAA Tournament in three of his four years, 75 percent, with the Blazers, including all three of his final seasons in Birmingham. The Tigers also made the NCAA Tournament in each of Anderson's last three seasons in Columbia, 60 percent.
A surprise run to this year's NCAA Tournament would give Arkansas four trips in eight years under Anderson for 50 percent. Yet another likely absence from the Big Dance will mean a record of just three NCAA Tournament appearances in eight years, 37.5 percent.
Anderson deserves a ton of credit for building Arkansas back into a consistently competitive program. Arkansas also made the NCAA Tournament three times in eight years with Stan Heath and John Pelphrey before Anderson was hired, but gone are the seasons of 12-16 and 14-18.
This column was written before Saturday night's home game against Texas A&M. One can only hope for the sake of the sanity of the fans and those within the program that the Razorbacks did not suffer another devastating home loss in a season with the most Arkansas has ever had with Anderson as coach.
The Razorbacks get to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their only national championship in basketball this season. It could perhaps be the most fitting time possible to turn the page on the program's history and pursue a path forward less reliant on nostalgia.
Sports on 02/24/2019