re: Arkansas Basketball History

Bama is a good team. It only strengthens a program like Arkansas to beat them on a big stage

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No in basketball you get a trophy for winning the national tournament, something I know you have never come close to experiencing. Try it sometime it's fun to get to the final four and win it all.

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You are speaking to a BAMA fan that is on National Championship parade as you type. Self-awareness is not your strong suit.

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LOL back to football, I thought that was last month??? One big loss and your talking football, can't blame you best dynasties money can buy.

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If you guys could just pay your NC basketball coaches you could have nice things too.

47 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS say otherwise.

Jesus man you got your arse drug up and down the court and then you act like a baby back bitch?

The decline started when Nolan had a meltdown after a loss. It was very heated. That raised a lot of concerns. Then he told one of his friends that if they paid him his money then they can take the job tomorrow. I guess someone told chancellor John White a bout it and he brought it up to Nolan. This made the situation worse.

The atmosphere was nuclear and Nolan was fired in early 2002. The sad thing was his next recruiting class had some future NBA players but most left when Nolan was fired.

John White fearing that a black coach fired accusing the school of racism would bring bad publicity to it's image, decided it would be better to hire another black coach for damage control in Stan Heath.

The problem is that Bill Self was interested in the job and more qualified but John White went with a coach that had one year of coaching experience and that was the cinderella year at Kent State. Have you noticed the absence of Frank Broyles? Well that is because John White had taken over the AD duties back in the late 90s.

During this time, Nolan sued the school and it dragged out the rest of the year only ending in defeat.

Heath struggled at first but was able to get Arkansas back to the tournament in his 4th and 5th years. But that was not good enough and was fired.

After a time on the coaching search, Arkansas settled on Dana Altman who this time was Frank's pick. It was going smoothly until 24 hours later, he decided to go back to Nebraska. The talk was that Arkansas was in some academic trouble from the Heath and Nolan years. So Frank told him that he could bring his academic staff. But John White heard a bout this and told Dana no. Well this upset him to the point that he went back. So Dana Altman took the Oregon job some years later and brought them new heights.

Frank Broyles was out of state playing golf and John White decided to hire a search committee and found John Pelphrey, who was the Chad Morris of basketball at the time. He took advantage of Heath's players and went to the tournament in his first year. Entering his second year, Arkansas beat top 10 opponents in Oklahoma and Texas. Arkansas was primed to make a splash in the SEC but won two conference games in the SEC. The bottom fell out and Pelphrey didn't make the tournament the next two years and was fired.

During those years John White was either asked or forced to step down from his position as chancellor and took a teaching job at the school.

AD Jeff Long hired Mike Anderson after many fans pushed the issue. Anderson was billed as the next Nolan Richardson. He was his assistant for 17 years and so he had to be the next incarnation of Nolan right? Wrong, both individuals had opposite personalities. One coached with anger and the other had the personality of an assistant coach.

Mike Anderson did bring Arkansas back to the tournament but the problem is that he was a weak recruiter and he struggled to make the tournament each year. So three NCAA tournament apperances in eight years wasn't good enough and he was fired.

AD Jeff Long was fired during this time and Hunter Yuracheck was hired. Arkansas finally had a serious AD with very little meddling in the coaching search. He hired Muss and he wasn't his first choice.

Arkansas suffered during those years from both incompetence and lack of care. Also general stupidity and politics made it even worse.

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I felt this way till listening to recent interviews with Nolan. Nolan has nothing but good things to say about Frank. The two guys hated to lose. Both are huge Arkansas icons. I think they both finally realized they both played a part in their relationship taking a hit.

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Could be, I wasn't there and who knows unless you get something first hand. But I vividly remember Nolan verbally voicing his complete displeasure at not being offered a new contract and raise. Why would the University ever allow that to get to that point?

This is the basketball equivalent of refusing to renegotiate with coach Saban after the Texas NC game.

We just re-upped coach Oats to a basketball extension north of 3 mil only because of something he accomplished in less than 2 seasons.

Nolan accomplished far more than that over a far longer time at Fayetteville my friend.

Nolan said the Todd day, Lee Mayberry and Oliver Miller years were his most talented teams even more so than the 94 team.

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His teams from 1989 to 1996 were awesome and dominated the SWC/SEC, but from 1997 to 2002 they were somewhere between average to good and pretty middling SEC teams.

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You missed where I said he quit recruiting hard after '94? I mean, he still signed some great players, but he no longer had the fire he'd once had.