Anderson well aware of questioning how hot his seat should be

Mike Anderson knows the situation.

He knows exactly the ones that have a voice who would like to see him gone as well as the ones making noise that doesn’t matter.

At this point, it’s not hard to do the math, inject a little logic and come to the conclusion no one in the Arkansas athletic program or the board of trustees has much taste for paying coaches in the two biggest sports to NOT be coaching anymore.

You can blame Jeff Long or Bret Bielema if you want, but that’s wasting time talking about folks who aren’t in Fayetteville anymore. Of course many Razorback fans love to talk about what didn’t happen instead of dealing with what DID.

That’s where Anderson and the basketball program find themselves right now.

You’ll hear callers to talk shows yammer on about not hiring this coach or failing to get that recruit. That’s not exclusive to basketball for some Hog fans, but that’s the immediate problem area right now.

Anderson simply hasn’t been able to get the players that are good enough to have the type success many fans — including some that DO have a vote in who the coach is — enjoyed having in a nice little 17-year run from 1978-96.

Arkansas never had that type of run before or since. Technically, they made the Sweet 16 in 1958, but that was a different tournament and the Hogs didn’t win a game in the tournament.

Some fans think making the Sweet 16 should be the expectation every single season … or at least every two or three years. In today’s college basketball world, there aren’t many teams able to do that.

No, some fans remember that run Eddie Sutton and Nolan Richardson had, but they tend to forget (or ignore) Anderson has won at a higher percentage in his first seven seasons than even Richardson did in his last seven.

To win at Arkansas — especially in the SEC — it requires players in numbers that haven’t been on the same team in about 24 years or so. Yes, I know they won the SEC Tournament in 2000 with a very average team, but then were dispatched by Miami in the NCAA a few days later.

Anderson said Saturday night after another stumble-and-fall against Mississippi State in a 77-67 loss that this team needs experience, which is just a different take on the youth and inexperience excuse we’ve heard over and over this year.

This group has some players with good character that either don’t have the skills, the desire or the basketball IQ to compete at a championship level.

And that is driving a growing number of fans crazy, mainly because Anderson continues to make excuses for them.

It’s also keeping them away from Bud Walton Arena, which is a bigger deal than wins and losses to a lot of people that matter in making personnel decisions. Yes, the two go hand-in-hand.

Right now this is not a personal decision for most of Anderson’s detractors. It’s hard to find anyone that has a knock on him personally. The same can be said from this corner, too.

Getting to the NCAA Tournament is not the goal for many fans. They want more than a couple of games in that tournament.

Anything less is considered failure. That likely won’t change this season. With six games left on the schedule, the Hogs probably aren’t expected to win more than maybe a couple of games.

Regardless how much anybody likes Mike, it’s going to make the seat more than a iittle warm. It’s going to downright red hot. Shoot, the speculation has already started about possible replacements.

The good news is he can recruit his way out of this in one year, but that’s going to require getting some players that can — or are willing to pay the price to — compete on a championship level.

It’s a problem he has to figure out fast.

Or at least before someone who’s not in Fayetteville gets a job that makes decisions here easier to make.