It took less than three minutes after the announcement Sunday night that Arkansas will be a fifth seed in the NIT for the questions to start about Mike Anderson’s status.
Mainly because the NIT feels more like desperation than inspiration at this point.
The answer to the question is the only ones yammering are bulletin board regulars who don’t really know anything. The ones who DO know aren’t talking about it.
Assuming anybody, including Anderson and athletics director Hunter Yurachek, know themselves what’s going to happen.
The Razorbacks will play at Providence on Tuesday. The Razorbacks had submitted a bid to host an NIT game, but there won’t be a first-round game at Bud Walton Arena. Whether they get a shot at one later is completely dependent upon what they do against Providence, the No. 4 seed in their section of the bracket.
Since the Hogs dropped their first-round game in the SEC Tournament last week, the noise around Anderson’s job status increased dramatically in volume.
Every few minutes, somebody was saying Anderson and Yurachek had met … or didn’t meet. Then somebody would say they were negotiating his departure … followed by someone who said Anderson would get another year so naming the court for Nolan Richardson “wouldn’t be awkward.”
It can be dizzying if you pay attention to the noise.
The bottom line is I have no idea one way or the other if Anderson is going to have a job at Arkansas two weeks from now or not.
You will hear those that say he won’t be here because the game is on the road and not at Bud Walton, but that’s a little premature right now. If they win and things fall right, they could be at home if they keep advancing.
But you get the idea advancement for this team is important for Anderson.
Maybe for the first time in his career as a head coach, he’s got people wanting him fired. That didn’t happen at Alabama-Birmingham or Missouri.
While he has only been to the NCAA Tournament three times in eight years, the proper public relations announcement will be Anderson has gone to the postseason five out of eight years.
That will be factual, but probably not something a lot of fans want to hear.
For many that’s not enough. Going to the NIT twice in eight years certainly doesn’t make anybody happy regardless of what they will tell you.
Going to the NIT is usually something positive for a coach building a program.
When it’s the eighth year of a program it feels more like desperation.
