When Mike Anderson was hired in the spring of 2012, the hope of many fans were things would be returning to the glory years of the mid-90’s, but the problem is basketball has changed … Arkansas hasn’t.
That was really the last time Razorback basketball had any relevancy on the national stage. In the entire history, the Hogs have really only been relevant consistently nationally from 1977-1996.
Many Arkansas fans spend more time living in the past in all sports and worrying about what didn’t happen more than focusing on the here and now. The “Fastest 40” marketing slogan was just a re-branding of the “40 Minutes of Hell” that worked in Nolan Richardson’s day, but won’t today.
Even Nolan has told people it’s nothing today like it was when his system worked. Everybody does it today to a certain degree, but the players change too much now for things to work the way they did in the mid-90’s.
He didn’t have nearly every game televised with incredibly long timeouts that simply bleed off any crowd or momentum advantage. That alone took away a lot of the advantages the Hogs had back in those days.
They would simply wear teams out and the timeouts weren’t long enough to quiet a crowd when the flames were fanned higher by the pep band. Today there’s something going on almost every timeout that literally requires the crowd to calm down a bit.
Nolan’s system relied on players that weren’t one-and-done. They were around for three years or they weren’t good enough to matter. If you don’t have the talent, you better have players that stick around for three or four years.
The Razorbacks haven’t had a lot of that. The best players Anderson has gotten have lasted a couple of years, then they were gone. He hasn’t had a group at any time anywhere near the level of talent on Nolan’s best teams … or even Eddie Sutton’s best teams.
Shoot, things are different now than they were when Anderson started at Arkansas. The SEC Network in 2014 changed everything from that standpoint.
Anderson’s doesn’t have a style that has adapted well, especially when you get a bunch of players who aren’t quite ready for prime time.
Results haven’t matched expectations and that’s become a problem for Anderson, whether he wants to just shrug it off or not.
There is no doubt Anderson’s own expectations haven’t been realized. For the first time as a head coach, there is a a lot of noise from many fans and whether any coach wants to admit it or not, it is distracting.
He’s not really helping his case by pointing out how close they’ve been late in some losses. There was a football coach that got fired using that same line all the way through his final press conference.
Now Anderson has fans calling for his hide. The recognition of the 1994 national championship team may get a few more fans in the building Saturday, but if the don’t unveil a floor with the Slobberin’ Hog and Nolan Richardson’s name on the court, well, you wonder how long the excitement will last.
For the record, I didn’t care for the Slobberin’ Hog in the 1970’s when they put it on the floor instead of the real logo. Yes, I’m in the minority on that one, but it’s not a big enough deal for me to really care one way or the other.
There are bigger issues right now with the Hogs. Mainly a matchup with No. 4 Kentucky on Tuesday night at Lexington. Nobody is giving Arkansas a snowball’s chance in that one, but it would help Anderson’s cause if it isn’t a blowout.
But mainly I’m more interested in how the rest of the season plays out and what Anderson does about what has been the most struggling year for him as a head coach.
That’s assuming, of course, he stays.
Which will require possibly some changes.
But definitely some adapting.
