It was longtime Arkansas athletics director John Barnhill who once said, in so many words, teams are remembered more for what was expected in preseason than how things are at the end of the year.
It’s not just the Razorbacks where that philosophy holds true. Just about every athletic program of any size is the same way.
But the Hogs’ fans often have what probably are unrealistic expectations.
Right now, fans are all over the place on Mike Anderson after three straight losses in league play, including dropping back-to-back home games to Florida and LSU.
The facts are that in his first seven seasons with the Hogs, Arkansas has won the third most games in the SEC. Yet there are some ready to show him the door.
Even though he’s winning at a higher percentage than Nolan Richardson did in his last seven years.
Did you know that?
What are your expectations? What do you really think they should be?
Many fans think this program should be in the Sweet 16 on a regular basis, which is wanting something that has only happened consistently in Fayetteville during one 18-year period.
The Razorbacks have been to the Sweet 16 exactly 11 times. Eddie Sutton went four times in his 11 seasons, Richardson went six times in his 17 seasons (actually seven out of eight years, starting with his third season).
Sutton and Richardson got teams to the Sweet 16 at almost the same percentage, by the way.
Glen Rose’s 1958 team is the only other team in program history that got there when it was a 24-team tournament.
Arkansas hasn’t been to the Sweet 16 since the 1995-96 season, a year after back-to-back championship game appearances and one title. Richardson coached for seven years after the last Sweet 16 appearance.
Everybody has a reason for the huge gap, but that’s not where I’m going right now.
The biggest problem was the expectations fans had when Anderson was hired in the spring of 2011. Too many people expected it was going to be Nolan, Part 2, and that wasn’t going to happen immediately.
Mike has won, but not enough for some people.
Here’s the comparison with all of the coaches since Sutton came to Fayetteville and got basketball on the map (Richardson’s tie broken into two sections, the second coming after the two national title games):
[table “19” not found /]
Those same folks don’t have an answer for who they could get to come in and do better, however.
You’re not going to get an existing championship-level coach to come to Fayetteville. If they’ve built up a program to that level, they’re not leaving. Fans got the only coach with a track record of winning that wanted to be here.
Who do you think the Hogs could get that would come in and have the third most wins in the SEC over a seven-year period?
Or, better yet, why would you even want to get rid of a coach that’s done better than even Nolan did in HIS final seven years?
Yes, there may have been reasons for Richardson’s numbers in his final seven seasons, but that doesn’t matter. Not now. It’s a part of history now.
And the numbers tell the whole story.
But they don’t factor in patience for the fans.
