Mike Anderson didn’t necessarily have to win Wednesday night’s game at Auburn.
But he did need to avoid the embarrassment that happened.
The final score of 79-56 was terribly deceiving. The game was never that close.
The Tigers jumped on the Razorbacks from the start, racing to a 22-1 lead. Yes, that’s not a typo.
And that was the highlight for the Hogs. With some questioning whether his job should be in jeopardy before the plane left Fayetteville, there will be considerably more now.
Fans will justifiably question being so flat at the start that you’re out of the game before it really got started. Anderson may take a shot at answering, but this isn’t a question of youth and inexperience. Not when you’re trying to keep from getting run out of the gym by 30 points with five minutes gone in the second half.
Some close to the program tried to say back in December and even January this team was just young. We now know that was either an outright lie or a hilariously poor evaluation. This team can’t shoot (32.8 percent in this one, 26.7 percent in the first half), struggles at the free-throw line and rebounding.
Anderson has juggled having a talented player or two with some role players before and it’s worked well enough to at least make the NCAA Tournament. Those teams seldom were out-hustled and the defense at least kept them with a prayer of getting a win.
At Auburn hope left the building about the time the official tossed the ball up at midcourt to start the game. In the first part of this game, the Hogs had zero aggressiveness, zero focus and appeared bewildered at times.
Daniel Gafford, a projected first-round NBA draft choice, was a non-factor to help stem the early bleeding. To making things more embarrassing for him, he tried a showboat dunk late in the game … and missed it … badly.
It was bad enough even Anderson’s most vocal supporters are going to have a tough time defending this one.
Anderson can’t explain it, no matter how hard he may try.
All season while giving up double-digit leads, Anderson has tried to explain that is how things go in college basketball now. He credits the shot clock and 3-point shot as being key components of that, which is true in a lot of respects.
But you wonder when the Hogs are going to cut into somebody else’s big lead. The result is now they’re 14-12 overall and 5-8 in the SEC with five to play. One of those is on the road against Kentucky.
No, this is not an experienced team, but it’s hard to see them making enough improvement to be much better, even next year If they were good it would show more than what was shown in a horrific loss against the Tigers.
In the end, Auburn was ready to play from the start.
Arkansas wasn’t.
And it never got much better.
When Anderson was hired in 2012, most — including me — thought it was what Arkansas needed to get back to a team consistently ranked. Deep into an eighth season, Anderson’s teams have been ranked in the Top 25 for 10 weeks … and nine came in the 2014-15 season.
Maybe the worst stat of all is only one time in those eight years has a team finished in the Top 25 final ranking … a No. 21 ranking in that 2014-15 season.
Would a Hogs’ football coach survive that?
Arkansas basketball has turned into a program not even consistently making the NCAA Tournament.
And it leads to an ever-increasing number of folks asking if it’s going to get better.
