…I firmly believe the man is a proven head coach. I think his system can and should work at Arkansas. I don’t even mind a one-and-done Arkansan choosing Kentucky where he can get more minutes on the floor than in the Anderson system, score a lot and play some token defense while he rests up to score a lot more before he skips out for the pros. But, this team is falling apart and most on the team don’t seem to care. Macon and Bareford are going to shoot as much as they want and don’t care who (including MA apparently) don’t like it. They might quit loafing in the first half, someday, if they feel like it, maybe!!!
Will Mike make it until the better recruits in the pipeline arrive? The rest of this season will show whose team this is and whether the man in charge can coach them.
I don’t think we are in any position to chastise UK or Monk’s defense. UK is ranked 22nd in KenPom defensive efficiency and UA is 151. I don’t think many kids at the UA is playing much defense.
But your point still stands. The most perplexing thing to me is Why is this not working? It did work at UAB. It did work at Mizzou. I was beyond ecstatic with the hire of CMA.
But six years is six years. He hand picked every single player on this team. If he doesn’t have the personnel to run his system, that is on him.
I agree completely with the smart and high basketball IQ part. His teams at Missouri played as a team and worked to get each other shots. They played greater than the sum of their parts. This current team has good individual pieces, but isn’t as good as a whole as it should be.
And his teams at Missouri and UAB got great defense from the guards.
A nice list, but you didn’t even mention probably the best “team” player Mike ever recruited. Mike only had Phil Pressey his freshman year, but Phil was a pre-season 1st team All American his Jr year at MO. A true PG with great skills. I’ve often wondered how different Mike’s record, recruiting, and win-loss record would have been here if he’d been able to convince Phil to come to the Hogs with him and red-shirt the first year.
If Phil had agreed to come here, RS his first year, and play 2 years, he would have not only been the missing ingredient Mike has never had here, a multi-skilled PG. With his passing and leadership skills, Phil would have helped in recruiting too. I firmly believe we would have been in the Dance both years Phil would have played and perhaps we would even be on the National Scene now.
I don’t think Mike has forgotten how to coach since he arrived at Arkansas. I think he just had too many misses in recruiting those most important players that could make his system go. He needed his Phil Pressey, which in turn would have improved his overall recruiting with him in place. Probably would have even attracted a great PG replacement for a successful Phil Pressey.
What ifs! Anyway, it didn’t happen, and in fact, I think it really hurt the really close relationship that Mike had over the years with Phil’s Dad, Paul Pressey, when Mike left for the Hogs’ job.
I have no answers going forward, but as a life-long avid Razorback fan, these last 2 games were totally inexcusable. For me, those 2 games represent the most under achieving team, based on pure talent, I’ve seen since Eddie arrived. And, we’ve had some really bad teams in these last 2 decades. I don’t know what’s happened, but Mike’s got just 7 regular season games to get this team to do a 180 degree turnaround. I hope he can do it, but based on what I’ve seen in these 2 games, it may take something really drastic to get the team back on track.