Can't help but to curse Chancellor White each time...

Basketball Insider Board
#1

I watch Bill Self being so successful with his basketball program.

Frank Broyles had him in his pocket for the Arkansas job after Nolan,
but White poop pooped him being hired and required him to go through
the interview process like all the others. Self could/would not do that.

I also believe race played a part in it as well. With the racial implications
being made by Nolan, I believe some felt hiring a white coach would just
play right into Nolans lawsuit. That whole situation still just pisses me
off when I think of what might have been.

Oh well… hindsight is 20-20 as they say, but I still wish White had not
stuck his ass in the way of Frank when it mattered most. It will be a
great day when Whites’ ass is gone from Arkansas.

Yeah, I do hold and nurse a good grudge, but thats my burden to bear
no one elses.

#2

You are not by yourself.He and his counterpart also destroyed what we had as a women’s program…That coach went to A&M and won a NC.

#3

Well, if we are gonna bring out that old horse and whip his lifeless body …let’s give it a couple more licks for the Gary Blair fiasco, and the Tommy Tuberville shell game. We fans went to bed thinking we had Tommy Tuberville and woke up with Houston Nutt. Tuberville was in his prime and had done a really nice job with Ole Miss. Houston Nutt had spent a year at Boise State and gone 4-7, and we hired him…no…we really did. Someone call Ripley’s if you have the number.

Looking back, the Self deal was a blunder of an epic magnitude. He has won a Men’s National Championship and is considered among the best coaches in college basketball. Gary Blair went on to win a women’s National Championship at Texas A+M and our women’s program is still in disarray. Looking back, the Nutt hiring was a colossal screw up, but it doesn’t look so bad today after all the pain we have experienced since Houston drove his Brinks armored truck to Oxford loaded with cash. The guy wasn’t half bad. We went to Atlanta 2 times and if it hadn’t been for bad luck we might have won a couple of SEC Championships. Nutt took us closer than we’ve ever been. I still wonder what Tommy could have done or would have done if he had had 10 years to do his job at Arkansas.

#4

We’ve shot ourselves in the feet so many times in so many sports it’s a wonder we ever win big at anything.

Ran off Nolan. Haven’t seen late March basketball since. Although we were three minutes from correcting that until Joel Berry finished traveling/charging.

I have no problem with not hiring Wingnut Tuberville. I’m convinced he was and is an opportunist who would have left us as soon as somebody dangled more money in front of him, possibly at the same time he took the Auburn job, which was after Nutt’s first year. (The same may have been true for Self, by the way.) Other than catching lightning in a bottle in 2004, Wingnut was basically a 7-8 win coach, which is pretty much what we had in Nutt.

Ran off Nutt, which almost landed us Jim Grobe until the Harley Kid landed in Jeff Long’s lap.

The Harley Kid shot himself in the foot but took our whole program down with him.

Gary Blair’s last year at UA, I was told by someone very close to Blair and to the UA women’s program at midseason that Blair had burned some bridges in Fayetteville, more than just with John White, and would be leaving no matter what.

#5

Nutt has a winning record verses Tuberville.

Even Terry Bowden won big at Auburn.

#6

If Self would have had success here he would have left fairly soon. Kansas job s would have still came open and he would have left.

#7

I’m not a bit sorry that we didn’t hire ole Leave-em-in-the-lurch Bill. He has a history of promising to stay and then leaving (ORU, Tulsa, and Illinois). He flat out lied to the students and fans of all those programs.

Now if you want to blame White for things, there is plenty more to put on his shoulders as noted in this thread.

#8

Exactly what I think.

#9

I’m with you Votan. Of all the incredibly damaging things John White did to the UA Athletic Program, the botching of the Self hire is the one I personally will never get over. Ever. I’m a huge Self fan, and to this day it burns me up every time I see him coach.

Even if Self had left Arkansas after a few seasons for KU or elsewhere, it’s so painful to think of the path our program would have been on versus where we were after Heath’s disastrous tenure.

#10

Watching the NCAAW tournament, it occurs to me that the mistake wasn’t in letting Blair leave, it was in letting Vic Schaefer leave with him. Blair got to the Final Four thanks to a 16-over-1 upset, but he never sniffed an SEC title. Schaefer is averaging 27 wins a year and about to have two Final Fours, recruiting to Stankville Bleeping Mississippi.

#11

Speaking of lying to the fans, Tuberville said they’d have to carry him out of Oxford in a pine box. Two days later he took the Auburn job. That pine box went away really fast…

#12

[quote=“SwineFusion”]

Speaking of lying to the fans, Tuberville said they’d have to carry him out of Oxford in a pine box. Two days later he took the Auburn job. That pine box went away really fast…

[/quote]Oh, I’m not saying that others have not done the same. One difference is that Leave-em-Bill has done it three times. His departure from ORU came just after he refused to allow a player to transfer to Arkansas. He then got Tulsa to the Elite Eight and swore that he would be there for the long term. Within a few days, he vamoosed for Champaign. I don’t remember the circumstances surrounding his departure from the Illini, but there was some of the same.

#13

I’m not sure it would have been a few seasons. He took the Kansas job the next year, it also wasn’t a secret that Dean was retiring and Roy was being courted.

#14

I would think that I am closer to Coach Self - I refer to all coaches as coach out of respect - than any or at least most on this board.

He wanted the job at Arkansas and viewed it as a destination job, not a fly by one.

#15

Hmmmmmm

#16

Response: that’s not the way I understand it, Self wasn’t interested in coming behind Nolan after those prized recruits bolted to go elsewhere behind the firing. Actually Self at Tulsa used Broyles flirting to get an pay increase at Tulsa until Kansas came calling. Their is night and day difference between a legacy basketball program / institution such as Kansas compared to Arkansas. Kansas has alway had several 5* on their bench and that’s before Self arrived and will be if he leave… Listen why do think Arkansas struggle keeping even in-state talent before Mike arrived, the perception outside is that Arkansas is a small rural state, pundits say Arkansas will never do what Nolan achieved here, Mike is trying maybe he can or not, how long has Self been at Kansas with only two final four appearances to date.

#17

Beilein was also available the year we hired Heath, and he had built many teams over several levels like CNR. He also left West Virginia to go to Michigan the year we hired Pelphrey.

#18

:lol: :lol:

#19

Depends on where you look about Self. According to Kansas’ wiki page, Self is their HC in his 200th season. Not a very good coach if that’s the case. If you look at Self’s page, he is in his 20th season at Kansas, however if you go to his HC record he has been there 15 years. He has a NC, National Runner up, FF, 5 EE, 2 Sweet 16’s, 3 round of 32, and 2 rounds of 64. He’s been there (the tourney) all 15 years. Little bit better than Nolan’s run here.

#20

Self is an outstanding coach, but Kansas had been to the FF in the previous two years before Self was hired. That’s more FF’s than Arkansas had been to in 30 years before Nolan. Kansas had gone to the FF at least twice in every decade since the 70’s before Self ever showed up.