Olu Famutimi
We have a hard time seeing the top impact players in the state of Arkansas staying home to be a Razorback. That’s the problem. They make bu$$ine$$ decisions to play for others programs like Kentucky!
I’m proud of the players from Arkansas that become hogs. Portis and Gafford could have went anywhere and stayed home.
It’s also great that Joe and Desi stayed here too!
I remember playing OU when Sampson was their coach. If I remember, OU beat the Hogs easily. I have been impressed by his coaching at Houston.
His NCAA violations are a problem for some, but it looks like he has paid for his mistakes. Is that a guarantee that he will not get in trouble again? No, but I don’t know anyone who hasn’t made a mistake.
If we are in the market for a coach, I think that he would be one of the first I would talk to. Yurachek was his AD at Houston and I would think that he would know if Sampson would be a coaching candidate for our basketball team.
For now, we need to beat Auburn. WPS
What makes everyone think he would even come here? We are not the program we once we’re.
Hiring a coach for having one good season would be stupid he hasn’t won anyting at Houston as far as the tournament goes so why jump on who ever is hot. Coach A came here with a good record it takes a little more than that it’s not as simple as who is winning today…I believe like the other poster stated we need a recruiter more than a coach…If we can’t recruit better you can cancel winning another championship… If this staff has failed it’s been in the recruiting department
I was thinking the same thing lol.
It’s been 16 years… 16 YEARS, since Sampson has been in the 2nd weekend of the NCAA tournament, that’s almost 2 decades. And he’s been to 2 NCAA tournaments his last 7 years of being a head coach.
It’s confusing to me, because the people so impressed with Sampson are the same people saying what CMA does in the regular season doesn’t matter he hasn’t done anything in the tournament that’s why they are ready for a change. If you’re looking for a coach that wins 20+ games most years, that’s what you get in Sampson, but we already got that in CMA and CMA has actually done something relevant in the tournament in the last 16 years.
Now, if Sampson makes the sweet 16 or better this year, then follows it up with another good season and makes the tournament, and CMA misses the tournament this year and next year. Then yea, by all means, if Sampson is available then and we can get him, it was be a really nice pick-up. Only thing about that, is he’ll be 65 years old then, coaches are coaching older and older these days into their 70s, so it may not be an issue.
Oh he would come here, Arkansas is a huge upgrade over Houston. SEC is by far a better conference than the AAC.
For the sake of accuracy, I don’t think its fair to make it seem like Sampson is some one season wonder.
He spent 12 seasons at OU and went to the tournament in 11 of them. He took them to three Sweet 16’s, two Elite Eight’s, and one Final Four. He has the highest winning percentage in OU basketball history.
He went to the tournament in his first year at IU and had them 22-4 in his second before the NCAA stuff blew up. Interestingly enough, after that IU’s season cratered and they lost 4 of their last 5, including a first rd defeat by us in Pelphrey’s first season.
At Houston, a once proud program who has long been irrelevant on the national stage, he has built their win totals every season:
13-19
22-10
21-11
27-8 (beat on a buzzer beater by national runner-up Michigan in 2nd round)
25-1 (currently and ranked #9, #8, #4, respectively by AP, Coaches, NET)
As far as recruting goes, his lone 2018 class signee was Nate Hinton, a consensus 4* SG from NC and top 100 guy. According to 247, he had offers from: Cinn, FSU, Georgetown, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Oklahoma St, Seton Hall, Virginia Tech.
Their 2019 class has three 3* guys, one of which seems to be somewhat higher ranked than the other two.
Caleb Mills, offers from: Aub, Cinn, Clem, FSU, KSU, Mississippi St, Tenn, Wake
J’Wan Roberts, offers from: St. Johns, A&M, Washington St.
Marcus Sasser, offers from: CSU, LaTech, SMU
This isn’t an endorsement for Sampson, just wanted to lay out the entire picture.
In fairness, he was out of the game for seven years and Michigan hit a miracle shot to keep Houston out of the Sweet 16 last year.
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When Sampson was OU’s Coach, Oklahoma beat Arkansas 4 times, 3 of them beat downs .
1998 OU 87. AR 57
1999.OU 66 AR 52
2000 OU.88 AR 79. OT
2001 OU 69 At 54
The Razorbacks were coached by Nolan Richardson. They were all NCAA teams except the 2001 team.
I sent a pm to Chris a few days ago talking about this. Mike’s .635 win percentage actually translates to 19.68 wins a year. I’ve posted the 19/20 game mark on here. That’s the mark that seems to indicate post season play. In AR history, if AR has won 20 games (since 1939) they’ve been to the post season (28 of 29 times the NCAAT), since the fields expanded to 64 (NCAAT) and 32 (NIT) they’ve been to the postseason all but once. Now, here is the interesting thing, both the 19 win miss, and the 20 win NIT occurred in CMA’s 2nd and 3rd year. If he wins 19 or 20 this year, he’d be in. It was after the 20 win NIT season the the SEC Commissioner requested the league schedule harder OOC. If someone comes in and has the exact same record as Mike in his first seven years, they’d have one NIT and 4 NCAAT’s. Wonder if that new coach would be getting slammed like Mike?
I remember those Oklahoma teams being hard-nosed, and listening to the game at the Rainbow Classic in 1994 when Arkansas had to come back from 15 down to win by two. That was Sampson’s first year there.
That was the only time Sampson lost to Arkansas, coached each time by Nolan Richardson. The Sooners won the other four meetings by 30, 14, 9 and 15 points.
In fairness, if the officiating hadn’t helped UNC, Mike would have been in the Sweet 16 too. Fact is he still hasn’t accomplished anything at Houston, yet, that Mike didn’t accomplish here.
Except getting them into the top 10, top 5 in NET, at a lesser school, in a lesser conference.
Sure, that doesn’t translate to the tournament and maybe it won’t, but it is something that Mike hasn’t been able to get done here.
Also in fairness, refs cheated us against UNC to keep us out of the sweet 16 in 14-15.
I’m just saying, you can’t say the argument for getting rid of CMA is because he hasn’t done enough in the tournament and all those regular season wins don’t matter, then turn around and praise a coach that hasn’t done anything in the tournament longer than he has.
The 2000 game was brutal. If memory serves, we were up 9 with about 2mins left and just choked all over ourselves.
But… I read on here, when some of us posted CMA’s previous years RPI and how he’s had the second best record in the SEC the past 7 years, and how he’s played in 2 SEC Championship games, all that doesn’t matter because he hasn’t done anything in the tournament. Now, that it’s another coach all those other stats matter? Come on now.
I’m not gonna get started with you Blu, it was said that they he hadn’t accomplished anything at Houston that MA hadn’t accomplished here and I pointed out something that he had. It’s up to the individual to determine how important that is to them. Quite frankly this whole discussion is a bit silly bc Arkansas v Houston is apples/oranges and it completely ignores a further body of work. The 16 years bit in reference to Sampson also completely ignores the fact that he was in the NBA for 6 seasons.
Also, I’d be shocked if Mike goes anywhere after this season anyway, so again…likely a moot point.
Count me out on wanting a 64 or 65 year old new coach, unless his name is Coach K, or Roy Williams.
Good memory. Arkansas was ahead 69-60 with 1:55 to play, then was outscored 28-10 the rest of regulation and in overtime. Arkansas didn’t make any shots in overtime.
That was a good OU team that won its conference, then got upset a few days later by Indiana State in a 4 vs. 13 game.