Mike Anderson is probably the most decent coach in all sports in school history, his character is second to none.

But if he thinks Arkansas’ post season hopes are still realistic, he obviously isn’t seeing the play lately. We don’t deserve a bid with the way we’ve played lately. We don’t even deserve an NIT game with the effort lately…

This team doesn’t have the heart, toughness, or character to make a run in the SEC TOURNEY. Their not winning in SC because their not physical enough. And their not winning against FL because two Arkansas kids get fired up and hit lights out against Arkansas. Mike Anderson has heart, toughness, massive amounts of character, his players, almost none…

He isn’t the only one. Lunardi still has us in his bracketology. He is the best out there right now. Palm, who has been hating all year, actually has us and Auburn as the first two teams out. Which means we beat LSU and we will move back in.

At the time I thought by hiring MA we were chasing ghosts, specifically the ghost of Nolan Richardson and it was a mistake. The reality is MA loves Arkansas and came here to rebuild the program. People don’t remember how bad it was. Dana Altman saw how bad things were and turned on his heel and ran back to Creighton. Enter Pelphrey who wonder of wonders made things worse. If MA didn’t love Arkansas he would have laughed and said “you folks made your bed now lay in it” but he didn’t. Can he get it done? I don’t know but he needs a couple more years to try, he has earned that.

I agree with you. I’m disappointed in how we’ve done recently in basketball, but I’m not ready to give up on MA yet. I was scarred by the Pelphrey years and fear going back to the hopelessness of that time. I look at what happened to Missouri after MA left, the seemingly endless downward spiral of Missouri basketball, and think could that happen to us, too? MA hasn’t done as well as I’d hoped and expected when hired, but our program is in much better shape than when he took over. We still have a ways to go to be competitive with the best teams, and I’m hoping that we’ll eventually get there under MA, though I admit that as the years go by the frustration mounts.

Just curious, if this team fails to make the tournament, what exactly has CMA done to “earn” a couple more years?

Get our RPI up to the point we aren’t going to lose scholarships while making us competetive.

What does RPI have to do with scholarships?

If a teams RPI is below the minimum set by the NCAA the team will lose scholarships until their RPI improves. When Altman took over (for all of 24hrs) he saw the state of the program including the RPI and quit. Pelphrey took ovef and didn’t improve RPI or talent or wins. When Anderson took over the program was in shambles. Bielema inherited a similar situation the difference being in basketball the turnaround is usually quicker than football.

I misspoke APR not RPI…it’s tournament time and all the talk is of RPI

People just do not realize how bad both the football and basketball programs were. Below a 930 APR will get your team banned from bowls n NCAA tournament. The football APR when Bielema took over was in the 930’s and Anderson took over a program in the 890’s. Think about that for a min. Both coaches had to focus on academics and could not afford to take chances on good athletes with marginal acacemics. So for both coaches they started at Arkansas hamstrung. I want wins but our programs have to be repaired first.

http://www.ncaa.org/aboutresources/rese … -explained

http://web1.ncaa.org/maps/aprRelease.jsp

Who did either of them pass on due to academics that would have made a big difference?

I cannot answer that specifically however it would go to reason that both coaches have had to base their early recruiting strategies around academics first rather than athletic talent.

That makes little sense, Kentucky Basketball routinely scores a perfect 1000 APR, and their basically a 5 in 5 out team every yr, and they’re in the top five every yr. Alabama in football is about 15 pts above avg, and they’re competitive every yr, and a majority of their best players leave for the NFL at first eligibility as well… As long as you take care of business in the classroom while you’re enrolled, the athletic ability is irrelevant. I.E. You can be a complete knucklehead, with no desire or care for education, but have tremendous athletic ability, and as long as you pass the classes you’re enrolled in, your APR is unaffected. Arkansas’ problem was they had guys on the team that had to stay in school, because they would have never been drafted.

So you are saying that Arkansas APR was negatively effected by players with no chance of being drafted staying in school? As idiotic as your line of reasoning is that does not change the fact that both programs (especially basketball) were on the verge of receiving sanctions (the basketball program actually was sanctioned). Your logic is dizzying.

Nope, I’m simply saying that using APR, and our historical low APR as an excuse for poor performance on the field or court is ridiculous. Alabama and Kentucky have a continual revolving door, and they maintain high APR and high performance. And Arkansas’ scores badly across the board, I think their baseball team was last in the SEC as well, and their performance was bad last yr.

And of course you dont see the correlation…bad APR = Bad performance. Fair enough.

LSU was a couple pts less than us, and they looked pretty good in football last yr against Arkansas, and pretty good in Baseball against Arkansas. That one scholarship loss in Basketball didn’t exactly kill the program, and football I don’t believe lost any. You can recruit athletic kids that go to class also, and if they leave early, the APR is not impacted.

The point you are willfully ignoring is that…oh nevermind trying to have any real substantive discussion with you is farcical.

Totally agree. The young men need to go to class and make their grades! It takes a lot of discipline to manage time to play ball and study. Getting a degree is a positive for all of these guys. MA is the coach and I’m not wanting any change. It has been horrible since Nolan left ! It’s also nice to see Nolan at the games.
When you make runs in the big dance recruiting picks up too!

Recruiting for football and basketball has improved recently and I attribute that to both coaches having time to establish their programs. I too like seeing Nolan supporting the Hogs again and am hoping for a long run in the SEC Tournament followed by a long run in the NCAA.