The good and the bad with Mike Anderson.

The good: He is a good person, plays by the rules and recruits about good as can be expected. Arkansas is a small state and doesn’t have the recruiting base of teams like Florida, Alabama, Georgia, LSU, and TA&M, plus Kentucky in basketball. And, we are perhaps even with Auburn, SC, and Mississippi. Therefore, on average we shouldn’t be expected to be in the top 2/3rd and certainly not the top half of the SEC. The fact that we do considerable better than that implies to me that Anderson is well above average as an SEC coach.

Even a Nolan clone wouldn’t win near as much now because he wouldn’t have the recruiting advantage of being the only major black college coach in the south.

The bad: With two all SEC guards, a future top 15 NBA big man, and five seniors that either start or play a lot, Anderson will never have a better combination of talent and experience. Therefore, you will never be satisfied with Anderson if you believe he should do better than this year.

When BJ Young had the ball he would never pass it and to some extent, Barford and Macon remind me of that. Therefore, it seems to me that Anderson lacks the ability to require his guards to pass the ball instead of letting them dribbling for 10 seconds trying to get open while well guarded. And, he relies too much trapping to get turnovers because that leaves someone open for a layup or a wide open 3 pointer. And maybe that partly explains why other teams out rebounds us. As, I see it, a possession is worth about a point. Therefore, a turnover gains a possession and cost the other team a possession. Therefore, 10 extra turnovers might be worth 20 extra rebounds for the other team, except for the fact that trapping, when unsuccessful, leads to layups and wide open 3s by the other team.

In my opinion, it is not realistic to expect that Anderson will be replaced. We can’t hire an established top 5 or even a top 10 coach. And, although I wish we could, even if we could find a genius young coach like Eddie Sutton was, no one in authority would dare take the chance that he might not be successful like the coach Anderson replaced.

you are selling low expectation, You can’t recruit in AR, and you can’t get a good coach come to AR. Wrong on all counts. AR basketball is still considered one of the premier jobs in the country, we should expect better than mediocre, AR produces quality basketball players and can recruit well nationwide with a good evaluating and recruiting a coach. Here is what is going to happen. Either Mike moves our program to the next level or he is gone in the next couple year, period.

Just a question:

Explain mediocrity

Middle conference? Middle pack SEC? Or just NCAAT results?

Kentucky basketball proves that in some sports you can be much better than your natural recruiting base so, although I don’t see it, you might have a point about Arkansas basketball. However, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, and I forgot about Tennessee, have considerable larger populations and that explains in most sports why LSU, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia have better recruiting.

I don’t believe the powers will replace Anderson unless they can hire a top 10 coach and what very successful and established head coach would take the Arkansas job? Granted there are several young, energetic, genius coaches that will in the future be a top 5 head coach. However, who would dare take the risk and hire him before he is proven knowing that he may be no more successful than John Pelphrey.

SEC is moving by leaps and bounds. Unless we can keep up, a change will be made, no other choice. The monkey is on Mikes’ back to get it done or change. The fanbase is getting more and more restless, and he is running out of time. Whether we like it or not that is the prevailing condition.

Look at the post “Radio This Morning 7-3-2”, a post by Votan in which he shows AR’s year by year placement in the SEC. That is Mediocre over a seven-year period. It is improvements over the other two prior coaches, but it did not live up to the expectation. SEC is improving by leaps and bounds. We must be able to keep up. The next couple years would be the telling tale. Mike is running out of time and fanbase is getting restless. That is the way it is now.

You didn’t answer the question

If he doesn’t make changes, Mike may not make it past next season based on what most fans are saying today. This is so much like the loss of support for CBB after the Belk Bowl. Next year could be ugly if Gafford goes pro and Mike won’t survive if he keeps using this outdated style and questionable coaching.

Our state is loaded w basketball talent. We just have to keep it at home. Then go out of state to fill in the blanks. Every kid we recruit should be able to shoot. And we need more size. We need to sign a true center 3 out of 4 years. And the 4 position seems to be the area were we really lack. Chaney should really help there next year. If Gafford leaves doesn’t appear we have a back up plan. Vanover doesn’t seem to be liked by this staff. But there is big time talent in Arkansas. I can think offhand of 3 or 4 that have gone elsewhere for whatever reason. Mostly guards. I wonder if some think our offense and defense don’t prepare them for next level. I don’t know. I’m glad sills and joe decided to stay home. Hill also next December. Lots of guys also in the 6’4” to 6’6” range coming up we could certainly use. I don’t buy for one second that poor little Arkansas can’t recruit big time players. Plus i don’t buy the fact that we can’t go out hire a really good coach.

You didn’t read the post. I explain: Top two finishers can be considered elite teams, the next two good. The middle of a pack of a 14 team conference is 7. A tad above and below is the middle range. that is 5, 6, 7 & 8 are middle teams. 9 and bellow are usually teams that are less than 9-9. AR finishes have been about 6 to 7.

In my opinion, Arkansas in NOT loaded with basketball talent, especially compared to the larger states. Also, it seems to me that, usually they are not as good as their ranking; Gafford being one of the exceptions.

You may believe we can hire a really good coach. However, unless you talking unproven coaches that may end up being great, you have not named any we can hire.

Actually, I read the post. You quoted someone else’s opinion. So, your opinion is mediocre is anyone below four. Welp, in the 7 years Mike has been here we have the third most wins, we also have the 3rd least amount of losses, only five teams have made the tourney at least three times, of those five only three have won more than one game.

So by your definition KY and FL are elite, we are good.

Now, I’ll ask again, why (in your opinion) are we mediocre?

Oh and another hint: TN and AUB over the last 7 years rank 6th and 14th out of 14 teams. TN has been to two tournaments and AUB has been to one, but let me guess they’re ELITE because they tied for regular season champs.

Why do some consider us mediocre? I might add that Mike’s teams look good against teams with poor ball handlers. We win all of those games but… we lose when we get up against teams with good PG’s that know to swing the ball from one side to another to collapse our backside traps that leave a shooter wide open for 3’s. Teams that scout well know to use our switches against us too so they can get our bigs away from the basket and one of our guards covering their big under the basket.

So your definition of mediocre only applies when we play a team with a good PG? How’d that work out for OU?

Let me be more clear as I didn’t take the time to properly post while trying to work. We are not capable of consistently playing the good teams. We build up a record against weak to moderate quality teams, but then don’t do well against the good teams. The good teams can turn us upside down if we are not shooting well because we don’t have rebounders under the basket very much. The good teams with good coaches will scout us and use Mike’s offense and defense against us. Mike says his teams are built for this time of year but that has not proven to be the case. Tournament time means you are playing the GOOD team with Good coaches, and that leaves Mike exposed. They expose Mike’s use of a style when he doesn’t have the roster for it, they scout us and see to collapse our backside traps that leave a shooter wide open for 3’s, and use our switches against us too so they can get our bigs away from the basket and one of our guards covering their big under the basket.

Razor: Thank you for your faith in our great State that we are capable of producing quality players and finding a good coach if necessary who can recruit nationally. the point of this all is not where we are, mediocre, good or bad. The point is where we are going from here. Are we going to move to the next level or we are going to remain a 5, or 6 seed in SEC, no win or one win in NCAA, then pretending we are great. After the Butler loss, when I saw the explosion by the fans, I realized this fan base is ready to move up or else. That is up to Mike to make it happen. Everyone has been patient, and he is going to get more time to do it. If not, I promise you some change will happen. that is the bottom line.

This was his Belk Bowl. If next season is bad he will be gone.

I think that one of the main problems the last couple of years has been the absence of any guards who could consistently defend penetrating guards. Almost any one’s defense is going to be taught fundamentally to help to stop a penetrator, and that opens up the three point shots and gets your guys out of position to rebound/defend in the low post.

You can play man against penetrating guards either with quick feet or with reasonably athletic length. Our senior guards, while being pretty athletic and at times clever defenders, were neither quick enough or long enough to consistently contain penetrating guards. CJ Jones is still a below average defender, although he took a few baby steps late in the year to at least give a glimmer he might be adequate on defense as a junior.

We did have one guy on the squad who appears to have the ability to eventually be a really good man defender against shooting guards and some small forwards, Hall.

I am hoping that the new guys coming in will be better man defenders against penetrating guards, and their resumes suggest that may be the case. I think we will have more guys who can defend guards, and that will let us play man more successfully. I think we will be a better defensive team by January 1, 2019 than we were on January 1st of this year. The big question is who will wind up carrying the load on offense.

You are missing the point. Good? ok, but this good is not good enough for the response I noticed from the fanbase after the Butler game. The Status quo is not satisfactory. Move to next level or be gone.

The bottom line is this. MA is a decent coach. But, the regular season wins, and making the NCAA tourney alone is not good enough. Especially if we want to recruit, compete, and have a realistic, consistent chance to WIN titles. Period.

During his tenure as the coach of the Razorbacks, he has not demonstrated the ability to prepare the players and staff for championship environment success. Those are factual issues, based on his record at U of A. Being a 7 seed isn’t good enough. Losing in an embarrassing fashion isn’t acceptable. Yes the program is better, but no sweet 16 appearances since 1996 isn’t good enough. And so what he’s never had a losing season - Doesn’t mean anything when you get put out the first weekend of the NCAA’s or the SEC’s. Especially in blowout fashion.

And as far as not being able to get a better coach - Example… You think Bruce Weber at Kansas State (makes 1.85 million) wouldn’t come to Fayetteville? Manhattan, KS vs Arkansas? Come on…all it takes is MONEY. The guy at UMBC just earned himself a better job and raise. Now I’m not saying he’s the guy for us, but I am saying that the Hogs would be very attractive to A LOT of current coaches.

Success is judged on post season performance. Everyone knows that. I’m sure the Auburn message boards were lit up last night too.