I forget his name, but interested if he’s disappointed that our freshman won their very first sec game…on the road…
We have a few of those. Not sure if it’s hates the team or hates MA, but it works about the same.
that pretty much sums it up…
I’ve been critical of Mike but don’t hate him. Great win. I’ll
eat crow when I need to. Mike did a very nice job today. Good for him.
This.
You can support Mike and the team, cheer for them, hope against all hope that they win every game…but still be disappointed with where this program is at in year 8 of this staff.
The highest a MA coached Arkansas team has been ranked in 8yrs is 16th for a week, he’s won 2 first round games in the tourney, and won zero SEC or SEC Tournament Championships.
Meanwhile, at some similar programs…and I’m just picking three off the top of my head:
Tennessee:
Year 4 for Rick Barnes and he has them ranked 3rd in the country after winning 26 games and a share of the conference championship last season.
Virgina Tech:
Year 5 for Buzz Williams, who with his own roster now has VaTech in the top 10 at a program that’s never had much of any success.
Texas Tech:
Year 3 for Chris Beard and he has TT in the top 10, coming off an elite eight appearance last season.
I’m not saying I want any of these coaches over Mike but I should also be able to be disappointed with where this program is at in year 8 compared to these others at shorter junctures without being called a “hater”.
Maybe he hits on a guy or two this spring and then knocks it out of the park with a class that includes some of Williams, Moore, Moody, Thompson, etc…then never looks back. I really do hope that’s the outcome.
Of the 3 coaches you listed, only Buzz walked into a weak team. Tennessee and Texas Tech had talent when those two other coaches walked in. Arkansas was a dumpster fire and on probation when Anderson walked in.
You seem to think it couldn’t be worse. Look at our football team. I would certainly like us to be more successful in year 8 than we are, but 3 coaches out of 330 is the exception. I’m not disappointed. I’m anxious/excited about the future. It’s a better feeling.
Have you bothered to check where Mike had UAB and Missouri in same number of years? Or are you just ignoring it purpously? None of these 3 coaches were named National Coach of the Year either like Mike was.
I am sure your argument would be “Mike has not done that at Arkansas”. Well so haven’t Buzz, Beard and Barnes. Are you sure those three can do the same at Arkansas walking in what Mike walked in?
This selective snapshot of a given time is baffling, puzzling and perhaps irritating.
If you had just said you are disappointed that Mike has not done more in 7 years (BTW year 8 is not over yet), I will join you in that. But bringing these other coaches as examples, makes me debate against you.
I often wonder how stupid Mike was to leave where he had established a foundation to go even further and come home (as Mike calls it) where he was not wanted.
A few of the posters you’ve asked about in the OP have slunk out with their usual schtick in the thread. The year counters.
Buzz Williams is a good coach. He hasn’t done anything, yet, at VTech to be put up as an example of how he has been such an upgrade over MA. Oh, and there’s that whole “he didn’t want our job” thing.
Beard has been phenomenal.
No one think MA is the best coach in America. But, he has done a good job everywhere he has been.
And, yet, a handful of you act like he’s terrible and you pretty much make even good days/wins miserable.
All three coaches are doing great jobs.
But Buzz turned the job, Beard is interested only in Texas Tech in that school and a couple of others while Coach Barnes told me in Brooklyn that he hoped to retire at Tennessee.
So if a new coach is needed here, it won’t be any of those guys.
I’m hoping CMA can retire on his own accord right where he is. Our hogs went down when they failed to allow CMA to follow Nolan.
People need to realize the dirty dealings that have been storing kids to top tier schools for a long time and that keeps coaches from being on an even equal playing field. Having integrity and moral values is more than winning any athlete event in any sport.
I’m with you Army. Great post.
Thank you LD.
You do realize that Buzz Williams hasn’t won a single NCAA tournament game at Va Tech in his first 4 years right? And hasn’t finished better than 7th in conference. It’s cool that he’s ranked right now, but that doesn’t mean much, we see teams ranked all the time early in the season and then end of not even making the tournament, we haven’t even played half the season yet. Let’s let him get his first NCAA tournament win before we talk about how much better he is than CMA. And FYI in CMA’s 4th season he won 27 games, finished 2nd in conference, played in the SEC Championship game, and made it to the round of 32. Compare that to Buzz Williams 4th year…
As far as Rick Barnes, it took him 3 years just to have a winning season, and that winning season ended with his team getting upset in the round of 32, by an 11 seed Loyola-Chicago. Something from your post history tells me had CMA got upset by an 11 seed, you wouldn’t be going on other boards bragging about how much better he is than other coaches. Also, Rick Barnes took over a program that had been to the sweet sixteen 2 years before he arrived.
And Chris Beard, he’s arguably done the best job of the 3 coaches you mentioned, but the Texas Tech program was in the best shape of those 3 programs. Tubby Smith left him with a great roster, and a roster that won him Big 12 COY. The leading scorer on that elite 8 team last year was one of Tubby’s recruits, most of that roster was Tubby’s recruits.
You can’t just say this coach is doing this and this coach is doing that, every situation is different. Had CMA inherited an Arkansas program that had just made the sweet 16 two years before he arrived or a roster that the previous coach won POY with, I’m sure he would have had success much quicker. Instead CMA inherited a program with APR problems, had 3 years straight years of a losing record in conference, and no practice facility, when every other school in the conference had one. Details like that matter.
Blue great post.
Lots of folks pointing to Rick Barnes’ success at TN. He’s a great coach but it takes some luck to get where he has with his team. There’s a feature in Sports Illustrated that’s worth the read.
https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2 … -schofield
The story features their two best players, Grant Williams and Admiral Schofield. Both were unheralded recruits who have turned into great college players who don’t project well to the NBA. That’s the formula that works for the programs that aren’t recruiting the “one and done” players. Those kind of players are not easy to find. I think MA regularly recruits guys like this that he hopes will grow into something better (Michael Qualls, Gabe O, and Adrio Bailey are examples). Barnes hit the jackpot with those two.
Here’s a quote about Williams from the linked story…
“As a sophomore last season, the 6’ 7” forward was voted the SEC Player of the Year, less than three seasons after being a roly-poly (his words) three-star recruit from Charlotte. He chose Tennessee over Yale, Harvard and Princeton, to the disappointment of his NASA-engineer mother, Teresa Johnson, after building a future Ivy Leaguer’s extracurricular résumé;"
Barnes wore out his welcome at Texas after having great teams for a while followed by a long run of good teams that seemed to under-achieve. The near elite level his Texas teams had in the first part of his run there seems like a long time ago. His track record suggests that whatever happens this year at Tennessee will be as good as it is going to get. He’s 64 years old now. Can’t see him pulling up stakes when he has the program in a solid(albeit not quite elite) position.
Buzz did a good job at Marquette, and he had to build from ground zero at Virginia Tech, which was a smoldering dumpster fire when our old buddy Seth Greenberg got fired. He has done a nice job at an ACC school that will keep him around within the reasonably foreseeable future, so long as he wants to be there. (VTech let Greenberg stay nine seasons where he got to the NCAA one time and finished 170-123). A move to anywhere in the SEC other than Kentucky or maybe A&M(he’s from Texas) seems unlikely.
Beard can coach. Period. He took another guy’s players at UALR and won big for their level. He took Tubby’s underachievers and has done very well at Texas Tech. He’s the most popular guy in Lubbock, and has the security to build teams the way he wants, without fear of a letdown year. Not sure he would ever leave Tech for anything but a true blue blood job(Kansas?) for a gazillion dollars.
Chris Beard is an excellent coach. But to say he took Tubby’s underachievers is wrong. Tubby had taken Tech to NCAAT the year before Chris arrived. Then in Chris’s first season, Tech missed the NCAAT. So, I don’t know how you can make that connection.