It's that time of year: College coach carousel!

With the emphasis on football I don't know if Arkansas has the money to hire a big name hoops coach.

I think pelphrey's buyout is $1.8 million. So it seems a mid major coach who makes a sweet sixteen run is the next coach in fayeteville.

 

http://www.latimes.com/sports/college/usc/la-sp-plaschke-usc-20110312,0,1414237.column

In a nutshell, O'Neill had an adult beverage or two with an Arizona booster, and his photo was snapped and posted on a UA fansite (Lane Kiffin was with him ... dude's effing Teflon!). O'Neill then went back to the hotel and bumped into another UA booster, who O'Neill felt helped push him out of Tucson.

Anyway, suspension over for likely NIT game.

 

I'm not so sure a lot of folks expected Pelphrey to be the next big thing. In five seasons at South Alabama, he was 80-67, with one NCAA tournament appearance. He finished 69-60 during his tenure at Arkansas, with one NCAAT victory. In SEC play, Pelphrey had one winning season, and the team finished 9-7. His overall SEC record was 25-39. Remember when Arkansas had back to back victories over #4 Oklahoma and #7 Texas a couple of seasons ago? The team was 12-1 entering SEC play and finished the year 14-16 overall.

Remember, he was only hired after the Dana Altman debacle.

 

I think Arkansas could afford a "name" coach if he could sell more tickets. Their home arena was half-filled this season, at best.

That said, Buzz Williams is likely in the mix too.

 

I think people overrate the attractiveness of this job. You do have great fan support, but you don't really have a recruiting base. You basically have to import almost your entire team. You'll be lucky to get more than 3-4 high-level players from Arkansas on your roster. Your best bet for a recruiting base is raiding Memphis, it would seem.

Corliss Williamson and Moncrief were Arkansas guys. But most of the other stars I can think of were from out of state.

Now, one might say UNC, Indiana and others import players, but in their states, they probably could produce strong teams with primarily in-state guys. Not so in Arkansas.

 

John Pelphrey just signed the #5 recruiting class in the nation. A lot of people thought that the strong class, combined with a few decent wins, would get him another year.

 

I think that Pelphrey should have been fired - but Arkansas needs to decide if it wants to be good at hoops or not before it decides who to hire.

Dude at Missouri is the obvious choice but is he ready to jump?

 

I wonder what will become of that class. Do you think any of the four would leave?

 

1. They have a 20,000-seat arena that used to be a harder ticket to buy than a football ticket. They sure as hell want to be good in basketball again. Between Eddie Sutton and Nolan Richardson, that was a top-10 program for close to 20 years running.

2. Anderson was Nolan's assistant for 17 years and the way Nolan went out is a complicating issue. Maybe with Broyles out of the picture, that's water under the bridge.

 

I worked at a Sun Belt school when Pelphrey went from South Al to Arkansas, and it was a shock to pretty much everyone in the conference that he got that gig.

 

Anderson was quoted in the Columbia Daily Trib as saying he wanted to retire at Mizzou... but that and 65 cents will get you a frosty Dr Pepper from the vending machine.

Anderson's made huge strides in pulling the program from out of the grease fire it was in under Quin Snyder. Unfortunately, the fans aren't supporting Anderson they way they did under Snyder... even though debacles like Ricky Clemons and the Athena Night Club fight are things of the past.

This season was by far the most disappointing of the last three years, though much of the team's shortcomings would've been addressed had one power forward not ruptured his Achilles (or knee?), and another not been horse-fucked by the NCAA Clearinghouse.

Still, these yearly flirtations are getting old. First it was Georgia, then Oregon. The connection to Arkansas is obvious, but I don't think the MU brass will keep re-upping his contract on a yearly basis to keep suitors at bay. If Anderson wants to stay, he needs to sign a deal he can live with and then have a March go by where he's not interviewing for another job.