The issues of Arkansas Basketball

If you have been following our top 10 college basketball programs of all-time you noticed that Arkansas got honorable mention, which in essence made them the 13th ranked program of all-time. Looking at the top 13 it's pretty hard to imagine a team that has fallen from grace like the Razorbacks have. Arizona is the only one that is close. When you compare the two programs the Wildcats are superior to the Razorbacks since 1995.


In my formula I felt that it gave weight to teams who had sustained greatness. It was not about who had won the most national championships or final fours, but who had won those championships, been to the final fours, won the conference championships and other criteria over time. The Razorbacks qualified.


This whole debate started when I was listening to a local radio show that stated the Arkansas basketball program was Mississippi State outside of a few great years. This formula blows that notion out of the water. When I began thinking about a formula to try to score the greatest programs my initial thought was rank all-americans instead of NBA draft picks. The problem I ran into it was down right impossible to find a reputable all-american list for each program. Also, lately NBA draft picks and not all-americans have been the measuring stick for a programs success. Although throughout college basketball history this fact has not always been true. If you take recent success out of the formula and you put all-americans in the formula instead of NBA draft picks then Arkansas ranks about eighth all-time, which is exactly where The Sporting News ranked them a few years ago. My question when considering all things is can you make a program who has not had much success in 14 years a top 10 program? To me the answer was no.


The North Carolina's, the Duke's, the Kentucky's, and the Kansas' are programs that have had sustained success over time. Even when you get outside of those programs in the top 10 like Michigan State, Louisville, Syracuse, and Arizona those programs have had lulls but always come back. Honestly, none of those programs have had such a long period of time that they have been irrelevant like Arkansas has. Why? What has happened? There have been several things that happened. From Nolan's out bursts to his mistreatment at Arkansas or John White trying to make the University of Arkansas the Harvard of the South to the detriment of the athletic program, there are many factors that have made Arkansas a fallen program. Not to mention the Stan Heath experiment where Stan got some good players to come through here, but was not a strong enough coach or personality to bring the program to where Arkansas fans expect it. Now Arkansas has John Pelphrey and as of right now the program has regressed since he has been the head coach. Is all of it his fault? Probably not. Dana Altman did leave after one day on the job. Bottom line is though each coach is responsible for his program no matter the problems before or after he became the coach. Butler's coach is in his third year and they went to the national championship game.


What is acceptable at Arkansas? Is it the height of Nolan Richardson's program where Arkansas was a threat to go to the Final Four every year? Is it Eddie Sutton's program that had a shot to get there but was more than likely a sweet 16 team? I know one thing that is not acceptable and that is the current state of the program. You will never see Duke, North Carolina, or Kansas have such problems in their programs. Arkansas is clearly not those programs though and probably never will be. For that matter Kentucky who has had problems in the past they will not ever have 14 years of sustained failure as Arkansas has had. Adding to that, Michigan State, Syracuse, and Louisville will not have such problems and all these programs have similar histories as Arkansas.


The pattern you will see if you look at the top 10 programs of all-time is great coaches. Each school has at least had two of them and Arkansas is no different with Eddie Sutton and Nolan Richardson. Although both were great Eddie had problems that would have lead to his ultimate demise. Nolan thought he had become greater than the program and frequently made the statement he didn't want any superstars. In the last six years of his tenure at Arkansas he did not get them and the program suffered.. The problem is in the seven years since Nolan Arkansas has not been able to land a coach that is acceptable for Arkansas as a program. Is the money there? Are the facilities there? Is the tradition there? The facilities are there with or without a practice facility. The tradition is there. Somebody needs to sell that. The money is speculated to not be there. It has always been there before. Is that a product of today's economy or changes in the top of the athletic program?


The University of Arkansas has committed to another year of John Pelphrey and all of Arkansas is hoping that he can bring the program back. Recruiting seems to be better for 2010. It might get a lot better here in the spring signing period. There is a 2011 and class that looks to be promising for the Razorbacks. Things could be on the up and up, but if significant improvement is not made next year then it is time for a change no matter how the 2011 class feels. Any program can not let a group of recruits hold the program hostage. Arkansas is no different.


Whatever the problem. Arkansas deserves better right now. This program is a proud program one that has history that can compete with almost any in college basketball history. It is time for this program to start taking steps toward bringing the program back to the future.