ATLANTA — It was two hours past midnight and the lobby of the Hilton, temporary home for many of the head basketball coaches during the Final Four, was thinning out.

Near the front entrance, sitting on a wall, were Bill Self, Billy Gillispie and Tim Brando.

Gillispie spoke first and said he was sorry for not returning calls, but that he just couldn’t.

Self said: “I did though, didn’t I ?”

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Then Self grew serious for a moment and said: “If it is Dana [Altman ], you got a really, really good coach and person.”

Gillispie nodded in agreement, and Brando said: “That’s a great choice.”

Apparently, about 17 hours later, Frank Broyles called and offered the job to Altman, and he accepted.

Tom Shatel, sports columnist for the Omaha (Neb. ) World-Herald, has written many stories about Creighton basketball over the years, and he said: “Dana is a very versatile coach when it comes to offense, and he’s a defensive genius.”

By Monday morning, when many of the coaches had departed, there were still enough to make a buzz about the rumor of Altman’s hiring.

Kermit Davis, head coach at Middle Tennessee and former top assistant at LSU (and once the head coach at Texas A&M ), was waiting on a car but said: “If it is Dana Altman, the Razorbacks got a great fit for them, he’s a heckuva coach.”

There was one question, from a USA Today reporter, that was a bit different but expected.

“They fired Stan Heath to hire Dana Altman ?” he asked.

That question was probably asked a little more than most know Monday, and probably the main reason Heath was fired was the growing apathy about the basketball program.

More than 9, 000 empty seats for the last home game probably had as much to do with Heath’s dismissal as anything.

It should be noted that while Broyles worked overtime to find the coach he thought would fit the Razorbacks program and family, he has also made numerous calls on behalf of Heath, who got an interview at South Florida last week and landed the job Monday.

Also, the ringing endorsements for Altman from other coaches had nothing to do with Heath.

Late Friday night, the whispers around the coaches ’ hotel were that Altman and his wife, Reva, had dinner with Broyles and was the prime candidate for the Razorbacks job.

It also seemed most of the coaches never thought Gillispie would leave his home state for anything other than Kentucky, which is one of the elite jobs in the country.

It is also a job that might be filled by Billy Donovan, but that won’t be known one way or the other until late today or maybe even later in the week.

Donovan has been a little busy preparing the Florida Gators for Monday’s national championship game against Ohio State.

He’s refused to talk about Kentucky or the rumor that he will be offered $ 4 million per year to coach the Memphis Grizzlies.

Ironically perhaps, or maybe this was part of Broyles’ thinking, Altman has beaten Donovan not once but twice.

Altman has had so much success at Creighton, a private school with high academic standards, it has become almost a spring ritual for him to interview at a bigger school.

Until Sunday night, he always thought he had a better situation where he was and said no thanks.

Arkansas doesn’t have the storied history of Kentucky, but it is still considered a very good job. Not like it was when Eddie Sutton laid the foundation or when Nolan Richardson took it to another level in the mid 1990 s, but the potential is still there.

Which was why so many coaches were interested and why so many others were watching what happened.

Monday morning, a former coach was about to get in a cab when he stopped, turned and said: “The last time they hired someone from Creighton it turned out pretty good.”

Eddie Sutton smiled, got in a cab and left for the airport.