Dana Altman took the high road.

In less than 24 hours, he saw a number of things that he could not, would not, live with and made a decision that very well could be career suicide.

He met three times with Arkansas Chancellor John White and then met with the media and said all the right things for the University of Arkansas.

Not for Dana Altman, but for a school that has some serious issues, apparently ranging from academic problems to more critical areas.

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Understand, by not telling all, he probably made a lifetime commitment to Creighton.

When he refused to bring out the laundry list of problems, he made it look like he had buyer’s remorse. And he was willing to do that for a school he has no allegiances to because he’s a man of character.

Never think for one second that he did the school wrong.

Altman came in with the intent to return the Razorbacks basketball program to national respect.

He worked late Monday night making contact with high school coaches and people he needed to believe in him and the UA.

By Tuesday morning, things were not adding up, and he began to dig deeper. When he was told personnel changes would not be made, he called his wife and then his former athletic director.

Before 7 p. m. Tuesday, 26 hours after accepting the job, he resigned to return home.

By then, the Razorback Foundation jet was en route to Augusta, Ga., to pick up Frank Broyles.

A headhunter agency in Atlanta is going to be hired to find one of its clients who has been fired, or is about to be, to take the job.

That’s a shame.

A shame for the UA, but more importantly for its fans who believed that after an initial jilting by Texas A&M’s Billy Gillispie, the right guy had been hired.

And he was, but he was not apprised of the entire situation because specific information had been withheld from bosses.

The University of Arkansas athletic department has never had more egg on its face than today, and it would have been worse if Altman hadn’t taken the high road.

It has nothing to do with the rumors that several players were ineligible, some had tested positive for drugs and that others may have had their hands out.

It has to do with the fact that the fans trusted the state’s flagship university not to get in this position.

The fans counted on them to be above board. To look out for them.

Thursday, recruiting begins for college basketball, and the UA doesn’t have a head coach.

Instead, the search begins with some outfit in Atlanta — where Broyles and Jimmy Dykes conducted their own search while almost every coach in America was there — that probably has no idea how to do a hog call.

They don’t understand the passion and pride the Razorbacks represent for the majority of the people in this state, and more than likely, they don’t care.

They will care about their fee.

The sad thing is this could have been avoided.

The search for a new coach started with Gillispie and then went into a free-fall until they happened upon an excellent coach with great character — Altman.

At one time, it was being said that Memphis Coach John Calipari was a candidate, and all this reporter could do was wonder why Mississippi’s Andy Kennedy had not been contacted.

All he did was win with some of the least-talented players in the SEC.

Or Mike Montgomery, who had great success at Stanford before an ill-advised moved to the NBA.

It initially looked like the Razorbacks had lucked out.

Altman is a coach’s coach, but he came to town and his five senses quickly told him it would be better to be a lifetime coach at Creighton than deal with the problems that won’t be solved because the people who allowed them will remain on the payroll.