FAYETTEVILLE — When Dana Altman told Arkansas Chancellor John White on Tuesday that he was backing out and returning to Creighton after accepting the Razorbacks’ basketball coaching job a day earlier, it wasn’t the first time White found himself involved in such a bizarre circumstance.

But the last time it happened, in 1993 when White was an administrator at Georgia Tech, he was on the other side of it.

Back then, White was chairman of a search committee to find a new basketball coach for the Yellow Jackets after Bobby Cremins left Atlanta to become coach at South Carolina, his alma mater.

The next day, Cremins announced he had a made a mistake and was returning to Georgia Tech.

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“I chaired the search committee at Georgia Tech that brought us an undefeated head coach from South Carolina named Bobby Cremins,” White said. “That’s the first thing that went through my mind today.”

Altman and Cremins are among the most prominent college basketball coaches to accept new jobs and then quickly change their minds, but there have been others.

Last year Gregg Marshall left Winthrop in Rock Hill, S. C., to become coach at the College of Charleston. A day later, he announced he was staying at Winthrop.

Ironically, the College of Charleston then hired Cremins, who had been out of coaching since 2000 when he resigned under pressure at Georgia Tech.

Two years ago, Rick Majerus accepted the Southern California job after he resigned at Utah, citing health issues. A few days later, Majerus backed out, citing concerns about his health.

In 2002, Dan Dakich left Bowling Green to become coach at West Virginia. Within a week, Dakich announced his decision to return to Bowling Green.

Now Altman can add his name to the list of coaches who backed out after accepting a job at another school.

A possible upside for Arkansas is that in several cases, a school spurned by its initial hire wound up getting a pretty good coach the second time around.

After Cremins returned to Georgia Tech in 1993, South Carolina lured Eddie Fogler from Vanderbilt, where he was the SEC Coach of the Year after leading the Commodores to the conference title. Four years later, Fogler led South Carolina to its lone SEC basketball championship.

To replace Majerus, USC hired Tim Floyd, who was out of coaching at the time and this season led the Trojans to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.

After Dakich went back to Bowling Green, West Virginia turned to John Beilein, who left Richmond and led the Mountaineers to two NCAA Tournament appearances — including a run to the Elite Eight in 2005 — and this year’s NIT championship.

Beilein’s run at West Virginia was impressive enough that he’s now been hired at Michigan.

Cremins led College of Charleston to a 22-11 record this season after replacing Marshall.

“This is a bump in the road,” White said of Altman’s decision.