FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas basketball fans grumbled almost all season for someone, or something, to light a fire under their team. Thanks to Dana Altman, the Razorbacks are now on boil. Altman abruptly resigned as Arkansas’ coach Tuesday, one day after accepting the job and seemingly ending a 13-year run at Creighton. Altman said the change of heart was a family decision.

The Razorbacks focused on a theme of togetherness after a late-evening meeting with assistant coach Glynn Cyprien, too, though more in a bandof-brothers way. “It’s all going to make us tougher as men and we ain’t too much worried about it, because when we do get a coach he’s going to realize that he’s got one of the better teams in the country that’s going to work hard every day,” freshman guard Stefan Welsh said.

Welsh said there was no talk of Cyprien serving as an interim coach during the brief meeting, which took place inside Walton Arena following Altman’s announcement early Tuesday evening.

Forward Darian Townes said he first heard the news while watching television.

“I was flipping through the channels, just to see what was on,” Townes said. “I thought it was a joke.”

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Gary Ervin said he spoke briefly with Altman before the announcement but that he wasn’t given a full explanation of Altman’s decision to bolt back to Creighton.

“I don’t know anything about the situation that happened,” Ervin said. “I just know we’ve got 10 or 11 guys that’s going to stick together through whatever happens.”

Ervin was one of a handful of players who made short comments to the media before the meeting with Cyprien. Sonny Weems also stopped briefly and said he didn’t hold any ill will toward Altman.

But as the crowd of media and curious onlookers grew, other players declined interviews as they entered the arena. When the players emerged after the meeting with Cyprien, the handful who stopped to comment were clearly agitated.

Others, like Weems, simply shook their heads and kept walking.

“It all sounds good so far,” Weems said after Altman was introduced Monday. “But when you’re recruited by all these coaches and hear them say all these things, you just have to wait and see what really happens.”

What happened Tuesday was the Razorbacks lost a coach.

Whether, like Welsh suggested, they gained a motivational “steppingstone” to greatness next season remains to be seen.

Information for this article contributed by The Associated Press.