FAYETTEVILLE — University of Arkansas officials defended the decision to spend $ 90, 000 on a search firm that ultimately helped them hire a basketball coach who said he coveted the job anyway.

UA Chancellor John White said the contributions of Parker Executive Search of Atlanta were “invaluable.”

South Alabama’s John Pelphrey, 38, took over the program Monday and called it “a dream job” that he had admired since his playing days at Kentucky 15 years ago.

It’s likely that Arkansas could have hired Pelphrey without the search firm.

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“We could have,” White said. “I don’t know that we would have. Obviously, we didn’t before we engaged the firm.”

Arkansas retained the search f irm Wednesday to bring expertise to a process that, the first time through, resulted in the school being rebuffed by 10 highprofile coaches, Athletic Director Frank Broyles said. Broyles ended up hiring Creighton’s Dana Altman, who quit a day later. Parker handled the second go-round.

UA System President Alan Sugg said he supported the decision by Broyles and White to use the search firm.

“We’ll know in a couple of years if it was a good decision,” Sugg said. “I’m confident it is.”

Private funds will be used to pay the fee, plus expenses, to Parker Executive Search of Atlanta.

Kentucky, Iowa, Minnesota and South Florida hired the same firm to help fill their coaching vacancies in the past month. Arizona State, Indiana and Oklahoma were among the schools that used Parker last year.

Pelphrey was not initially available to Arkansas, Broyles and White said. Pelphrey was keeping an eye on the Kentucky job until it was filled but was not among the top candidates. The Wildcats hired Texas A&M’s Billy Gillispie on Friday after failing to land Florida’s Billy Donovan and Texas’ Rick Barnes.

Pelphrey interviewed with Arkansas on Saturday.

Asked if the school got its money’s worth from the search firm, Broyles said: “Ask Dr. White about that. I agreed with him. I had talked to at least 10 of the best coaches in America and they were fixed. They didn’t want to move. So we thought we would go a different direction.”

The ready access to a massive database on coaches nationwide made the search firm worthwhile, White said. Arkansas would not have had access to so much information so easily.

“We were not very far into this process with the firm — in fact, we were in the second day — and Coach Broyles turned to me and said, ‘I should have done this three weeks ago, using the firm,’” White said. “He said, ‘I had no idea [the amount of information available ]. ’”

Broyles, White and sports information director Kevin Trainor met Thursday-Saturday in Dallas with Dan Parker, the firm’s president. They would ask Parker a question and he would answer almost immediately with help from three assistants working in the firm’s home office, White said.

“We were getting information that was across the nation,” White said. “Their database includes every school — Division I, Division II — that’s out there. They had the NBA. We asked questions about that, about various possible assistants, even head coaches, in the NBA.

“ We went through a lot of this and they were able to give us some very, very good information that helped us in the search. That was invaluable, frankly.”

Hiring a search firm also gave Arkansas a valuable reality check from its initial swing at elite coaches.

“I think that we got so focused on, quote, the big name that it stood in the way of saying, ‘ Wait a minute. Let’s step back. Let’s be very objective of where we are, who’s out there, what’s available and what’s likelihood and assessing the probabilities and all of those kinds of things,’” White said. “And that’s the kind of dispassionate, objectivity and rationale that was brought to the process by the firm.” MARCH 27 Broyles says he has offered the job to his top candidate but has not talked to him. The coach knows he’s Arkansas ’ choice “through channels,” Broyles says. MARCH 29 Byrne finally calls back around 10 a. m. and gives Broyles permission to talk to Gillispie. Byrne calls again around noon and says Gillispie has committed to staying. Broyles was unable to reach Gillispie during the two-hour window. Arkansas finally moves on. MARCH 31 Sources say Broyles offers the job to Memphis’ John Calipari (above ), who turns it down. Over the course of the week, Broyles also has tried to gauge interest from Southern California’s Tim Floyd, Kansas’ Bill Self and Marquette’s Tom Crean with no interest reciprocated. Broyles returns from Atlanta at the end of the day. APRIL 1 One last run is made at Floyd APRIL 2 A university plane picks up Altman in Atlanta and takes him to Omaha, Neb., where he tells his players he’s accepting the Arkansas job. He then flies to Fayetteville, where he’s introduced as the UA’s new coach.