FAYETTEVILLE — Coach Tom Collen never doubted he would get the Arkansas women’s basketball team back into the NCAA Tournament.
Why would he? He had taken Colorado State and Louisville to the NCAA Tournament seven times in nine seasons.
He knew getting Arkansas back would be a tougher job than his previous stops, but little did he know how difficult the job would be and how long it would take.
The sixth-seeded Razorbacks (23-8) are back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2003 and play No. 11 Dayton in the first round at 3 p.m. today at Texas A&M’s Reed Arena in College Station, Texas.
“It’s a great sense of relief because I poured my heart and soul into trying to take this program back to where it belongs,” said Collen, 58, who was a Razorbacks assistant in 1993-1997. “It has been an exhausting process of trying to make it happen.
“I assure you, no one wanted this program to win more than Tom Collen.”
Collen said he thought the Razorbacks were on the verge of a breakthrough in 2009 with a solid corps of sophomores and freshman Sarah Watkins. What happened instead was a 12-18 season, Collen’s first losing season as a coach.
“I still thought it could happen in three years, the year that we were awful,” said Collen, who is 92-63 in five seasons with the Razorbacks. “The year that we went 12-18 was the turning point. In my mind, I thought this is the group.”
Collen said he believed last year’s team was good enough to make the NCAA Tournament, but a 6-10 SEC record kept the Razorbacks out. This year, Arkansas rebounded from an 0-4 conference start to win 10 SEC games, the most in program history.
“He has done one heck of a job,” said Texas A&M Coach Gary Blair, who coached Arkansas in 1993-2003. “Tom is the right person for that job.”
Collen knew he was in for a rebuilding job when he was hired at Arkansas in March 2007 to replace Susie Gardner. The program had fallen significantly during Gardner’s four seasons, and fan support had dwindled.
“They had lost their tradition over a period of time,” Collen said. “Having been here as an assistant, I knew how hard it was to build here.” Collen said he started to feel pressure as the years ticked by and the NCAA Tournament berth remained elusive, but it wasn’t coming from the Razorbacks’ administration.
Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long came aboard the year after Collen was hired and proved to be a patient believer. After Arkansas lost its fourth consecutive SEC game this season, Long sent Collen a text message of support.
“I knew Tom was taking it tough,” Long said. “I said, and I’m paraphrasing, ‘Hey, keep your head up. We all know how good this team is.’ ”
The support meant a great deal to Collen, because he knows what can happen to coaches who don’t win enough. Three SEC women’s coaches have resigned in the past month.
“That’s not the pressure that drove me,” Collen said. “I only felt for what I wanted to do, how badly I wanted to turn this program around. I came here to turn this program around. I never felt like I wasn’t good at what I do orI wasn’t ultimately going to be successful.”
Collen said he likes to remind people that after Blair led Arkansas to the 1998 Final Four, the Razorbacks went to the WNIT the next two years. Blair said maintaining a program’s status is hard work, too.
“The next year is going to be the hardest thing,” Blair said. “Tom is going to do it, and I hope he gets a new contract and a whole lot of money.”
Collen said he understands the rebuilding isn’t done. The NCAA Tournament is a difficult first step, but there are many more steps on the program-building road map.
“Making the NCAA Tournament doesn’t flip the program by itself,” Collen said. “To me, this is the tip of the iceberg.
“It’s hard to predict the future other than I think in the future it will be easier to vault from where we are now than it was to springboard five years ago.”
Women’s NCAA Tournament
WHO Arkansas vs. Dayton
WHEN 3 p.m. Central today
WHERE Reed Arena, College Station, Texas
RECORDS Arkansas 23-8; Dayton 22-6
SEEDS Arkansas is No. 6; Dayton is No. 11
SERIES Arkansas leads 4-0
TV/RADIO ESPN2/Arkansas women’s radio network
Women’s NCAA bracket, Page 5C
Sports, Pages 21 on 03/17/2012