Like It Is

State enjoyed a college basketball resurgence

Arkansas forward Bobby Portis (10) celebrates a basket against Tennessee during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the quarterfinal round of the Southeastern Conference tournament, Friday, March 13, 2015, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

What a difference in one year.

Last March, the state of Arkansas was 0-0 in NCAA Tournaments.

Fast forward 12 months, and not only did three teams from the state compete in their respective tournaments but all of them also won a game for a combined record of 3-3.

The No. 5 seeded Arkansas Razorbacks beat a very talented and tough Wofford team 56-53 before falling to North Carolina 87-78.

The Arkansas women's team, a No. 10 seed, beat Northwestern and then ran into national power Baylor, which won 73-44.

The No. 11 seeded UALR women's team beat No. 6 seed Texas A&M, a national power most years, 69-60 and then took on host Arizona State and lost 57-54.

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While on the subject of the Trojans, when Joe Foley became the head coach at UALR it had won only three Sun Belt Conference games in four seasons.

This was Foley's fourth trip to the NCAA Tournament, where he's recorded victories over Georgia Tech and Texas A&M, and it looked like he might add Arizona State to his resume.

The only thing Foley did wrong was not be the coach of the home team.

It seemed like the officials gave Coach Charli Turner Thorne and the Sun Devils every call in the second half, and the head-scratcher was when Arizona State scored and one of the officials called a foul away from the ball and gave possession back to the home team.

That just doesn't happen.

Anyway, the victory over A&M was Foley's 700th as a college coach, and since coming to UALR he is 244-131 . Not bad for a program that had only three conference victories before his arrival.

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Mississippi State Athletic Director Scott Stricklin has turned the Bulldogs' football facilities from close to a high school stadium into a massive, suite-enriched event center.

Apparently Stricklin had a plan for basketball before he fired Rick Ray, who was 37-60 at MSU.

Former UCLA coach Ben Howland was hired within two days, and at his first news conference he said his goal was to make the Bulldogs a Final Four team.

He knows the way, having taken the Bruins to two Final Fours and Pittsburgh to two Sweet 16 appearances.

Howland has a career record of 399-208.

His recruitment of a couple of players was investigated, and one of them received a three-game suspension. Sports Illustrated did a big story on how Howland had lost control of the team at UCLA. He was fired two years ago after going 25-10 and winning the Pac-12 title.

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The SEC now has become even more of a coaches league with the hiring of Howland.

Florida's Billy Donovan and Kentucky's John Calipari have won national championships.

Mike Anderson took Missouri to the Elite Eight, as did South Carolina's Frank Martin when he was at Kansas State and Auburn's Bruce Pearl when he was Tennessee's coach.

Kevin Stallings has taken Vanderbilt, an academic giant (with an Ivy League price tag), to the Sweet 16 and six NCAA Tournaments.

Ole Miss' Andy Kennedy has a 2-2 record in the NCAA Tournament, and Tennessee's Donnie Tyndall took Morehead State to the Big Dance twice and has a 2-2 tournament record.

No doubt there is a little pressure at Alabama, which is searching for a coach. Since it has been more than a week since Anthony Grant was fired and there hasn't been a hiring, it seems obvious the Crimson Tide's first choice is still coaching.

The most likely candidate is Wichita State's Gregg Marshall, who is 398-158 as a head coach. He took Winthrop to seven NCAA Tournaments and Wichita State to four, including a Final Four. He was 1-7 at Winthrop, but had a 7-3 record in March Madness with the Shockers going into Thursday night's game against Notre Dame.

Sports on 03/27/2015