Hog Calls

Anderson touts improved UA lineup

Arkansas head coach Mike Anderson reacts against Mississippi during an NCAA college basketball game on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016, in Oxford, Miss. (Bruce Newman /The Oxford Eagle via AP)

FAYETTEVILLE -- Until his news conference Thursday, it seemed Mike Anderson was cast as the coach to bear bad news.

The instant after Anderson's 27-9 Razorbacks of 2014-2015 compiled Arkansas' best basketball season since Nolan Richardson's 32-7 national runner-up Razorbacks of 1994-95, bad news bore down on Arkansas' five-year coach.

You likely remember it all. If you don't, Anderson gave a rundown at his news conference. Here is the condensed version:

All-American and SEC Player of the Year Bobby Portis turned pro, as he should have.

Junior Michael Qualls also turned pro. He shouldn't have. Qualls went undrafted after tearing his ACL while the NBA had already deemed him more project than polished.

Cleaning up the academic and disciplinary mess he inherited in 2011-2012, Anderson got ambushed last summer. Three of his players were charged with forgery.

All were suspended. One was dismissed because of two reported altercations at a Fayetteville nightclub.

Another underclassman, longing for playing time he would have had with the ensuing turnover, impatiently transferred.

The ensuing 16-16 season exposed the team's anticipated flaws.

It also revealed some vast improvements few would have fathomed.

Junior 6-10 big man Moses Kingsley, a two-year bit player behind Portis, blossomed into a second-team All-SEC selection.

Kingsley did the NCAA-allowed testing of NBA waters. Wisely, he realized it wouldn't be just Arkansas, but himself, better served by returning to the UA.

He'll likely complete the last 12 hours for his degree and can prove to the NBA scouts he deserves the NBA Combine invite he didn't get this year.

Anderson also talked of improved returnees such as Dusty Hannahs, who averaged 16.5 for the Hogs last season after a peak average of 7.7 in two years at Texas Tech. He touted Trey Thompson's transformation. Two seasons ago, he was a freshman forward benchwarmer, but he scored 13 points and grabbed six rebounds against LSU's Ben Simmons, projected among the top two in June's NBA Draft.

Even with nationally acclaimed Malik Monk of Bentonville bound for Kentucky, Razorbacks recruiting seems upbeat.

When guard RJ Glasper of Forrest City recently walked on with a 28.5 high school scoring average, it brought a positive reaction.

On paper, the six-man scholarship class of nationally renowned junior college transfers Jaylen Barford, Daryl Macon and Arlando Cook, and freshmen C.J. Jones, Adrio Bailey, and Brachen Hazen erases the recruiting washout of 2015-2016.

That's good news Anderson can preach coming off 16-16 that he couldn't coming off 27-9.

Whether the Razorbacks perform the good news Anderson preaches, well, that's the 2016-2017 news yet to be written.

Sports on 05/14/2016