FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas head coach Mike Anderson got his 100th win at Bud Walton Arena on Saturday by taking down a ranked team with a head coach named Pitino in front of 17,583 fans - 80 of whom were students dressed as sharks - and an acrobatic puppy.
Jaylen Barford had 22 points and Daniel Gafford 16 points, 7 rebounds and 6 blocks to lead the way in the Razorbacks’ 95-79 win over No. 14 Minnesota.
“That was Bud Walton Arena at its best,” Anderson said. “That is how we do it around here. It is like when you come here it is two hours of sheer chaos.
“I don’t know what it represented, but I even saw some sharks in there, some little blue sharks. They are getting creative. I like that and you’ll be amazed that I think it spills over into our basketball team.”
The sharks were seated behind one of the goals in the student section. The effort was initially the idea of a few students, but grew exponentially and resulted in 80 of them purchasing the costumes at $36 apiece to form a group they called “Sharkansas.”
“It just makes it a great, great environment when you talk about fans and it’s fun,” Anderson said. “I know winning is fun. When you play the exciting brand of basketball that we do from tip to finish, people want to come see it.
“That is the picture I envisioned coming here each and every night no matter who we play they come to watch our basketball team. These guys are slowly getting better.”
Minnesota head coach Richard Pitino - the son of former Kentucky and Louisville coach Rick Pitino - made his third trip into Bud Walton Arena after coming in two earlier times while an assistant at Florida.
His team fell to 8-3 while Arkansas improved to 7-2 in a game that also included a halftime performance from an acrobatic puppy and an introduction of new head football coach Chad Morris and his family.
“Give them a lot of credit,” Pitino said. “They're really good in this building and they're really talented. Obviously we wore down. To go along with foul trouble and depth, it was very difficult and challenging. But not to mention, they were really good.
“When you give up 57 percent on the game, it's really, really hard to win, especially on the road in one of the best environments in college basketball.
So credit to them. Credit to Coach Anderson. He does a great job and I really like their team.”