Hog Calls

Stick to basics in hiring women's coach

Jeff Long, director of athletics and vice chancellor, left, congratulates Jimmy Dykes after being introduced as the eighth women's head basketball coach Sunday, March 30, 2014, at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- The next University of Arkansas, Fayetteville higher-ups fancying they'll think outside the box while hiring a women's basketball coach should have their ears boxed with a history lesson.

It hasn't worked. History has Arkansas 0 for 2 when defying convention.

Presumably, Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long will start his search while aiming for a couple of proven coaches with Arkansas ties to replace Jimmy Dykes, who parted company with the Razorbacks last week after three seasons.

Vic Schaefer, the former Arkansas assistant to Gary Blair, is coaching the 29-4 SEC runners-up Mississippi State Bulldogs. Mike Neighbors, the Greenwood native and former part-time Blair assistant and full-time Susie Gardner Arkansas assistant who has a 96-40 career record with the Washington Huskies, should top the charts.

Neighbors took last year's Huskies to the Final Four. He could repeat with Washington 27-5 this season.

If Schaefer and Neighbors prove unattainable, then surely Long will find a coach with more big-time coaching experience than Dykes or Gardner.

Gardner, who is 25-6 at Mercer but was woefully unprepared for the SEC when Arkansas hired her from Austin Peay, was the out-of-the-box hire by athletics-meddling former UA chancellor John White and retired women's athletic director Bev Lewis after their gaffe of not extending Blair's contract.

Blair -- Lewis' best hire along with women's track and field Coach Lance Harter -- coached Arkansas to its lone women's Final Four. Since leaving Arkansas, he's won Texas A&M a national championship and is an even better promoter, building unprecedented fan bases wherever he coaches.

Two coaches beyond Blair, Arkansas' fan base keeps dwindling.

Hiring Dykes inspired instant but eventual waning interest.

Dykes brought assets. He was a UA and Fayetteville High School graduate and a Razorbacks walk-on during the Eddie Sutton era. He assisted Sutton at Arkansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma State, and he assisted men's staffs at Sacramento State, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Appalachian State. With 19 years national visibility as an ESPN college basketball analyst, Dykes brought the personality to promote the program.

Alas, he never had been a head coach nor coached or recruited women.

Arkansas deteriorated from 18-14 and one NCAA Tournament victory to 12-18 in the second year and 13-17 this season.

Ironically, correcting a self-confessed fault of not listening to his players netted Dykes the most criticism. Six women, citing the rash of blacks killed in confrontations with police, kneeled during the national anthem before an exhibition game this year.

Dykes and Long didn't personally endorse the players' kneeling, but they did stand behind their constitutional rights to do so.

The non-endorsement, given so many other ways to protest without disrespecting the flag, seemed like the right thing for Dykes and Long to do.

Supporting the players' rights, in our free country, was all they could do.

Apparently, it did not contribute to Dykes' departure nor should it have.

Sports on 03/11/2017