Anderson’s return to Walton Arena ends in disappointment

BY RAINER SABIN Northwest Arkansas Times

Posted on Thursday, November 29, 2007

URL: http://www.wholehogsports.com/nwat/59701/

Mike Anderson didn’t smile. He didn’t frown. He offered the same stoic expression that he wore on his face for 17 seasons as an assistant at Arkansas. But moments after Missouri lost 94-91 to Arkansas on Wednesday at Walton Arena, the Tigers coach admitted he was disappointed. His team was given a taste of its own medicine and couldn’t stomach it, instead wilting in the final seconds when Darryl Butterfield launched an errant 3-point attempt.

“ I don’t like to think we lost, ” Anderson said. “ We just ran out of time. ”

One year after the Tigers handcuffed Arkansas with a stifling defense that blanketed all areas of the floor in an 86-64 victory at Missouri, the Razorbacks turned up the pressure against the Tigers. By the end of a 40-minute slugfest, Arkansas prevailed.

“ Mike Anderson – he has a lot of history with the Arkansas Razorbacks, ” Arkansas point guard Gary Ervin said. “ At the same time, it was much more of what we needed to do with controlling the basketball and do the same thing we wanted to do on defense. We had a bad taste in our mouths from last year and we decided to get a win. ”

Perhaps as an homage to Ander- son’s mentor, Nolan Richardson, Arkansas coach John Palfrey told the support staff at Walton Arena to turn up the thermostat at Bud Walton Arena.

“ I asked somebody last week what temperature it was when Nolan was here, ” Pelphrey said. “ I asked them to turn it up one degree higher. Certainly, if it’s good enough for him, it’s good enough for us. ”

Earlier this week, Pelphrey said he respected what Anderson accomplished while working as Richardson’s righthand man at Arkansas. And from the moment he arrived in Fayetteville last April, Pelphrey has asked his team to mimic the style of play that made the Razorbacks one of the most well-known college basketball programs in the nation during Richardson’s career in Fayetteville. In turn, Anderson, who received a standing ovation from Hog fans at the beginning, knew that Arkansas was going to press Missouri going into Wednesday’s game — one he warned his players would be intense.

“ It was important to Coach Anderson, ” said guard Stefhon Hannah, who scored a game-high 28 points. “ He said, ‘ Go out and play our basketball. ’ That’s what we wanted to do. We wanted to win it for Coach. But it went the other way. ”