FAYETTEVILLE - Arkansas’ men’s basketball season fell to an early end but the sky didn’t fall on Mike Anderson’s Razorbacks regime.
There is reasonable hope for blue skies ahead, though for Arkansas the present mood is customarily cloudy.
March Madness marches on yet again with the Razorbacks and their fans mad not to be a part of it.
Certainly Mike Anderson’s second season without even an NIT postseason appearance isn’t what the second-year coach had in mind and has become far too commonplace for Arkansas.
Not since John Pelphrey inherited a large 2007-2008 senior class from fired predecessor Stan Heath and went 23-12 and two rounds deep into the NCAA Tournament have the Hogs won 20 games and played beyond one and done in the SEC Tournament.
In fact, this now completed 19-13 season that ended with a 75-72SEC Tournament loss to Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn., is the best the Hogs have done since 2007-2008.
Anderson will be the first to tell you that kind of best isn’t good. As a Nolan Richardson assistant for 17 years, Anderson was with the Razorbacks for 13 NCAA Tournament postseasons and three Final Fours, including a national championship and national runner-up as well as two NIT appearances among them.
Anderson has a proven exemplary head coaching record of 21-13, 22-10, 22-11 and 24-7 at Alabama-Birmingham before inheriting the mess of the scandal-plagued Quin Snyder regime at Missouri.
Working through 18-12, and 16-16 seasons, Anderson went 31-7 in his third season at Missouri and took the Tigers to the Elite Eight. He went 23-11 each of the next two seasons and two rounds deep in the NCAA Tournament.
To come home to Arkansas, Anderson left a 2011-2012 Mizzou team that many predicted would make it to the Final Four.
That commitment to Arkansas alone ought to caution Arkansas fans from getting prematurely restive. Nobody giving up what Anderson gave up to come back to Arkansas will be complacent about Arkansas’ progress.
And there is progress - progress that maybe you don’t tangibly see, but the lack of which Dana Altman obviously saw when he threw up his hands and left the UA on his first day upon being hired to replace Heath in 2007.
Altman was an excellent coach at Creighton and still is with hisPacific-12 Tournament champion Oregon Ducks (26-8), but he no doubt saw the forthcoming Academic Progress Rates problems that Heath’s senior class would cause.
Arkansas eventually lost one scholarship because of its APR and was buffeted by a myriad of disciplinary issues and departures during the Pelphrey regime.
Anderson has recruited quality kids, and the players he inherited have responded well. They have well represented the University of Arkansas off the court, and this season at home (18-1) represented the UA spectacularly on the court.
Obviously the next step is rectifying this season’s horrendous 1-12 road record.
Given Anderson’s track record, the best thing the UA administration can do is sit back without meddling and let him rectify it.
To his credit, that is what Athletic Director Jeff Long seems to be doing.
Sports, Pages 16 on 03/20/2013