I'm currently wathing....

[lynbug]

LSU at Arkanas from 1994 on ESPN Classic.  I'm SHOCKED at the difference in atmosphere, crowd enthusiasm, team, EVERYTHING.  We were a Duke, NC or KY back then.

[Biggus Piggus]

LSU at Arkanas from 1994 on ESPN Classic.  I'm SHOCKED at the difference in atmosphere, crowd enthusiasm, team, EVERYTHING.  We were a Duke, NC or KY back then.

Is this news to you?

[lynbug]

Is this news to you?

No, but I get so caught up in what can make us better NOW that I sometimes forget just how great things were THEN. And watching it on a  big screen, the crowd, team, everything, is like a dagger to the heart.

[Biggus Piggus]

All we can do is focus on giving the program a chance to be great. It will not happen without enthusiastic fans. What is the best way to rekindle enthusiasm?

[lutherheggs]

All we can do is focus on giving the program a chance to be great. It will not happen without enthusiastic fans. What is the best way to rekindle enthusiasm?

It is a simple answer but not simple to execute it. The answer is hire the right head coach. Sutton and Richardson for example. They kindle and renew enthusiasm in the fanbase by implementing their system of recruiting and coaching and vision for a program. They are not a dime a dozen or we would not be where we are. Look at the hires since Richardson. All horrible relative to Richardson and Sutton.

A great head coach leads the boys (yes, boys, they are not men yet) on the team and gets their respect and confidence. It takes a tough, smart man: not a man like Nutt. A head coach cannot be a player's buddy. You think Sutton was any player's buddy? You think Saban is a friend to any of his players?

It is a difficult challenge and most AD's will never figure out the formula on how to identify and hire the better coaches so they just keep making guesses. And with guesses you get the Fords, Nutts, Smiths, Heaths, Pelphreys, Bielemas and Andersons of the coaching world.

[HOGINTENNESSEE]

LSU at Arkanas from 1994 on ESPN Classic.  I'm SHOCKED at the difference in atmosphere, crowd enthusiasm, team, EVERYTHING.  We were a Duke, NC or KY back then.

Actually we were better than them

[Biggus Piggus]

Eddie Sutton came from Creighton. Nolan Richardson came from Tulsa. Chances are, the right coach would be a highly successful coach at a mid-major. That coach must be a master of a well-rounded system of playing basketball.

Before getting to Arkansas, Sutton was an extremely successful juco head coach who then went to Creighton (an independent at the time), which had been entrenched in losing. Sutton had four ordinary but winning teams, then took the Blue Jays to the NCAAT in 1974. The tournament was a much more select event back then.

We hired Sutton off his one great season, but he'd proven that he could run a team for five years and bring it to a higher level. Sutton also had played and coached for Henry Iba.

Before Arkansas hired him, Richardson had been a highly successful juco head coach who then went to Tulsa and compiled a 119-37 record, including 78% winning in the Missouri Valley.

The MVC back then was tough, a three-NCAAT-bid conference.

These days, if a mid-major coach approaches 100 wins with a gaudy winning %, he's either gone, or there to stay. Does Marshall or Few need to go somewhere else to accomplish what they want to do? A coach can get to the Final Four from Butler anymore.

[lutherheggs]

Eddie Sutton came from Creighton. Nolan Richardson came from Tulsa. Chances are, the right coach would be a highly successful coach at a mid-major. That coach must be a master of a well-rounded system of playing basketball.

Before getting to Arkansas, Sutton was an extremely successful juco head coach who then went to Creighton (an independent at the time), which had been entrenched in losing. Sutton had four ordinary but winning teams, then took the Blue Jays to the NCAAT in 1974. The tournament was a much more select event back then.

We hired Sutton off his one great season, but he'd proven that he could run a team for five years and bring it to a higher level. Sutton also had played and coached for Henry Iba.

Before Arkansas hired him, Richardson had been a highly successful juco head coach who then went to Tulsa and compiled a 119-37 record, including 78% winning in the Missouri Valley.

The MVC back then was tough, a three-NCAAT-bid conference.

These days, if a mid-major coach approaches 100 wins with a gaudy winning %, he's either gone, or there to stay. Does Marshall or Few need to go somewhere else to accomplish what they want to do? A coach can get to the Final Four from Butler anymore.

Thanks for providing a little color to my reply. JFB identified those two coaches. Long is no JFB but it is the rare AD who was or is as great at his job as JFB. That's the issue here I guess: finding the great AD.

[lynbug]

All we can do is focus on giving the program a chance to be great. It will not happen without enthusiastic fans. What is the best way to rekindle enthusiasm?

WINNING........CONSISTENTLY......GETTING A LITTLE BIT BETTER EVERY GAME.(not asking for much, am I)

[lutherheggs]

WINNING........CONSISTENTLY......GETTING A LITTLE BIT BETTER EVERY GAME.(not asking for much, am I)

Again, winning is the result, not the how. How you get to winning is done only one way: hiring the right head coach.

[Ex-Trumpet]

wathe:  From Middle English wathe, waith, wayth, from Old English wāþ ("wandering, journey; pursuit, hunt, hunting, chase") and Old Norse veiðr ("hunt, chase"), both from Proto-Germanic *waiþō, *waiþiz ("hunt, pasture, food"), from Proto-Indo-European *weye- ("to drive").

http://www.yourdictionary.com/wathe

[Ex-Trumpet]

At first, I thought the title may have been a typo...but turns out, it's a very fitting title!! 

[Sivad]

Anderson and his Fastest40 has us all writhing.

[bosshog84]

Agree with Biggus. I think it will take a well-rounded mid major coach who first coaches the fundamentals of offense and defense. That's our biggest problem IMO is lack of fundamentals especially on defense. 

[ATU HOG]

I think the game has changed big time from the 90s to now too.  In today's world if a ref misses a call it's publicized for the world to see.  In the 90s when we pressed the game was called much differently.

It's more important now more than ever to have someone that can focus on the little things in basketball rather than a "run and gun" style.  The run and gun/fastest 40 is meant to wear teams down in late stages of the game because everything is up tempo from the start.  It's not meant to cause turnovers unless the turnovers were forced because of the speed of the game.  It's a risk/reward system.  Think about it in football, the up tempo offense.... if you have four straight 3 and outs and the other team is grounding and pounding their way, you're in trouble.  However just as quickly as you can get down, you can get up or catch up just as quickly.  It's just very inconsistent basketball.  The style can win, but our defense isn't playing up to that style of basketball.  It doesn't mean enough to shut the other team down anymore.  What I would like to see from our press is the intensity we use in the last 4 minutes.  Shooting gaps, denying the in-bounds, running and jumping.

In the half court setting on defense we are constantly seeing mis-communications on our end leaving people wide open.  Our help defense isn't that great and we switch every single screen causing mismatches.  When a player tries to hedge and recover the other player usually doesn't react to the hedge, because they switch so much...leaving another open jumper.

I enjoy watching other teams run sets with their main offense.  When sets work it's a thing of beauty and Vanderbilt and OK State really highlight the flaws of our defense with their sets.  It's been difficult to see the talent on this team get beat by inferior opponents.  We really miss that stretch 3/4 that can disrupt opponents and can hit the 3 ball.

[Jackrabbit Hog]

In fairness, when Arkansas hired Sutton, college basketball was nothing at all like it is today in terms of popularity (with fans AND the schools themselves).  UCLA was ruling college basketball and for most of the heartland schools (aside from Kansas and Kentucky) basketball was something to occasionally pay attention to between football seasons.  There was no March Madness; no ESPN; no conference tournaments. 

As he often was, JFB was ahead of most in seeing that basketball had the potential to really take off so he took great care in hiring his coach and committed to upgrading the facilities.  That allowed Arkansas to shoot right to the top of a very pedestrian SWC almost immediately.  It also caused the other SWC schools - most notably Texas - to do something similar. 

I say this because it is so much more difficult today to get everything just right to raise a program from the dead.  The schools that are trying are probably 800% more than they were in the mid '70s, and there are so many more schools that are considered "major" in basketball than there were back then.  We were very, very fortunate that we hired Sutton when we did.  Had we waited just a couple more years, we may have never had the Triplets era, the Walker-Robertson-Klein era, or the Nolan years. 

[lutherheggs]

In fairness, when Arkansas hired Sutton, college basketball was nothing at all like it is today in terms of popularity (with fans AND the schools themselves).  UCLA was ruling college basketball and for most of the heartland schools (aside from Kansas and Kentucky) basketball was something to occasionally pay attention to between football seasons.  There was no March Madness; no ESPN; no conference tournaments. 

As he often was, JFB was ahead of most in seeing that basketball had the potential to really take off so he took great care in hiring his coach and committed to upgrading the facilities.  That allowed Arkansas to shoot right to the top of a very pedestrian SWC almost immediately.  It also caused the other SWC schools - most notably Texas - to do something similar. 

I say this because it is so much more difficult today to get everything just right to raise a program from the dead.  The schools that are trying are probably 800% more than they were in the mid '70s, and there are so many more schools that are considered "major" in basketball than there were back then.  We were very, very fortunate that we hired Sutton when we did.  Had we waited just a couple more years, we may have never had the Triplets era, the Walker-Robertson-Klein era, or the Nolan years.

There were conference tournaments back then. I do not know what year they began in most conferences but the SWC had a conf tourney at least as far back as the mid '70's, which is when Sutton was hired for the '74-'75 season.

[Jackrabbit Hog]

There were conference tournaments back then. I do not know what year they began in most conferences but the SWC had a conf tourney at least as far back as the mid '70's, which is when Sutton was hired for the '74-'75 season.

They basically coincided with our hiring of Eddie, or at least the SWC tournament did.  That's really what I meant to say; things were starting to change with college basketball and our AD was perceptive enough to take notice before a lot of others did.  I also said there was no March Madness. Well, obviously there was an NCAA Tournament back then but it wasn't the "March Madness" we know today or anything close to it.   

[Inhogswetrust]

In fairness, when Arkansas hired Sutton, college basketball was nothing at all like it is today in terms of popularity (with fans AND the schools themselves).  UCLA was ruling college basketball and for most of the heartland schools (aside from Kansas and Kentucky) basketball was something to occasionally pay attention to between football seasons.  There was no March Madness; no ESPN; no conference tournaments. 

As he often was, JFB was ahead of most in seeing that basketball had the potential to really take off so he took great care in hiring his coach and committed to upgrading the facilities.  That allowed Arkansas to shoot right to the top of a very pedestrian SWC almost immediately.  It also caused the other SWC schools - most notably Texas - to do something similar. 

I say this because it is so much more difficult today to get everything just right to raise a program from the dead.  The schools that are trying are probably 800% more than they were in the mid '70s, and there are so many more schools that are considered "major" in basketball than there were back then.  We were very, very fortunate that we hired Sutton when we did.  Had we waited just a couple more years, we may have never had the Triplets era, the Walker-Robertson-Klein era, or the Nolan years. 

There were several big name schools back in Eddie's time. You mentioned only three. There was also UNC, Indiana and a few others that would jump up a little from year to year like us. The ACC tournament stated in the 50's so it was around. It was THE conference for basketball with all the schools having some good years or players. Also some of the conferences that did not have schools with football were very good. March Madness was there, it just had less participants and not called that. TV games were as you said practically non existent.

[Pork Twain]

Wathing: Stalkerishly watching someone or something bathe.

[The Boar War]

WINNING........CONSISTENTLY......GETTING A LITTLE BIT BETTER EVERY GAME.(not asking for much, am I)

I thought we were there through the 2015 season with Portis and Qualls.  However it appears that he simply had no plan to follow up that success (outside of landing Monk).  Few coaches have built up the goodwill to follow up incremental growth with a nosedive.

[lutherheggs]

They basically coincided with our hiring of Eddie, or at least the SWC tournament did.  That's really what I meant to say; things were starting to change with college basketball and our AD was perceptive enough to take notice before a lot of others did.  I also said there was no March Madness. Well, obviously there was an NCAA Tournament back then but it wasn't the "March Madness" we know today or anything close to it.

Yeah, I did not disagree with you regarding your statements on ESPN and March Madness. Just the one that is unclear (you said "no conf tournaments" but apparently meant something a little less specific/definitive)  regarding existence of conf tourneys when Sutton's arrived at the U of A.

[NoogaHog]

You rang?

[hawgfan4life]

Arkansas fans were so frustrated with Nolan Richardson that a large percentage wanted him fired.  Probably was a large majority.  Wally Hall show was huge on Sunday nights at the time.  Wally Hall said he had done a lot of soul searching and Nolan should get one more year.  That was how public it was and how bad.  It took a lot of soul searching to muster up giving him one more year.  Broyles was publicly quiet which meant non supportive for a long time and finally was going through the process of building support to fire in the media until UofA boss publicly stated Nolan is our coach and There would be no change.  Broyles then publicly supported Coach Richardson and it ended.  NR went on to greatness but a huge segment of fans NEVER stopped finding fault in everything he had said and done before success and everything they could twist during success. 

Ironically, a lot of the criticism was very similar to the same criticism today.

[Torqued pork]

Basketball was obviously at a higher level in that era.

No more Magic vs. Bird, Phi Slama Jama, Runnin' Rebels, Fab Five, or 40 Minutes of Hell. It's long gone and isn't coming back.

Try and give a shirt about LeBron and Sir Charles trading barbs. I dare you.

RIP interesting basketball. It was fun while it lasted.



.