Knowledgeable Razorbacks Fans-Please Answer-A question which plagues me to this

[40MinutesOfHellFOREVER]

day..

WHY did Nolan's fortunes drop significantly after the national title loss to UCLA in 1995?  From '89 to '95 Nolan had the Hogs running wild as one of the elite basketball schools in the nation....multiple Final Fours, 1 National Title, etc. Then things just went downhill after that '95 title game loss to UCLA.  The Hogs went from being a perennial Final Four contender to being a program which lost 10+ games every year, and rarely made it out of the tournament's 2nd round, which is odd since they were coming off back to back national title game appearances.

So what happened with Nolan after 1995? Why was he unable to sustain the success he had enjoyed up to that point at Arkansas?  Did he get lazy with recruiting and miss out on a bunch of kids during this time?  Is that why the Hogs slid back quite a bit in  late 90's?  Or were their other factors to blame? If so, what were those factors?  I would appreciate the opinions of any Hogs fans who remember those teams, and the dip the program experienced after the 1995 season.

[Pig in the Pokey]

he had his crown jewel and went into a me-against-the-world (including our own administration, which did him NO favors and at times were racist to him in his eyes at the very least) mode for those years. Add the NCAA to that list who screwed us out of the #1 recruiting class in the nation with adebayo and Pate suspensions that were bogus. Nolan felt that witch hunt. And the ncaa even changed the rules of the game just to hurt "ratball" style of play. Nolan wasnt being paranoid.

[tophawg19]

he had his crown jewel and went into a me-against-the-world (including our own administration, which did him NO favors and at times were racist to him in his eyes at the very least) mode for those years. Add the NCAA to that list who screwed us out of the #1 recruiting class in the nation with adebayo and Pate suspensions that were bogus. Nolan felt that witch hunt. And the ncaa even changed the rules of the game just to hurt "ratball" style of play. Nolan wasnt being paranoid.

pretty fair assessment , the hand check rule hurt us and Nolan's recruiting fell off . Nolan took on a me  against the U of A and JFB and the fight was on

[Rirruto]

In some alternate universe, the Jesse Pate/Sunday Adebayo fiasco never occurs. The '96 team made it to the Sweet 16 after losing it's top scorer and rebounder in the middle of the season. They dropped a few games after that and ended up with a 12 seed. They certainly would have had a better seed, and then would have had those 2 guys back for 1997. Also, Nolan had to agree not to take JUCO players for two years following. In those days, as now, that was a big source of recruits for us. Take JUCOs off of the national championship teams, and they are not playing in back to back title games.

I'm not saying everything would have been totally different, but things would have been different.

[Hollywood870]

Al Jefferson committed and went pro out of high school.

[LZH]

Jefferson, Iguodala, and a few others left for the NBA out of high school or committed elsewhere at the last minute.  That hurt, plus (as I'm told) there was a booster dinner where FB and a few of his old cronies were not discreet in using the 'N' word......as in nig***ball, etc., just a few tables over (and certainly within earshot) from Nolan himself, and his wife, Rose.  He was tired of the whole thing and I think he burned out....said "Frank it".

After that ('97 or so?), I think he mailed it in.

[ShadowHawg]

day..

WHY did Nolan's fortunes drop significantly after the national title loss to UCLA in 1995?  From '89 to '95 Nolan had the Hogs running wild as one of the elite basketball schools in the nation....multiple Final Fours, 1 National Title, etc. Then things just went downhill after that '95 title game loss to UCLA.  The Hogs went from being a perennial Final Four contender to being a program which lost 10+ games every year, and rarely made it out of the tournament's 2nd round, which is odd since they were coming off back to back national title game appearances.

So what happened with Nolan after 1995? Why was he unable to sustain the success he had enjoyed up to that point at Arkansas?  Did he get lazy with recruiting and miss out on a bunch of kids during this time?  Is that why the Hogs slid back quite a bit in  late 90's?  Or were their other factors to blame? If so, what were those factors?  I would appreciate the opinions of any Hogs fans who remember those teams, and the dip the program experienced after the 1995 season.

Broyles got angry with Nolan immediately following the championship when Nolan refused to celebrate with important people around the program who had caused him grief during his early years at Arkansas.

Then came the NCAA witch hunt where the chancellor's daughter was found to have rewritten a paper for Jesse Pate. Broyles blamed Nolan for "embarrassing" the chancellor and his daughter and actually tried to fire Nolan in 1996. Broyles was working behind the scenes to raise money to buy Nolan's contract out. Chancellor Ferritor stepped in and told Frank to cut it out.

Frank and Nolan's relationship became TOXIC. So much so that they literally did not speak to each other for years. Since Frank wasn't allowed to fire Nolan, he began tormenting him which is a managerial tactic to try and make problem employees leave on their own.

Contrary to popular opinions, Nolan continued to recruit following the championship. He would sign 4 McDonald's all Americans following the championship as well as had 5 guys at least got drafted or signed 10 day contracts in the NBA.

The problem was that he couldn't keep the kids he was signing from leaving early. Of his #1 rated recruiting class for 96, only 6 out of the original 10 were left after year one. 5 after year 2 and only 4 would stay all 4 years. If the decimation of that class weren't enough, we lost Chris Jefferies, Glendon Alexander, Jason Jennings in the 4 years following the 94/95 season.

That's a grand total of NINE players gone in only 4 seasons. Most of whom played less than 2 seasons. No one can sustain success in Fayetteville, ARKANSAS with that kind of attrition.

When things finally started looking up again, Joe Johnson leaves for the NBA after his sophomore year leaving us with mostly role players and no go to scorer on what was going to be an upper classman dominated team.

At this time meddling John White has become chancellor. During the Nolan's last season, which was a losing season, Nolan told White in a private conversation supposedly among two friends that the season was wearing on him, he was tired,.and not sure how many years  He had left.

White the weasel literally goes to Frank and tells him what was said and that's when the buyout was put together. Not after Nolan's remarks about daring them to fire him. His firing was already a done deal. His remarks only sped up the process and led to the false narrative that his firing was in reaction to his comments.

Basically, both Nolan and Broyles were to blame for creating such a toxic atmosphere around the program that players were leaving at the first opportunity.

It happened at the same time as Oklahoma's rise to basketball under Sampson and Calipari going to Memphis which resulted in us losing Tulsa and Memphis for recruiting. The Ncaa witch hunt also hurt recruiting for a couple of seasons as well.

[LZH]

ShadowHog...you're way more thorough than I've been....go for it.  Buen trabajo cuz............

[TexArkHogFan]

When Nolan was hired, he coached what was later to be called Hawgball.  At that time he was about the ONLY major college coach who used this style of play.  The kids loved it and he attracted and signed a lot of athletes who wanted to play this style of basketball. After he won the NC, other coaches and teams adapted to the fast uptempo style of play and the athletes that Nolan used to get were now going to other teams.  There are several incidental reasons, but that is the main reason right there.  Recruiting became more difficult and that added to the other reasons already listed here.  Nolan changed the way the game was played.  Sutton was a great coach but his style of play was in direct contrast to the way Nolan played.  And for that, basketball fans should be grateful. 

[Wooderson]

What about the boosters insisting Nolan sign the not SEC caliber Arkansas white kids. That didn't help.

[JIHawg]

Good post Shadowhog.  I'm going to start paying attention to your posts.

[Biggus Piggus]

Nolan didn't have a good relationship with in-state AAU people and one certain in-state high school coach. That led to him losing some strong in-state talent.

But the biggest part of Nolan's slippage stemmed from the two-year NCAA anal probe that was inflamed by jealousy inside the Broyles Complex. Certain insiders gave NCAA investigators rumors to chase...and chase...and chase...resulting in nothing but a long overhang.

Arkansas got some penalties, but some of the crap was completely bogus. Norm Stewart and Missouri turned in Arkansas over the recruitment of Sunday Adebayo. The NCAA declared Adebayo ineligible. Later - after Adebayo had been forced to transfer to Memphis - the NCAA admitted that Adebayo was never ineligible at Arkansas.

The NCAA screwed up so bad, it gave Adebayo an extra season of eligibility and allowed him to return to Arkansas for the 1997-98 basketball season.

The damage was done, though.

Nolan had some other nagging issues. His top assistants all moved on to head coaching jobs, and his younger, greener staff wasn't nearly as good at recruiting. Arkansas was unable to sign a single good big man in Nolan's last years. He was always having to rely on undersized bigs, and the Hogs weren't nearly as good because of that.

You can focus on other issues, such as the proliferation of timeouts + changes to officiating emphasis on hand-checking, which were targeted directly at Arkansas's style. But the lack of good bigs was the No. 1 problem, and that probably happened because of the combination of staff changes and the several years when Arkansas's name was dragged through the mud.

[DeltaBoy]

Frank let his ego get in the way and Nolan was a Proud man Sad to see how it all fell apart now that it been over nearly 20 years.

[NWAHog479]

Nolan was still getting solid players and was building the program the way that he had been before 94 & 95, he just did not get the support from Broyles like he deserved. He brought them a national championship and they expected it every single year, all the while Houston Nutt and the football program were happy making bowl games.

[novack2]

Recruiting. During the 94 and 95 seasons when Arkansas was in it's glory, the state produced some great high school players that went on to have very good college careers. For different reasons, I'm sure, these guys didn't end up at Arkansas. I feel like it hurt the pipeline for years to come.

Cory Carr - 94. Texas Tech. Averaged 23ppg his junior and senior years at Texas Tech.

Tim Gill - 94. ORU. Almost transferred to Arkansas during his career. Grew up in Arkansas as a kid. Averaged 17.5ppg during his 4 years at ORU. 44% career 3pt shooter. He's on staff for Razorback women's program. Director of Student Athlete Development.

Adrian Peterson - 95. Ok St. 15ppg for his college career.

Quincy Lewis - 95. Minnesota. 13ppg for his career. 23ppg his senior season.

Keith Carter - 95. Ole Miss. 14.4ppg for his career. He always seemed to torch Arkansas when we played them.

[Boss Hog in the Arkansas]

The NCAA investigation was the nail in the coffin

[Boss Hog in the Arkansas]

Frank let his ego get in the way and Nolan was a Proud man Sad to see how it all fell apart now that it been over nearly 20 years.

They've done a great job of trying to repair things by bringing in mike Anderson, but karma is going to keep a tight grip on us until Richardsons name is on the basketball court where it belongs. Unfortunately I don't think that happens while Broyles is still around

[zebradynasty]

I'm glad to see a lot of post that dismiss the notion that Nolan just got lazy in his recruiting after the Championship and Runner-up. The word lazy and Nolan should never be in the same sentence! He had some good players ready to commit or signed and for one reason or another they didn't pan out. Add the NCAA investigation and to be honest we did miss on a few in-state kids, Broyles vs Nolan.... It was a combination of things but we should have rolled those championship seasons into another trip to the Final-4. With all the bad hires, bad coaching, poor recruiting...It's pretty much has taken us nearly 20 years to rebuild. 

[PonderinHog]

They've done a great job of trying to repair things by bringing in mike Anderson, but karma is going to keep a tight grip on us until Richardsons name is on the basketball court where it belongs. Unfortunately I don't think that happens while Broyles is still around

and bring back the Slobberin' Hog!   :razorback: :razorback: :razorback:

[HogFoo]

Broyles got angry with Nolan immediately following the championship when Nolan refused to celebrate with important people around the program who had caused him grief during his early years at Arkansas.

Then came the NCAA witch hunt where the chancellor's daughter was found to have rewritten a paper for Jesse Pate. Broyles blamed Nolan for "embarrassing" the chancellor and his daughter and actually tried to fire Nolan in 1996. Broyles was working behind the scenes to raise money to buy Nolan's contract out. Chancellor Ferritor stepped in and told Frank to cut it out.

Frank and Nolan's relationship became TOXIC. So much so that they literally did not speak to each other for years. Since Frank wasn't allowed to fire Nolan, he began tormenting him which is a managerial tactic to try and make problem employees leave on their own.

Contrary to popular opinions, Nolan continued to recruit following the championship. He would sign 4 McDonald's all Americans following the championship as well as had 5 guys at least got drafted or signed 10 day contracts in the NBA.

The problem was that he couldn't keep the kids he was signing from leaving early. Of his #1 rated recruiting class for 96, only 6 out of the original 10 were left after year one. 5 after year 2 and only 4 would stay all 4 years. If the decimation of that class weren't enough, we lost Chris Jefferies, Glendon Alexander, Jason Jennings in the 4 years following the 94/95 season.

That's a grand total of NINE players gone in only 4 seasons. Most of whom played less than 2 seasons. No one can sustain success in Fayetteville, ARKANSAS with that kind of attrition.

When things finally started looking up again, Joe Johnson leaves for the NBA after his sophomore year leaving us with mostly role players and no go to scorer on what was going to be an upper classman dominated team.

At this time meddling John White has become chancellor. During the Nolan's last season, which was a losing season, Nolan told White in a private conversation supposedly among two friends that the season was wearing on him, he was tired,.and not sure how many years  He had left.

White the weasel literally goes to Frank and tells him what was said and that's when the buyout was put together. Not after Nolan's remarks about daring them to fire him. His firing was already a done deal. His remarks only sped up the process and led to the false narrative that his firing was in reaction to his comments.

Basically, both Nolan and Broyles were to blame for creating such a toxic atmosphere around the program that players were leaving at the first opportunity.

It happened at the same time as Oklahoma's rise to basketball under Sampson and Calipari going to Memphis which resulted in us losing Tulsa and Memphis for recruiting. The Ncaa witch hunt also hurt recruiting for a couple of seasons as well.

there are many opinions .  I agree with a lot of this.   But there were several things that I wont mention that many people know about.    First, I think Nolan did burn out.    I wish he could have pulled a Coach Krewsawooski and said he had a "back problem" and then came back in a year. I think he would have been OK.  Nolan did NOT like to recruit.  everyone knows that.  He didn't feel that he should have to go after players as hard. He wasn't bowing down to them.   Players started turning into prima dona's around this time.

Nolan was also right in that the Ncaa was against him.  The following year after we won the title is when they passed the rule on handchecks.  You could no longer put 2 hands on a players back.  And that was a big thing in Hog ball.  Nolan always said he wanted the other team to feel like they were in a street fight.  That's what made Corey Beck so good, was that he was strong!  He'd put a forearm in your back and knock you down, make you lose control then make the steal on the ball and go score etc... it was a thing of beauty.  But when the Ncaa stepped in and did the 2 hand check removal, that was the end of "hog ball"  Now adays you cant put 1 hand on the opponent like that or its a whistle.   

The ncaa is a horrible thing sometimes.  It's kind of like how they stepped in and made it a point to try and stop John Mcdonnel and the Razorback track team.  They started creating all these little regionals.  By doing this it didn't allow for us to be able to let our athletes do doubles in different events.  Theyd be worn out.  That's where we were so good.  We had guys that would do doubles and triples in different events.  And theyd win!  But now they cant do that.  So, it has hurt us, in fact it knocked us down a bit to where we don't win the national titles in track every year.  Now its just every other year .  haha.   But yes, they did that to hurt us just like they did with the handcheck rules.

Back to Nolan,  things started going down all around the same time.  When Edgar left, he was the best recruiter on Nolans staff.  He covered the texas pan handle and Memphis area.   Losing him hurt us as much as anything.  Nolan never got a recruiter as good as Edgar and his briefcase were.  haha.     Then we had the whole 96 class fiasco.    Best recruiting class of all time at that point.  And how many of those made it?  Adebayo gone, pate gone,  half that class never qualified.  We still made it to the sweet16 that year tho!   

I mentioned earlier about Nolan not bowing down to Prima Donna's.  I have  agood friend and we have an argument every now and then.  See, we nearly had Ron Mercer.  It was down to us and UK.  Nolan got tired of waiting on Mercer so he goes and signs Hood.  This of course pisses Mercer off and he goes to UK where he was a superstar.  I think we should have waited on Mercer and I think we would have got him.  We wouldn't have gotten Hood but I think Mercer would have been worth it.  My friend disagrees, he was glad that we got Hood. 

Also around this time is when we had the Ncaa investigation, the emergence of Ole Miss that had all the Arkansas players on it. It all hurt us.   Nolan had never listened to what his detractors ever said.  But during this time when Ole miss was beating us with Arkansas kids, he was especially hearing it from people.  How he wouldn't recruit Arkansas kids..etc..etc..  all this is what made him recruit that class made up of a lot of Arkansas kids that weren't really that good.  Like the Hankins kid, Jennings, smith kid out of pearidge I think it was.    It was just a bunch of kids that really didn't fit the system.  Of course, with the losses came the grumblings, and then, finally we made it to 2000 when Joe Johnson came.   He brought us back, and had he stayed another year, Nolan probably keeps his job later because of the success we had.  Nolan had indeed burnt out as everyone said, but, the season he got fired, he did some recruiting!  He had some good players coming(that all went to UAB) crowned with a star in andre igudala.    Mix those players with Jj. sullenger, and what we had, and Hog ball would have been back where we wanted.  But the whole fiasco with Frank wanting to get rid of Nolan, the talk Nolan had with Tubby smith about giving him his money and he'd be gone, etc.  It was all just an excuse to get rid of Nolan.  People were tired.  I can't say that at the time that didn't agree with it.  I was kind of tired of always hearing Nolan go up on stage and talk about how everyone was against him, racism this and that.  I think everyone was kind of tired of it.  It's like Nolan never enjoyed any of it.  He always had this chip on his shoulder.  People got tired of it, plain and simple.

Like I mentioned, I think had Nolan somehow been able to take a year off and come back.  He would have been ok, and I think he would have been the coach right now, today!  Just think about it.  Had Nolan NOT been fired, we would have gotten Conley jr, and his best friend Oden.  We still almost got them anyway.  So I believe had Nolan stil been the coach we get both of those guys.  We also would have got all the guys that went to UAB, we would have gotten all the guys that went to Mizzou when Mike went there.  THe pressey kids, the bowers kid,  we would have then also gotten Jarred Sullenger who went to Ohio st where JJ transferred too after Nolan got fired.  We would have made it  back to greatness. I have no doubt we would have gotten Archie, we would have gotten Kevaughn, we would have even gotten Monk, because the Hogs would have still been a 'top team' in the eyes of these kids.    Hindsight is 20/20.  Things happen for a reason.  Nolan got fired, Mike came back, and after a few seasons of mediocrity, he has gotten us headed in the right direction.  He has managed to put a fence up around the state for the next 3yrs+  We nearly had an  elite 8 team this year.  We made it back to nearly where we were had Nolan not been fired when he was.  It took nearly 17yrs to get back to where we would have been had Iguadala's class made it here.  But were back I believe. We are headed in the right direction.  Sad we had to take a detour!

Anyways.  that's my .02   

[Pork Twain]

Shadow and Hogfoo, your posts are almost as amazing as the new pop-ups at the bottom of the screen are annoying.

[Boss Hog in the Arkansas]

there are many opinions .  I agree with a lot of this.   But there were several things that I wont mention that many people know about.    First, I think Nolan did burn out.    I wish he could have pulled a Coach Krewsawooski and said he had a "back problem" and then came back in a year. I think he would have been OK.  Nolan did NOT like to recruit.  everyone knows that.  He didn't feel that he should have to go after players as hard. He wasn't bowing down to them.   Players started turning into prima dona's around this time.

Nolan was also right in that the Ncaa was against him.  The following year after we won the title is when they passed the rule on handchecks.  You could no longer put 2 hands on a players back.  And that was a big thing in Hog ball.  Nolan always said he wanted the other team to feel like they were in a street fight.  That's what made Corey Beck so good, was that he was strong!  He'd put a forearm in your back and knock you down, make you lose control then make the steal on the ball and go score etc... it was a thing of beauty.  But when the Ncaa stepped in and did the 2 hand check removal, that was the end of "hog ball"  Now adays you cant put 1 hand on the opponent like that or its a whistle.   

The ncaa is a horrible thing sometimes.  It's kind of like how they stepped in and made it a point to try and stop John Mcdonnel and the Razorback track team.  They started creating all these little regionals.  By doing this it didn't allow for us to be able to let our athletes do doubles in different events.  Theyd be worn out.  That's where we were so good.  We had guys that would do doubles and triples in different events.  And theyd win!  But now they cant do that.  So, it has hurt us, in fact it knocked us down a bit to where we don't win the national titles in track every year.  Now its just every other year .  haha.   But yes, they did that to hurt us just like they did with the handcheck rules.

Back to Nolan,  things started going down all around the same time.  When Edgar left, he was the best recruiter on Nolans staff.  He covered the texas pan handle and Memphis area.   Losing him hurt us as much as anything.  Nolan never got a recruiter as good as Edgar and his briefcase were.  haha.     Then we had the whole 96 class fiasco.    Best recruiting class of all time at that point.  And how many of those made it?  Adebayo gone, pate gone,  half that class never qualified.  We still made it to the sweet16 that year tho!   

I mentioned earlier about Nolan not bowing down to Prima Donna's.  I have  agood friend and we have an argument every now and then.  See, we nearly had Ron Mercer.  It was down to us and UK.  Nolan got tired of waiting on Mercer so he goes and signs Hood.  This of course pisses Mercer off and he goes to UK where he was a superstar.  I think we should have waited on Mercer and I think we would have got him.  We wouldn't have gotten Hood but I think Mercer would have been worth it.  My friend disagrees, he was glad that we got Hood. 

Also around this time is when we had the Ncaa investigation, the emergence of Ole Miss that had all the Arkansas players on it. It all hurt us.   Nolan had never listened to what his detractors ever said.  But during this time when Ole miss was beating us with Arkansas kids, he was especially hearing it from people.  How he wouldn't recruit Arkansas kids..etc..etc..  all this is what made him recruit that class made up of a lot of Arkansas kids that weren't really that good.  Like the Hankins kid, Jennings, smith kid out of pearidge I think it was.    It was just a bunch of kids that really didn't fit the system.  Of course, with the losses came the grumblings, and then, finally we made it to 2000 when Joe Johnson came.   He brought us back, and had he stayed another year, Nolan probably keeps his job later because of the success we had.  Nolan had indeed burnt out as everyone said, but, the season he got fired, he did some recruiting!  He had some good players coming(that all went to UAB) crowned with a star in andre igudala.    Mix those players with Jj. sullenger, and what we had, and Hog ball would have been back where we wanted.  But the whole fiasco with Frank wanting to get rid of Nolan, the talk Nolan had with Tubby smith about giving him his money and he'd be gone, etc.  It was all just an excuse to get rid of Nolan.  People were tired.  I can't say that at the time that didn't agree with it.  I was kind of tired of always hearing Nolan go up on stage and talk about how everyone was against him, racism this and that.  I think everyone was kind of tired of it.  It's like Nolan never enjoyed any of it.  He always had this chip on his shoulder.  People got tired of it, plain and simple.

Like I mentioned, I think had Nolan somehow been able to take a year off and come back.  He would have been ok, and I think he would have been the coach right now, today!  Just think about it.  Had Nolan NOT been fired, we would have gotten Conley jr, and his best friend Oden.  We still almost got them anyway.  So I believe had Nolan stil been the coach we get both of those guys.  We also would have got all the guys that went to UAB, we would have gotten all the guys that went to Mizzou when Mike went there.  THe pressey kids, the bowers kid,  we would have then also gotten Jarred Sullenger who went to Ohio st where JJ transferred too after Nolan got fired.  We would have made it  back to greatness. I have no doubt we would have gotten Archie, we would have gotten Kevaughn, we would have even gotten Monk, because the Hogs would have still been a 'top team' in the eyes of these kids.    Hindsight is 20/20.  Things happen for a reason.  Nolan got fired, Mike came back, and after a few seasons of mediocrity, he has gotten us headed in the right direction.  He has managed to put a fence up around the state for the next 3yrs+  We nearly had an  elite 8 team this year.  We made it back to nearly where we were had Nolan not been fired when he was.  It took nearly 17yrs to get back to where we would have been had Iguadala's class made it here.  But were back I believe. We are headed in the right direction.  Sad we had to take a detour!

Anyways.  that's my .02

Im very curious. I was just a kid when all this took place (born in 91), so my knowledge of what went on is completely based on what I've read over the years

[onebadrubi]

Im very curious. I was just a kid when all this took place (born in 91), so my knowledge of what went on is completely based on what I've read over the years

He wouldn't have typed what you bolded if he really didn't want to share it.  Come on now, go ahead and spill the beans...  You already mentioned briefcase. 

[Pig Power]

Shadow and Hogfoo, your posts are almost as amazing as the new pop-ups at the bottom of the screen are annoying.

Agree with you Pork. Great insight and those pop-ups suck

[HogFoo]

 nm

[HamIAm]

Shadow and Hogfoo, your posts are almost as amazing as the new pop-ups at the bottom of the screen are annoying.

I wondered if anyone else was getting those.  I thought I had been infected with some type of malware that my security programs missed.

[hogsanity]

So funny, top thread in jump ball is about stuff that happened 2 decades ago, and for 3 weeks in MMQb one of the top threads was about a phone call from a decade ago.

I wondered if anyone else was getting those.  I thought I had been infected with some type of malware that my security programs missed.

No I am getting them as well, at work, at home, and on my phone.

[HogFoo]

I wondered if anyone else was getting those.  I thought I had been infected with some type of malware that my security programs missed.

popup blocker usually takes care of it.  I only had 1 , hit the x closed it out. never had 1 again.

[Pork Twain]

I hate pop-ups...  Reminds me of when I was in my 20's going to porn sites.  That was about 20 years ago, nice to see we are staying with the times here.  Never going to click on this crap, otherwise I will have 30 windows open in 2 minutes.  Then my wife will walk up and I will have a flashback to 20 years ago and panic, while trying to close all of the windows, even though it is sports pages and people trying to make a buck on click-bait.

[jm]

What about the boosters insisting Nolan sign the not SEC caliber Arkansas white kids. That didn't help.

It was more than that. Nolan signed a couple of out of state black kids that "needed development".  Some people saw it as a political statement, and felt that we had some local kids that had as much or more talent.

[HogFoo]

I hate pop-ups...  Reminds me of when I was in my 20's going to porn sites.  That was about 20 years ago, nice to see we are staying with the times here.  Never going to click on this crap, otherwise I will have 30 windows open in 2 minutes.  Then my wife will walk up and I will have a flashback to 20 years ago and panic, while trying to close all of the windows, even though it is sports pages and people trying to make a buck on click-bait.

I thought I had got rid of them.  but just today I log in and these damn things are up.  I guess Lanny and the guys get clicks or whatever for having them up.  Or they are somehow attached to the site.  Which, hey if that's what they need to do to help pay the bills for this site being free.  Then so be it.  I don't care because I like logging into this site.  I hate it.  But, ill deal with it. Like ya said, it's kind of like when I used to go to the porn sites years ago.  I didn't like the spam it would create and the naked girl popups haha  but I lived with it.  haha   I have found that the only time the pop ups come up on my laptop is if I close the tab for this site.  If I don't close the tab,  they don't come up.  hmmm... 

[HogFoo]

It was more than that. Nolan signed a couple of out of state black kids that "needed development".  Some people saw it as a political statement, and felt that we had some local kids that had as much or more talent.

Yea and when Nolan finally caved in and did get the kids, they weren't SEC caliber at the time.  There were a lot of things that could have been done differently.   Hindsight is 20/20  It's too bad that we had to go down this road, but apparently we were meant too.  Thankfully, we are finally headed back in the right direction now. We have highly rated instate kids wanting to come to Arkansas again.  Hopefully this is a trend that continues for years to come.  I never again want to see the top rated kids going out of state.  I especially never want to see them going to one of our hated rivals! 

[Biggus Piggus]

It was more than that. Nolan signed a couple of out of state black kids that "needed development".  Some people saw it as a political statement, and felt that we had some local kids that had as much or more talent.

What the holy flipping hell is this? This is total horseshit. I lived through every second of all those teams, and this never happened. You made up this crap. Don't make up total horseshit. If you don't remember, shut the Frank up.

[Mike Irwin]

Jefferson, Iguodala, and a few others left for the NBA out of high school or committed elsewhere at the last minute.  That hurt, plus (as I'm told) there was a booster dinner where FB and a few of his old cronies were not discreet in using the 'N' word......as in nig***ball, etc., just a few tables over (and certainly within earshot) from Nolan himself, and his wife, Rose.  He was tired of the whole thing and I think he burned out....said "Frank it".

After that ('97 or so?), I think he mailed it in.

Supposedly it started one day when Nolan came to work during the noon hour while his secretary was at lunch. Nolan saw the messages light on the phone blinking and decided to play them back, something he did not normally do. The callers were pissed at Notes, Nolan's son, for allegedly running off Jason Gilbert, a shooting guard on the team, who allegedly didn't put much effort into playing defense.

Some of the callers used the N-word. Nolan got mad and at his normal afternoon press conference he called them "Redneck SOB's."

According to Frank a booster informed him that a black man calling a white man a Redneck was like a white man calling a black man the N-word.

Frank repeated this conversation an hour or so before a Hogs Illustrated banquet to honor the basketball team. A few of the players sitting nearby heard Frank mention the N-word in recalling what the booster had said.

Others standing nearby tesitifed at Nolan's lawsuit that they had no memory of the incident but Paul Eells testified that he heard the conversation and Frank did indeed use the N-word.

I talked to Paul about it later. He said he knew that Frank and probably the university would get mad at him but as he put it, I don't lie period and I'm certainly not going to lie under oath.

I'm told that Frank's position was, he wasn't using the N-word himself. He was just repeating what the booster had said. He was trying to find out if what the booster said was true because he'd never heard that a black using the term Redneck was like a white using the N-word.

Those were crazy times with the lawsuit and the goofy stuff going on between Nutt and Malzahn while John White was running around trying to be the AD.

[GoHogs1091]

day..

WHY did Nolan's fortunes drop significantly after the national title loss to UCLA in 1995?  From '89 to '95 Nolan had the Hogs running wild as one of the elite basketball schools in the nation....multiple Final Fours, 1 National Title, etc. Then things just went downhill after that '95 title game loss to UCLA.  The Hogs went from being a perennial Final Four contender to being a program which lost 10+ games every year, and rarely made it out of the tournament's 2nd round, which is odd since they were coming off back to back national title game appearances.

So what happened with Nolan after 1995? Why was he unable to sustain the success he had enjoyed up to that point at Arkansas?  Did he get lazy with recruiting and miss out on a bunch of kids during this time?  Is that why the Hogs slid back quite a bit in  late 90's?  Or were their other factors to blame? If so, what were those factors?  I would appreciate the opinions of any Hogs fans who remember those teams, and the dip the program experienced after the 1995 season.

Coach K got the NCAA to start focusing on hand-checking after we defeated Duke in 1994.  There was a lead time before that took a toll on Nolan's system (hence why we were okay in 1995).  After 95, Nolan's system was ruined by the hand-checking focus.

The NCAA investigation (regarding Adebayo and Pate) also took a toll.

Aspects such as the above two can have a tremendous impact on marginal athletic programs.  It is a shame that aspects such as the above have contributed to the University of Arkansas Football and Basketball programs only being nationally relevant 7 seasons throughout history (1941, 1945, 1964, 1978 ,1990, 1994, and 1995).

[Illinihog]

Al Jefferson committed and went pro out of high school.

I thought AL was a Heath recruit.  I was on campus then.  Iggy decommitted once Nolan was fired.

Edit:  We wouldn't have gotten Brewer with Nolan either, by that point he wasn't recruiting.  Mike was the lead on Ronnie and he was heading to OU at that point.

[Hogimus Prime]

I thought AL was a Heath recruit.  I was on campus then.  Iggy decommitted once Nolan was fired.

Al was a Heath recruit.  Heath holding out on Jefferson cost him Chris Lofton from Tennesse

[Illinihog]

Al was a Heath recruit.  Heath holding out on Jefferson cost him Chris Lofton from Tennesse

I thought AL was a Heath guy, Okafor, who went to UCONN was a Nolan guy. 

[HogFoo]

I thought AL was a Heath guy, Okafor, who went to UCONN was a Nolan guy.

Al was a Heath guy.  And if he had came to Arkansas I believe we had the #1 class.  Olu never was the same after his knee injury.  Dudley used to talk about watching Olu put 37pts on Lebron James and how spectacular he was before his knee injury.  He just never ever overcame it..  You'd see glimpses of him being special.  But nothing like the player who Dudley spoke of having a sweet jump shot as he scored at will over top Lebron.   anyways.  reading some of these articles about future talent in this state over the next 4yrs+ just makes ya smile though. 

[Illinihog]

Al was a Heath guy.  And if he had came to Arkansas I believe we had the #1 class.  Olu never was the same after his knee injury.  Dudley used to talk about watching Olu put 37pts on Lebron James and how spectacular he was before his knee injury.  He just never ever overcame it..  You'd see glimpses of him being special.  But nothing like the player who Dudley spoke of having a sweet jump shot as he scored at will over top Lebron.   anyways.  reading some of these articles about future talent in this state over the next 4yrs+ just makes ya smile though. 

I had family that watched Iggy in person and even Olu in High School.  If any of them had been like at the U of A we wouldn't be where we are now.

[The Boar War]

  People were tired.  I can't say that at the time that didn't agree with it.  I was kind of tired of always hearing Nolan go up on stage and talk about how everyone was against him, racism this and that.  I think everyone was kind of tired of it.  It's like Nolan never enjoyed any of it.  He always had this chip on his shoulder.  People got tired of it, plain and simple.

At the time I felt the same way.  I had no idea about the negative workplace and the racism he dealt with.  I think most Arkansans were in the same boat.

[HogFoo]

I had family that watched Iggy in person and even Olu in High School.  If any of them had been like at the U of A we wouldn't be where we are now.

Like I had previously mentioned.  I really wish somehow some way Nolan could have taken time off with a 'back issue' like Coach Krooosawooski has done several times when his teams were bad at Duke and they didn't count against his win/loss ratio.  Which is part of the reason why I dislike him so much.  haha  But yeah , Iggy would have been great with what we had with Jj sullenger and company.  Plus all the players that went to UAB, and then later that had Arkansas ties and went to Mizzou when Mike went there.

  In retrospect ya like to think,  maybe,  Mike should have got the job right after Nolan.  I remember seeing Mike in one of the last 2 games before Nolan was fired and Mike was actually doing the coaching in the game. He was walking the court while Nolan was sitting and he was yelling the plays.  Nolan was just sitting there.  It's like Mike was auditioning.  But, then you'd have Nolan fire off some comments after the games and Mike would be standing there literally looking like he was cringing knowing that Nolan was ruining any chances he had with every word he was saying.

But, Mike had to go make his own name, make himself into a commodity and he did.  He did it at UAB when he got most of the players from the class Nolan had coming to go to UAB (except Iggy he went to Arizona)when they beat UK.  We all know the story, Mike going to Mizz and getting all the other players that should have came here.  Now, during that time of Nolan's firing, supposedly Bill Self wanted to come here.  And if he did, who knows what would have happened.  Sky's the limit with that guy I think. I like Bill Self and think he's a great coach and I think things would have been extremely good had he indeed came here.     But we couldn't hire him because of the "racist stuff" and the pending lawsuit.  And if we went and hired a 'white guy' instead of a 'black guy"  then Nolan could have pointed at that and said  "see I was right"  So we were stuck and just couldn't  hire Self which sucked!   

Stan Heath years......Me personally, I did like how Heath recruited.  But that slow down stuff after being used to fast paced sucked soooo bad!  Then there was the fiasco with Billy Gillespie.  We got rid of Heath because people hated the style of play basically, and we thought we had Gillespie.  Of course UK gets rid of Tubby smith and then Gillespie goes there after basically telling us he was going to be our head coach.  That was the only reason we fired Heath is because we were guaranteed by Gillespie's people he was coming here.  Of course he doesnt and he left us out of luck and stuck trying to figure out what we're going to do now!??  Then the  Dana altman mess happened. It would have been a good solid hire, I mean he is in the final 4 now with Oregon.  But, from what  I heard, when he came here NONE of the players were eligible!  That's why he left the next day and blamed it on his daughter crying all night being homesick?? haha  geez. You could just tell at the press conference after the hiring when Altman looked like he had a case of explosive diarrhea about to happen during the whole Hog call something wasn't right.  hahaha..... Then the whole Pelphrey hire.  Or as my friend likes to call him  "FAILphrey"  Man, that was a bad hire. Even after we had like that 14-0 start and people actually were saying that they had hoped he wouldn't leave and go to UK. haha.. I hated it from the start.  I just never felt like I should ever ''lay down and have a good bleed after a loss.''  haha  WTH? 

   I will say that I had heard some info back then (moot now) that we almost got Mike sooner than we actually did.  I wont go into it, but we could have got him when he had that highly ranked mizz class that he had coming in and that he was going to bring it to Arkansas if he got hired.  But, Long wouldn't pull the trigger on canning ole bowl head soon enough for it to happen.  Regardless,  he is here now.  And like i've said quite a few times in recent threads, the future is VERY bright hog fans.  We have talent out the blow hole all the way to 2020+.  A couple of guys that are freshman are already top 15 types in their class! wow!   Hopefully some of these other kids that are freshman /soph will grow another 2'' or so so that we can have a few PF's/Center types in the class.  But, we are set at guards and small forward's for years.  Oh and most all of these kids as of right now don't have traitorous desires like a certain turd and brother did (but not the grandpa if you read that story haha).  But then again,   who knows, Ole John Crapilari might promise the brother or dad of one of the future stars a coaching job or something if they go to UK.    I figure Crappilari will probably be gone from UK in less than 4 or5yrs tho and surely leave UK in sanctions just like every other school he left.

[Biggus Piggus]

I will say that I had heard some info back then (moot now) that we almost got Mike sooner than we actually did.

This is accurate, and Long was not comfortable firing his men's basketball coach after his third season. Arkansas had just improved from 2-14 in the SEC to 7-9. And you're right, Anderson had recruits lined up who would have followed him to Arkansas. He didn't have that the next season.

[ShadowHawg]

I thought AL was a Heath recruit.  I was on campus then.  Iggy decommitted once Nolan was fired.

Edit:  We wouldn't have gotten Brewer with Nolan either, by that point he wasn't recruiting.  Mike was the lead on Ronnie and he was heading to OU at that point.

He wasn't going to OU. It would have been Oklahoma St. because of Sutton.

Landing Brewer reaped a grand total of ONE Ncaa tourney game and an embarrassing loss to Bucknell. I could easily have lived without that.

Not to mention that the Sutton era players still are not enamored with Nolan Richardson for whatever reason. Ronnie not coming here wasn't from a lack of effort as you suggest.

[NotSoFastMyFriend]

In some alternate universe, the Jesse Pate/Sunday Adebayo fiasco never occurs. The '96 team made it to the Sweet 16 after losing it's top scorer and rebounder in the middle of the season. They dropped a few games after that and ended up with a 12 seed. They certainly would have had a better seed, and then would have had those 2 guys back for 1997. Also, Nolan had to agree not to take JUCO players for two years following. In those days, as now, that was a big source of recruits for us. Take JUCOs off of the national championship teams, and they are not playing in back to back title games.

I'm not saying everything would have been totally different, but things would have been different.

This is big. Also the Ted Harrod-related cloud which hung over the program didn't help.

http://www.espn.com/college-sports/news/story?id=2410864

[ShadowHawg]

Recruiting. During the 94 and 95 seasons when Arkansas was in it's glory, the state produced some great high school players that went on to have very good college careers. For different reasons, I'm sure, these guys didn't end up at Arkansas. I feel like it hurt the pipeline for years to come.

Cory Carr - 94. Texas Tech. Averaged 23ppg his junior and senior years at Texas Tech.

Tim Gill - 94. ORU. Almost transferred to Arkansas during his career. Grew up in Arkansas as a kid. Averaged 17.5ppg during his 4 years at ORU. 44% career 3pt shooter. He's on staff for Razorback women's program. Director of Student Athlete Development.

Adrian Peterson - 95. Ok St. 15ppg for his college career.

Quincy Lewis - 95. Minnesota. 13ppg for his career. 23ppg his senior season.

Keith Carter - 95. Ole Miss. 14.4ppg for his career. He always seemed to torch Arkansas when we played them.

Crawford and his AAU pack had a lot to do with this. Lewis and Carter were pursued. Lewis was considered priority at the time. I knew people who were friends with both Nolan and his staff and they said that Lewis was the one guy they wanted above all else.

Lewis himself says that the staff didn't pursue him hard at all. Who knows? It wasn't long after that when Nolan started saying stuff about not bowing down to 18 year olds to get them to commit. As with nearly all stories, the truth probably lies somewhere in between the two versions that were/are told.

I always found it interesting that Lewis went to a program that got destroyed by the NCAA for big time cheating during the time Lewis played there. Probably just coincidence though.

Carter was given a conditional offer but chose to commit to Ole Miss and sign in the fall rather than wait. Who can blame him? But Carter only won a grand total of one Ncaa tournament game.

The rise of AAU handlers and the NCAA investigation made it harder to recruit, but we were still landing good players afterward.

The Scott Edgar effect is a myth. Edgar was head coach at Murray State in 1991. Elmer Martin was the last Memphis kid Edgar got. Corey Beck and Dwight Stewart came to campus in 91-92 after playing a year of Juco in Texas. They sat out a year while getting eligible because they came before getting an associates degree from junior college so they ended up with 3 years of eligibility. Edgar was gone so they didn't come here for him.

Matter of fact, Edgar had zero to do with the best ever recruiting class that was the 95 class.

Basically, Edgar contributed very little to the Championship team.

[Tejano Jawg]

This is a fascinating thread!

I've thought this before...I wish Hogville had some kind of "Master Archives" forum for topics like this. They would be moderated to gain inclusion so they could be referred to whenever you were curious. So many threads start out good, then tail off into pointless fantasyland. But when you've got legit sources—Mike Irwin, Biggus, et al—it makes for some historically relevant discussion. But I digress.

In some alternate universe, the Jesse Pate/Sunday Adebayo fiasco never occurs. The '96 team made it to the Sweet 16 after losing it's top scorer and rebounder in the middle of the season. They dropped a few games after that and ended up with a 12 seed. They certainly would have had a better seed, and then would have had those 2 guys back for 1997. Also, Nolan had to agree not to take JUCO players for two years following. In those days, as now, that was a big source of recruits for us. Take JUCOs off of the national championship teams, and they are not playing in back to back title games.

I'm not saying everything would have been totally different, but things would have been different.

There are many big-picture points made in this thread. And this...I was aware of the transfer issue, but didn't know it was stated like this? Was this true?

All I know is, as mentioned here, without our JUCO guys, we are not the same team(s). Corey Beck, Dwight Stewart, (Al Dillard?), or the backbone of Nolan's first Final Four team, the great Lenzie Howell, MVP of the 1990 Midwest Regional.

[ShadowHawg]

This is a fascinating thread!

I've thought this before...I wish Hogville had some kind of "Master Archives" forum for topics like this. They would be moderated to gain inclusion so they could be referred to whenever you were curious. So many threads start out good, then tail off into pointless fantasyland. But when you've got legit sources—Mike Irwin, Biggus, et al—it makes for some historically relevant discussion. But I digress.

There are many big-picture points made in this thread. And this...I was aware of the transfer issue, but didn't know it was stated like this? Was this true?

All I know is, as mentioned here, without our JUCO guys, we are not the same team(s). Corey Beck, Dwight Stewart, (Al Dillard?), or the backbone of Nolan's first Final Four team, the great Lenzie Howell, MVP of the 1990 Midwest Regional.

Al Dillard AND Roger Crawford.

Yes it was true about Jucos. The original inquiry by the NCAA was about the University using correspondence courses to get our Jucos eligible. The football team was doing it also.

After the witch hunt started, the NCAA claimed that we were practicing with Jucos who weren't eligible yet (Adebayo and the kid from Chipola who went to Utah St?). Then the investigation uncovered the chancellor's daughter rewriting a paper for Jesse Pate, which would later be the only legitimate violation as all the original inquiries were wrong as were the claims of practicing with ineligible players.

Even Sutton depended on Jucos for most of his time here. Not being allowed to recruit jucos hurt us for sure.

[PonderinHog]

I've thought this before...I wish Hogville had some kind of "Master Archives" forum for topics like this.

There actually was a forum like this a few years ago.  Only select posters, mostly mods, were allowed to start topics.  It didn't last long, for whatever reason.

[hawkhawg]

We still had good teams after 1995.  We still regularly made the tournament. After 1995 we had a lot of momentum with the number 1 recruiting class and a very young team that made the sweet 16.  The NCAA witch hunt killed all that momentum and were never able to get back amoung the elite.