Mike Anderson
The glory days of the Arkansas Razorbacks basketball program were during the early 1990’s under former head basketball coach Nolan Richardson. Richardson was the head basketball coach at Arkansas from 1985-2002 where he compiled a record of 389-169. In 1994, Richardson led Arkansas to their only national championship in the history of the program. Richardson coached the Hogs for 18 years before being dismissed in 2002. One of Richardson’s top assistant coaches under him at Arkansas was Mike Anderson. Anderson got his first crack at being a head basketball coach in 2002 when he took over the University of Alabama-Birmingham Blazers program. In three of Anderson’s four years at UAB, he led the Blazers to the NCAA Tournament which was highlighted by their run to the Sweet 16 in 2004 when they upset the Kentucky Wildcats who were the top seeded team in the field. From UAB, Anderson would leave to take over the Missouri Tigers basketball program. And in 2009, Anderson got Mizzou within an eyelash of their first trip to the Final Four.
Anderson followed Richardson to Arkansas from Tulsa in 1985 and he remained in Fayetteville until 2002. After parting with Richardson the school had attempted to distance themselves from what he had established there until they summoned Anderson to return to Fayetteville in 2011 to revive the program and when home comes calling it is tough to say no. Anderson is in the midst of his fourth year as the head basketball coach at Arkansas and he has yet to lead the Razorbacks to the NCAA Tournament, but that could change next month.
The Razorbacks have a record of 19-5 while they are 8-3 within the Southeastern Conference. The Razorbacks are second in the SEC only to undefeated Kentucky. The Hogs are currently ranked 23rd in the USA Today’s Coaches Poll and 24th in the Associated Press Poll and they are sitting pretty for their first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2008. The SEC isn’t the strongest basketball conference this year, but Arkansas was able to secure good non-conference victories this season over the Southern Methodist Mustangs of the American Athletic Conference and the Dayton Flyers of the Atlantic-10 Conference.
This Arkansas squad isn’t as talented as the teams from the program’s glory days that featured the likes of Corliss Williamson and Scotty Thurman, but they have some similarities. Under Richardson, Arkansas developed the philosophy of ” 40 minutes of hell” for their opponents. Typically Arkansas was better conditioned than their opponents and they were known to consistently run teams out of the gym. This Razorbacks team has scored at least 80 points nine times this season including dropping 101 on the Auburn Tigers this past Tuesday night. Anderson not only has brought excitement back to Arkansas basketball, but talent as well.
This season Arkansas is led by sophomore forward Bobby Portis who is leading the team in points (17.9) and rebounds (8.8) and he is arguably the best player in the SEC that is not attending Kentucky. Junior guard Michael Qualls is second on the team in scoring at 15.3 per game and along with Portis have given Anderson an inside-out combination that has been tough for opponents to defend.
With the exception of their February 28th trip to Lexington to meet Kentucky, Arkansas should be unscathed heading into next month’s SEC Tournament in Nashville. And as long as the Hogs are able to handle their business through now and mid-March, they should be dancing towards the big dance. This was the vision when Anderson returned to Arkansas and it is coming to fruition.
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