The Arkansas Razorbacks thought they had found the right coach a few seasons ago when they brought in Mike Anderson to lead the program. Anderson was a student of the program’s best and most successful coach, Nolan Richardson, the man who led the Razorbacks to the 1994 national championship and the 1995 national championship game, when the team finished as the national runner-up to UCLA.
Anderson was supposed to bring back the glory days Richardson created, but he hasn’t been to the NCAA tournament even one time. If Anderson doesn’t make March Madness this season, there’s a definite feeling that he’s going to be done as Arkansas’ head coach. There’s a lot of pressure surrounding Anderson and Arkansas this season.
2013-14 Recap
The Razorbacks were another team in the SEC that couldn’t handle road games. This is weird, because the SEC wasn’t a very good conference last season. The SEC placed only three teams in the NCAA tournament, and one of them was a Tennessee team that went 0-4 in four games against Kentucky and Florida.
After the top three teams in the league, plenty of SEC road stops should have been winnable, since there was so much mediocrity. Georgia, LSU, Missouri, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Auburn, Alabama – these and other SEC teams beyond the Kentucky-Florida-Tennessee trio were just not very good.
Why was it, then, that Arkansas could not win road games consistently? The Hogs won a big game at Kentucky in Rupp Arena, but other than that, their other two road wins in the conference came at a shorthanded Vanderbilt team thinned out by injuries and a Mississippi State team that finished in the bottom tier of the league.
Arkansas basically lost its composure in road games, and it also lost focus just when it thought it had learned how to play together. Just a week and a half after the huge win at Kentucky, Arkansas went to Alabama needing to win to remain on the good side of the NCAA tournament bubble. Instead, the Razorbacks lost by 25 points, 83-58. They didn’t just lose; they failed to show up.
That was the story of Arkansas’ season. The Hogs were at their very worst when they needed to be at their very best. Arkansas then suffered a humiliating loss to South Carolina in the second round (and the team’s first game) of the SEC Tournament. Arkansas made it easy for the selection committee to not pick them, thereby sending them to the NIT instead.
Statistically, Arkansas had problems shooting the ball inside the three-point arc. Arkansas was fine in shooting threes, finishing second in the SEC in three-point percentage, at 36.2. However, Arkansas was 11th in the SEC and nearly 200th in the country in two-point percentage, at 48 percent even. That killed the Razorbacks, as did the team’s 48.4 rebounding percentage, which was not only 10th in the SEC, but 285th out of 351 teams in Division I.
Offseason Changes
The Razorbacks return the three players who all averaged at least 11 points per game last season: guards Rashad Madden and Michael Qualls plus forward Bobby Portis. Anderson likes to play 10 men per game and given them at least 12 to 15 minutes. Of the 10 players who played the most minutes for Arkansas last season, six return, while four are gone: forward Coty Clarke and guards Fred Gulley, Kikko Haydar, and Mardracus Wade. Of these three players, Clarke left the biggest imprint, scoring 9.4 points per game and averaging 5.6 rebounds per game.
Projected Finish
The Razorbacks have seven players returning who played at least nine minutes per game last season, and they have six returning players who logged at least 11 minutes per game last season. The three top scorers are back with another year of seasoning. If this team can’t make the NCAAs, Arkansas will need to look for a new coach. The prediction here is that Mike Anderson has enough talent and experience to save his job this season.
Pick: Fourth In The SEC, Round of 64 In The NCAA Tournament
