Arkansas Basketball: Can Mike Anderson Lead Hogs to Postseason?

The Arkansas basketball team isn’t setting the world on fire, but Mike Anderson is coaching this team up to be better than what anyone thought.

Hopefully there are a lot of Hog fans paying attention to the Arkansas Basketball team. They started the season off on a bad foot and football was still dominating the headlines. But over the past month the Hogs have began to grow as a team, win as a team and now they deserve our attention. One man is responsible for the improvement– Mike Anderson. Look, I know there are a lot of Hog fans that will disagree with me. They may not like him and wish him to leave. They may think he’s a pitiful coach who just lets his players “ball out”. Well I could give two rips about it because quite frankly, you’re wrong.

I’ll be the first to admit that Anderson isn’t a big name. He’s no John Calipari, Mike Krzyzewski, or Jim Boehiem. He hasn’t been coaching for 30 years at one school and he doesn’t have a national title. He’s not the best recruiter in the country, but some of that isn’t his fault, it’s the system’s. Arkansas isn’t the basketball school it used to be and Anderson inherited a complete mess. He was able to secure Bobby Portis, but no other 4 or 5 star players in the state. They would rather play for a big name coach at a big name program. Basketball is different and recruiting is hard when the best players only want a blue blood school for one year. I’ve heard people say that the down year is inexcusable for a fourth year coach. Sure, usually you’d be right, but Anderson had a disastrous off-season that was out of his control. He had three players arrested (one is gone, one is red-shirted and the other one started playing again less than a month ago), one recruit didn’t have the grades to come, and of course Portis and Michael Qualls left for the league. Fans expected them to leave but not everything else.

Anderson was given a bad hand and as many expected, he lost quite a few on that hand.  There might actually be hope after the 3-1 start to conference. This years players have all developed more than I thought they would. Moses Kingsley is becoming a real stud and it’s not crazy to think he could go to the league after next season. Anthlon Bell is finally the player we were looking for, a confident shooter and leader. Dusty Hannahs has blown the doors off everyone. Imagine if he could have played last year. Now he’s hitting threes at will and makes it look way easier than should be allowed. Jabril Durham was a Junior College transfer last year and did nothing. This year he is third in the nation in assists per game and is without a doubt the teams number one, most trusted point guard. That’s all attributed to coach Anderson and his staff. When I first saw Qualls play, I didn’t think he’d ever have a chance to make to past college. Couple years later under Anderson and Qualls developed into a shooting guard, with physical ability and highlight reel plays. Sadly, he tore his ACL and has since been arrested. Even Portis developed a ton in his two years as a Razorback. He added muscle, he gained patients on the floor and learned to be a leader.

In any sport, the coach is only as good as his players and vice versa. Krzysewski wouldn’t be ranked with the players that Arkansas has. No one would. But I’ll be damned if they don’t play their butts off each time they get on the court. It doesn’t matter if they are out matched. They are Hogs and Hogs don’t quit. Thank Anderson for instilling that in his players. It would be super easy to just blow this year off, wait for the super-star JuCo players to show and then take things seriously. Anderson has never had a loosing record. He’s never cut corners to gain an edge like some big name coaches. Our school isn’t under investigation, the team grades are doing well and most of all those players believe in themselves.

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Anderson isn’t flashy or out spoken. He’s almost the polar opposite of Bret Bielema. He likes to keep to himself but demands a lot from his players. He’s not here to win the crowd, he won’t charm your pants off but he will get the most out of you. This years team is much more balanced on the scoring end. They don’t have to rely on two super stars but instead hurt you with shooters on the outside or a stud in the post. This squad,  so far, has developed into a pretty good team. Now, the next four games in conference will have a lot to say about how good the Hogs really are, starting with LSU and Ben Simmons. Given the confidence and the hot shooting streak, it’s very possible they sink. Tigers. They just have to hope Simmons has a bad night.

There is a lot of basketball left to be played. A lot. The Hogs could nosedive or they could move upward and do some damage, it’s really up in the air at the moment. I believe Anderson can get this team to the post season, especially the NIT, and that would be huge. This season isn’t lost folks and there’s optimism in the air. Believe in our coaches and believe in our players. Calling for someones head only sets the program back,  again. I will admit, Anderson will need to get some significant results next season.  That’s only becuase he’ll have so much talent next year but if there’s one thing I know about Anderson, if he has good players, he’ll have a good team.

Woo Pig.