will richardson ever shut up?

Nolan Richardson continues to earn the disrespect of Hog fans everywhere with the latest installment in his ongoing battle against perceived racism at Arkansas. According to Richardson, he was fired because he spoke out against racism on campus, not because of his disappointing coaching performance. His attorney even argued that in the end it didn't matter how his teams had been doing because university officials fired him on the basis of what he said and not what his teams did (or didn't do).

Anyone who has been paying attention to Razorbacks basketball over the last decade or so knows that's crap. After a strong few years in the mid 90's, Richardson's teams slacked off and were never again among the top teams in the NCAA. They managed to slip into the tournament a couple of years in there and even won the SEC tournament one year, but they weren't a staple on the list of basketball powerhouses like they were in their glory years. It seemed at the time that after a successful string of seasons Richardson had just lost his ability to put together contenders. There was talk of needing a coaching change years before his series of outbursts in the latter half of the 2002 season, so to pin much of his firing on his behavior at the end of his career is absurd. As great a coach as he once was, his performance over his last few years warranted his firing. Arkansas needed a good coach and he wasn't willing to resign so he didn't leave the university with many options.

Perhaps even more ludicrous is the following: "Richardson said during the post-game press conference in 2002 that his job was made harder because he was treated as a second-class coach by the university." Excuse me? The guy was the highest paid state employee for many years and is still collecting half a million bucks a year (and will be through 2008) as part of his contract buyout. When he was winning the university built a brand new basketball arena for his teams that's still one of the best in the nation, a rarity that's on the wish list of almost every coach in basketball. He always seemed to have a chip on his shoulder and toward the end of each season would put fans and the university through his annual moaning and complaining, and yet the university still supported him and didn't return his favors. What may be the most telling is that the university put up with this well after his best years were clearly behind him and he had seemingly lost the dedication to winning he once had. The school continued to pay him outrageous sums of money even when his program had long since fallen from the ranks of the elite and folks around the state had started calling for his head. The U of A didn't stab him in the back. It was (and still is) the other way around.

Moreover, look at the environment Richardson was coaching in. Anyone who has ever been associated with the University of Arkansas knows that school lives and dies for athletics. Academic pursuits are a distant second, or third if you include social life in the discussion.* And anyone who has ever spent much time in Arkansas knows that seemingly everyone in the state shares that same devotion. Despite the state's obsession with football, the U of A was known as a basketball school in the 90's and Richardson's "40 minutes of hell" teams were the highlight of the athletic year for Arkansas fans. Even though the fans could be harsh at times, he never went through the kind of constant scrutiny of other top-tier programs and could afford to lose a game or two every so often without his job always being on the line. Believe it or not I think he actually had more respect and loyalty from his fans than many of his counterparts had from theirs. Richardson had no competition in the state for loyalty and was the big man in athletics for the better part of his career at Arkansas. In other words, he had a rather friendly and supportive fan base to work with compared to coaches at a lot of other schools and especially at other top programs.

Yet none of this seems to matter much to Mr. Richardson. In his mind he was mistreated for years and was eventually run out of town by a bunch of bigots just for being black and speaking the truth. Yeah right. Hey Nolan, just sit down and shut up already, and finally accept the fact that you had a great run that us Hog fans will always remember and be thankful for but had become a lousy, overpaid crybaby of a coach that needed to lose his job.

*Having attended another large public university for a few years before transferring to the U of A, I can personally testify that the focus at Arkansas is far beyond obsessive. At least at my former school academics took some precedence. But not at Arkansas. It's like the entire campus and practically the entire city shut down anytime there was some sort of athletic event going on. Great for fans, bad for students.