some agonizing ncaa trivia

...for Hogs fans at least. And it just got a little worse when Mike Anderson's Mizzou Tigers routed higher-seeded Memphis in the regional semis, putting up triple digits in the process. Hey Memphis, didn't you used to be touted for your good defense? So much for that. At least there's a silver lining to this in seeing John Calipari lose. In my book that's right up there with seeing Duke get upset again. That's saying a lot.

Anyway, recall that Mike Anderson was Nolan Richardson's protege back in the glory days of Arkansas basketball and even played under Richardson at Tulsa. Recall also that he was the Hogs' interim coach for a few games after Nolan was canned in 2002 and interviewed for the job after the season. Well, in the aftermath of that not-so-pretty parting of ways, Anderson was apparently thought of as "too close" to the whole saga and was passed over,* despite being the assistant head coach, knowing the "40 Minutes of Hell" style of basketball the Hogs had become famous for, and having been groomed to be a head coach by one who was, for a long time, one of the better coaches in college basketball.

So Alabama-Birmingham didn't waste much time in nabbing Anderson, and the decision paid off quickly. At UAB he made the tournament three times in his four years and eliminated then-#1 Kentucky from the tourney in '04. Inevitably a major-conference school was going to come calling, which Missouri did in '06 when they needed someone to clean up the scraps from the Quinn Snyder experiment. (Serves 'em right for hiring a Duke guy.) Three years later, Anderson is steamrolling his way into the Elite Eight and maybe beyond, and using that fast-tempo game to get there. And Arkansas is coming off of a 2-14 year in the SEC and has been dormant on the national scene for about a decade.

Had Anderson been hired at Arkansas, he could be in his seventh year now. Just imagine what the program could be. Tack on another "OOPS!!" to the long and colorful list of personnel blunders by the Razorbacks' athletic department. Keep up the great work, you frackin' idiots.

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* In fairness, Stan Heath seemed like a solid pick at the time. But Anderson no doubt suffered a bit because of his close ties to the coach who had fallen out of favor.

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