After losses to Morgan State, East Tennessee State, and South Alabama, and having to go into overtime to squeak by Appalachian State (all home games!), it’s likely that John Pelphrey will have to pull off a miracle to save his job this year.  I’m not saying I’ve given up on Razorback basketball, but all signs suggest this could  be one of the worst seasons in history.

So, while I hope Pelphrey turns things around, it’s realistic to start thinking about a replacement.  I think that replacement should be Mike Anderson, former assistant coach under Nolan Richardson and current coach at Mizzou.

It’s hard to say if Anderson would be interested in the job.  Arkansas had their chance at claiming Anderson, back in 2002 when Frank Broyles ran Nolan Richardson off.  Anderson had been at Arkansas with Nolan for 17 years, and he deserved a shot at the job.  But Broyles thumbed his nose at Anderson, who instead went to The University of Alabama at Birmingham where he coached the Blazers to 3 NCAA appearances and made it to the sweet sixteen in 2004 by upsetting #1 seed Kentucky.  Now he’s at Missouri. The Tigers went 31-7 last year (Arkansas was 14-16).

With Anderson, Mizzou has won 22 in a row at home and hasn’t lost a home non-conference game since the 2005 home opener.  The Tigers are now 33-0 in home non-conference games.  They recently beat Oregon 106-69.

The symptoms of Pelphrey’s problem have become obvious: He can’t recruit and retain quality players.  The cause of those symptoms is less clear.  How does one explain that out of six of last year’s highly touted recruits, only Rotnei Clarke currently plays for the Razorbacks?  Gone are Montrell McDonald, Andre Clark, Brandon Moore, Jason Henry, and, for the moment, Courtney Fortson.

With that many failures, it’s hard not to question Pelphrey’s abilities to manage young athletes.  For whatever reason, he can’t seem to keep players from bailing on him.  Some would argue that it is simply because he is a tough no-nonsense disciplinarian, but so are plenty of other coaches.  Maybe his disciplinary methods fail to address problems in a constructive way.  Perhaps he fails to gain the necessary respect of his players.  From the outside, it seems like his main source of doling out discipline is simply to suspend players from playing.  Surely there is a better way to help these young players grow and learn.

At any rate, if we end up in a coaching search come spring (and I think we will), we can only hope that Mike Anderson will still give us the time of day.  Hopefully it means something to him that Frank Broyles is no longer in charge, and that the vast majority of Arkansans never wanted him or Nolan to leave.

Besides, can you think of a better way to put Frank Broyles in his place than to bring ”the hell” back to Bud Walton?

I can’t.