Sellouts help lift Hogs’ attendance

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas’ home attendance for men’s basketball games is up more than 2,000 per game in Mike Anderson’s first season as coach compared to last year.

The Razor backs have averaged 10,750 in announced attendance for 20 games at Walton Arena compared to 8,568 for 18 games last season — an increase of 2,182 per game.

Paid attendance for Walton Arena games also is up 1,146 this season to 13,168 from 12,022 last season, when the Razorbacks finished 1813, including 7-9 in SEC play, during John Pelphrey’s last year as coach.

Arkansas is 18-12, including 6-9 in the SEC, under Anderson going into Saturday’s regular-season finale at Mississippi State.

The Razorbacks’ record is similar to last season, but the atmosphere has changed in Walton Arena, with more fans and added enthusiasm.

Arkansas is 17-3 in Walton Arena — the most victories in the arena’s 19-year history, though the Razorbacks have lost their past three home games to Florida, Alabama and Ole Miss.

“I think our home crowd has been great,” Anderson

said. “I think that’s been the difference in enabling this team to come out and play at a high level in games here.”

Anderson said Arkansas’ home record “speaks volumes for our fans” during a season in which the roster at times has been reduced to eight healthy scholarship players and with All- SEC forward Marshawn Powell lost to a season-ending knee injury after two games.

“They’re excited about what’s taking place in our program,” Anderson said. “I think there’s hope again.”

Anderson has brought back an up-tempo, pressing style used by the Razorbacks during Anderson’s 17-year tenure as an assistant to Arkansas Coach Nolan Richardson from 1985-2002, when the Razorbacks made 13 NCAA Tournament appearances, advanced to the Final Four three times and won the 1994 national championship.

“When people are excited about it, they come out and they come and enjoy it,” Anderson said. “Wherever I’ve gone, that’s what I hear from people — kids are playing the right way, they’re playing hard, they’re playing together.

“They know we’re shorthanded right now, but I think Arkansas fans are very knowledgeable, and I think they appreciate our players going out and representing the university in a first-class manner. They’re doing it on the floor. They’re doing it off the floor. They’re very involved in the community.

“To me, that’s a good sign of many, many things to come.”

Arkansas’ paid attendance gradually fell during Pelphrey’s four seasons, when the Razorbacks were a combined 69-59 and missed postseason play the last three years after beating Indiana in the NCAA Tournament in 2008.

“The fans want to win, and I guess they never wanted to support something that was just going downhill,” Arkansas senior forward Marvell Waithe said earlier this week. “But with Coach A coming, the resurgence of the program, they’re coming back.”

Alabama junior guard Andrew Steele said Walton Arena is among the toughest environments he’s played in during his three seasons with the Crimson Tide.

“They’ve got a good basketball tradition and their fans are really passionate about basketball,” Steele said. “Mike Anderson coming home added some excitement.”

Ole Miss rallied to beat the Razorbacks on Tuesday night, but Atrebels junior forward Murphy Holloway praised the Walton Arena environment.

“Oh man, it’s tough,” Holloway said. “You’re like, ‘Damn!’ ... It’s hard not to get rattled.”

Arkansas had its first sellout crowds this season — 19,050 for Michigan and 18,913 for Florida — since 2009, when Walton Arena was packed with the 1994 team being honored at halftime of the Arkansas-georgia game.

“It’s very evident that there’s a positive vibe about Razorback basketball,” Anderson said. “That was my intention, to make sure people get excited about it.

“I keep telling them, they better get their tickets, man. The hottest show in the south, it’s coming.”

Mike Anderson