Anderson keeps NCAA roll going

FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville has become the third basketball program Coach Mike Anderson has led to the NCAA Tournament three times.

The No. 7 seed Razorbacks (23-11) will make their third NCAA Tournament appearance in a fouryear span under Anderson when they play No. 10 seed Butler (20-13) on Friday in Detroit in a first-round East Regional game.

Anderson is the first coach to lead Arkansas to three NCAA Tournament appearances since the Razorbacks made 13 in a 14-year span under Nolan Richardson from 1988 to 2001.

Prior to 2015, the Razorbacks had three NCAA Tournament appearances in a 13year span.

Anderson, a Razorbacks assistant coach for 17 seasons under Richardson, left a loaded team at Missouri after the 2010-11 season with the goal of restoring the Arkansas program to national prominence.

“This was a vision,” Anderson said. “In my mind, we’ve been tracking that way for many, many years.”

Anderson credited his assistant coaches with helping put the Razorbacks back in position to make the NCAA Tournament on a regular basis.

“They’ve done a tremendous job of going out and finding quality kids that come in here, that are going to learn, develop and get better,” Anderson said. “The culture has changed.

“As you talk to these guys, they expect to win. When they go out and play each and every game, they expect to win.”

In each of Anderson’s stops as a head coach — at Alabama-Birmingham, Missouri and Arkansas — he took a struggling program with a history of success and brought it back.

UAB was 13-17 in the 200102 season before Anderson took over. He had the Blazers in the NIT his first season and in the NCAA Tournament the next three years, highlighted by a run to the Sweet 16 in 2004 with victories over Washington and No. 1 seed Kentucky.

Missouri was 12-16 the year before Anderson became the Tigers’ coach. In his third season the Tigers reached the Elite Eight — including a victory over No. 2 seed Memphis and Coach John Calipari — before losing to No. 1 seed Connecticut to finish 31-7.

The Tigers went to the NCAA Tournament the next two years before Anderson returned to Arkansas. He left behind a Missouri team led by Marcus Denmon, Kim English, Phil Pressey and Ricardo Ratliff that finished 30-5 under new Coach Frank Haith during the 2011-12 season.

Anderson gradually built up Arkansas, going 18-14, 1913 and 22-12 with an NIT appearance before landing an NCAA Tournament bid in 2015.

“I think it starts in recruiting,” Anderson said of the blueprint for successfully rebuilding a program. “Not only that, guys have to see your vision. One of the words I’ve used since I’ve been here: ‘Patience.’

“There’s no quick fixes to it. We’ve had some bumps along the way.”

The Razorbacks encountered a bump last week when senior forward Dustin Thomas — who started 44 games the past two seasons — was dismissed from the team by Anderson for an undisclosed violation of team rules.

“One of the guys that started in the [NCAA] Tournament last year, he’s not even here,” Anderson said. ‘But yet, when you have a program, when you have a team — a true team — that thing keeps going.

“It’s somebody else’s opportunity to step up.”

The Razorbacks made nine consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances under Coach Eddie Sutton, who was Richardson’s predecessor. Sutton and Richardson combined for 22 NCAA Tournament appearances for Arkansas in a 25-year span.

“I don’t want a flash in the pan, one year, two years,” Anderson said. “I want something that’s going to be of substance because the standards here are very, very high.

“Eddie Sutton, Coach Richardson, they were tremendous standards here and I was a part of that. That’s the thing that keeps me up at night, that keeps me enthused about what we’re doing.

“Then when I hear it from the people — from our fans — about this particular team, it kind of inspires me even more to make it happen.”

The Razorbacks won their NCAA Tournament opener in 2015 and 2017, but Arkansas hasn’t advanced to the Sweet 16 since 1996.

“Obviously, we want to go beyond this point,” Anderson said. “That’s that next level that I’m talking about.”

Anderson