Latest exits symptom of something
The Arkansas Razorbacks men’s basketball team have become as much of a mystery as the football team.
The difference is Mike Anderson will enter his eighth season in charge in 2018-19, while Chad Morris only arrived from SMU in December to take over the football team.
Yet, for the second time in three years, Anderson will enter a season with a roster bereft of experience and leadership, a situation exacerbated by his inability to hold on to some of his brightest young stars.
Things looked to have changed on March 26 when standout freshman center Daniel Gafford tweeted he planned to return to Arkansas for his sophomore season despite the prospects of being selected in the first round of the NBA Draft in June. Barely nine days later, freshman Darious Hall and sophomore C.J. Jones, two players expected to be leaders on next year’s team, announced their intentions to transfer.
Anderson said he was surprised by their requests, but the departure of young guards with potential to be top Razorbacks has become a pattern under Anderson.
B.J. Young averaged 15.3 points as a freshman in Anderson’s first season and led the team in scoring at 15.2 in his sophomore year. Young went pro after two seasons despite little to no prospects of being drafted. He toiled in the NBA’s developmental league for two seasons before spending the last threeplus years playing professionally in Europe.
Michael Qualls became a staple of SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays on ESPN during his junior season. He was second on the team in scoring as a junior with
15.9 points per game behind Bobby Portis, now with the Chicago Bulls.
Other factors were definitely at play, but Qualls went pro after his junior season despite only slightly better chances than Young of being drafted. An injury before the draft only further damaged Qualls pro prospects and he has since bounced around Europe and the developmental league.
Another member of the 201415 team, Nick Babb, played in 26 games as a freshman and transferred to Iowa State instead of taking over a starting role on the
2015-16 team, which finished 1616. Babb averaged 11.3 points per game this season in 36 minutes per game this season for the 13-18 Cyclones and still has another year of eligibility.
Most of Babb’s potential minutes in 2015-16 were taken by Jimmy Whitt, who Anderson recruited out of Missouri’s backyard in Columbia. Whitt averaged 17.2 minutes per game as a true freshman, but still opted to transfer to SMU. He was one of only two players to play in all 33 games this season for the Mustangs, averaging 10.5 points per game on a 17-16 team.
Neither Hall nor Jones have announced where they plan to transfer, but the rumored destination for Hall is Memphis, which recently hired former NBA star, AAU coach and high school coach Penny Hardaway. The Tigers were 21-13 this season and three members of the team have requested transfers since Hardaway was hired.
It has to be said how many players have made significant improvements under Anderson when they actually stay with the program. Ky Madden, Moses Kingsley, Manny Watkins, Anthlon Bell and even Qualls are among Anderson’s success stories.
Still, a lack of depth and experienced difference makers has stymied the program under Anderson. Hall and Jones were among seven players on the roster to play in every game this season for Arkansas, both likely would have averaged double-digits next season and they still decided to leave.
I don’t know what about Anderson’s program makes so many talented young players think it is better for them to leave, especially to go to lesser teams, but it can’t be a good thing.