The NCAA Championship is tonight. And The Masters begins on Thursday. Oh yeah…and there’s this, too:
Hogwired.com: Announcement Set for 5 p.m. On Floor of Bud Walton Arena
Arkansas will make a major announcement concerning its basketball program and its head coaching position today at 5 p.m. at Bud Walton Arena. A short introduction ceremony will be held at midcourt.
Also:
- Scott Cain: Altman hired, source says
- Ryan Malashock: Creighton’s Altman To Become Next Coach
- Little Rocking: Frank can hurry to Augusta now
Updated 4/2/07 3:30 p.m.
Altman – now that's a widely known name. NOT!
Frank stayed way too long to have any influence or connections. White is scary. We are lucky to have done this well.
The boy deserves a honeymoon and our best wishes. Our frustration is really for Frank, the BOT, and White who let this mess develop over the years anyway.
Welcome Dana Altman. Just the big time coach we were looking for… really? I was reading about Altman's style of coaching (wish I could cite it, there's been way too many as of late) — which is that he runs any style of offense to win and focuses on D. Currently at Creighton, he ran a lot of motion and screens. Sound familiar?
My question is does Altman sell more tickets? By his style, it sounds like Altman is just a more established Heath. So why change? I'm still going with Broyles' need to have a legacy. Hurry up news conference. Let's see if Beverly is actually going to stay.
I know people are disappointed that this hire didn’t turn out to be a big splash. I don’t think it’s going to help sell tickets in the short-term. I have my doubts about all of it, but I for one am going to get behind him and give him a chance and give him the benefit of the doubt.
By all accounts, he’s a straight shooter, good floor coach, and if he can recruit a little bit, it might be a good match. I know it had to be tough to recruit at Creighton, a private school with high academic entry requirements. The folks up in Omaha are distraught about losing him.
I will say this also, he wanted to be here, and that can’t be said about those other guys (Gillispie, Self, Floyd, Calipari). Altman's an Arkansas man now, and that deserves our support until he proves otherwise.
Time to go to work.
Good point WoS. I'll support him, too. I was just reflecting on Broyles' talking points about who he was looking for.
Just to clarify…the quip in my original post was about the unbelievably poor timing of this news conference. Whether we like it or not…it looks like we're trying to bury the news of this hire.
Have the guy stay in a Holiday Inn Express tonight and introduce him in the light of day tomorrow. If Frank can't make it because he's in Augusta, I'm sure John White will provide plenty of fine quotes for the media.
As for Altman, I have no doubt that the majority of the fan base will look on this as a disappointing hire. But it was framed to be a disappointment from the beginning when we limited the field down to "big names."
I'm happy to have Altman. Remember, Eddie Sutton also came to us from Creighton. Over 13 years, Altman had plenty of chances to leave Creighton, including two interviews with Tenn. He chose us. I have a very good feeling about him.
Patrick Beverly is only concerned about a coach who will let him "play his game," like Heath did. Tampa paper quoted him as saying he might follow Heath to South Florida. There's the door….
5:00 pm guarantees fresh, maybe even live news at 5:00 and 6:00 on every station in Arkansas, Could not be at a better time.
Hopefully Altman can put a "team" on the floor. With the current crop of players, that is the only way to be successful. Most all have some talent, but are actually only role player quality.
No one in their right mind should ever have thought that Gillespie, Self or Floyd would come to Fayetteville. Even JFB cannot perform miracles.
ses…Like you said…IN Arkansas. The rest of the world of college basketball fans/media will have their eyes on Atlanta. They'll hear about it in a few weeks/months when they notice and say, "Hey…what happened to that Creighton guy?"
LR…I'm getting a little tired of showing "the door" to every player who comes in here who's got talent and only asks for a little stability. Here's a crazy notion…how about we work to convince one to stay every once in a while…just to shake things up a little bit.
no disrescpt but are you guys thrilled by this hiring?
Altman was a coach in the big 12 K-State he was barely over .5oo 68-54, broyles and his staff are jokes. I would have given Heath a little more time the guy can recruit and if players like Al Jefferson wouldn't have bolted for the league, along with brewer and beverly. That trio would have reenergized the hill and made everyone happy
So…we trade a 20-win/year guy in the SEC (past 2 years) with a 20-win/yr guy in the Missouri Valley.
Not to wallow, but Stan deserved at least one more year, with his (possibly) "best" team, to get it done. Not that it's possible, but I'd like to see Altman arrive facing what Stan faced 5 years ago and see how he would stack up. The point: I'm just not sure we 'traded up' — it seems like more of a lateral move at best.
By the way, I must agree with TipsterHog's reply to LR — we expect consistency (even improvement?) each year a player is here; is it too much to ask the same from our athletic administration as well?
I think LR was just responding to Beverly's comment about being allowed to play "his" game. As if it were all about him and not, you know, THE TEAM.
Disipline alone will take this current team to new hieghts that most people don't believe they can attain. If Altman's teams play as disiplined as some people say, this could be a very good year for the Hogs.