Which brings up the simple notion that winning cures all.

If you don't mind, i'd like to interject something in correlation with your thoughts on other coaches not wanting to touch the UofA basketball program.

I'll start by asking one simple question of my own:

Name another program in the history of NCAA basketball, that won a NC with a black head coach, fired him for calling out the A.D. on national television, then was sued for racism, dragging the entire university reputation through the mud?

To be perfectly honest with you, I'm not so sure we're in the business of winning games as much as we're in the business of temporary damage control.

That's not an excuse for CJP's coaching, just my thoughts on where this program currently stands.

It's very easy to say we should be past that by now, since Stan Heath coached here 5 years past the Nolan era, and this is now CJP's 3rd season, but the truth of the matter is, the administration responsible for helping create that ugly monster, hasn't been gone very long at all.

Of course this is just my opinion, but I think a lot of people overlook that as being the biggest problem our basketball program faces today.

Like Cory Beck said on the Bo Mattingly Show the other day, "the pride isn't there like it used to be when I would put on that uniform", "That mean't something to me". "I had a glow about me".

Our players are reflecting that on the court.

It's easy to dismiss that because of our recent turmoil and shoddy management. But, I bring this up as a fairly valid counter-point: what coach expects to get an automatic four, or, five years? We're in the college basketball business to win games, not give coaches four years of paychecks with no return on investment.

One of the first things a newly hired coach says when speaking to the media is, "we're gonna play hard and win games." No one ever comes in and says, "I hope to play .500 ball and have a job for at least 4 years."

I'm still not calling for anyone's head, but to say we don't care about winning in lieu of trying to build a foundation for coaches to WANT to be at, well, that sounds silly.

What are your thoughts on this?

I guess you could say i'm a "fence rider" as well. I like CJP, but have coaching concerns at times.

I can see both sides of this argument very clearly, so I guess my reasoning for becoming that "fence rider" was created by the tug of war atmophere surronding CJP.

I'm too dad gum afaid too jump off the fence, because I can see venomus snakes hiding in the grass on both sides. What a mess!

All of you had good, insightful things to say, and I appreciate your time and effort to explain your views. Thank you. This is my last comment on the matter.

At least we can remember when…

Tipster – I told you that you ruined my week with this post..

Also we don't know what might happen following this season. Some unhappy top-tier coach might slip a note under the door looking for a job.

It is truly disgusting that a program with a national championship and a national runner up and some of the best facilities and fan base in America can't make the cut among the top 65 teams year in and year out. Something is truly rotten in Hogville.

So based on his teaching. How much better is Michael Washington than he was two years ago?

>> Averaged almost a double-double last year. Not bad. This year, his injuries aren't helping him. Still isn't a post player. Still gets in foul trouble quite often.

How much better is Steph Welsh than he was two years ago?

>> Not much.

Does Fortson do a better job of creating assists than creating turnovers or missing low percentage shots? Is he the kind of point guard you win with? He is fun to watch. How is his defense?

>> 1.18 AST/TO ratio — worse than last year's 1.34

>> FG% 36 — worse than last year's 42%

>> Fun to watch when he makes good shot decisions and passes

>> Horrid defense

So how often do you recruit a player like Powell who comes out of High School with the skills needed?

>> Every year you try. More times than not they go to another school for whatever reason. Next year's guards could steal minutes, though. And then, there's the 2011 class that many are salivating for.

Will Pelphrey ever be able to communicate an intelligible point to a fan?

>> Not sure. Especially now that the media is starting to crack down on him.

If his assistants are so good why aren’t they beating a path out of here for promotions?

>> Again. Not sure.

How much better is Steph Welsh than he was two years ago?

Does Fortson do a better job of creating assists than creating turnovers or missing low percentage shots? Is he the kind of point guard you win with? He is fun to watch. How is his defense?

So how often do you recruit a player like Powell who comes out of High School with the skills needed?

Will Pelphrey ever be able to communicate an intelligible point to a fan?

If his assistants are so good why aren’t they beating a path out of here for promotions?

He is a great guy, good observer, good nose for talent, but so far a very poor teacher. We are never going to have the kind of talent needed to win without a great teacher/motivator. He has not shown it.

However, what really gets me mad and makes me lean toward the “new direction” position is seeing the program towards the bottom of the conference when the rest of the conference is more concerned about when spring football is going to start than to care about bball. I can only think of a few schools (UK, Vandy, maybe UT, maybe FLA, MSU, maybe Ole Miss) that actually give a whoop about basketball. And that's stretching it. Which means we realistically should be fighting against those schools, instead of getting our butts handed to us year in and year out by other bottom dwellers. In the SEC, football is king. And to continually lose to other schools that don’t have the facilities and support that Arkansas has is unbelievable. I’m not saying that it’s NCAA bid or fire the coach, but it’s staggering to see schools with less financial support, tradition, and motivation continue to end up with better records and NCAA bids. Something has to give.

Your last comment is curious – college is about providing an opportunity for a higher education for students, at a significant cost (tuition aint cheap). In order to do that, the college has to provide competitive curriculi, teachers, buildings, extracurriculars, and athletics. All of that costs a lot of money. Tuition doesn't cover those costs, so a university must rely on donations and revenue. So if college is about all of that, then the focus of having a college is about being able to be financially viable – which points to 'business'.

You obviously have a position to push. It is good to spin the blogs too. It won't help much though. People will just be angrier sooner next year.

I understand letting Opie set a foundation. It turns out he is not even good enough to do that. Tough break, but there it is. He folded like a two dollar pup tent. He wants out. Do you blame him? Put the poor boy out of his misery.

Kids (and their parents – important point to realize) are drawn to and stay close to a coach. That's what's recruiting is all about. My assumption is that these kids are committed to Pelphrey – but that is speculation just like your thoughts that they are not committed. I haven't read any report that leads me to think they have given up on Pel.

History has shown that kids tend to leave when coaches leave. Look it up.

Scholarships: I can't believe you actually posted that these don't matter. I don't know what to say other than – EVERY scholarship is valuable. The fewer you have, the more concessions you have to make and puts you at a disadvantage to your opponent. You should consider retracting that statement.

You obviously missed my point about Texas and NC, or maybe I didn't make it clear: the point is that some of the greatest coaches in basketball have seasons in which they struggle. It doesn't mean that they are suddenly a bad coach – it could be that they need time to coach up their players or develop a system to fit those players. I brought up TX and NC since some would consider they are having 'down' years or aren't living up to expectations. All this to say that 2 years may not be enough time to totally turn around the program doesn't mean Pelphrey is a bad coach and should be thrown out.

You assume Self would come to Arkansas. Don't know how you drew that conclusion but again, coaches won't touch Arkansas with a 10 foot pole after our handling of coaches in the past. Long is changing this perception with his allegiance to Pel, which is good – this will go a long way in how prospective coaches view the program in the future.

I think you like Mike (and I do too) but there is no guarantee we could get any improvement over Pelphrey this offseason. And I believe that Mike thinks he is in a better situation than he would be moving to Arkansas.

Transfers: Kids want to win. You get them a good coach, improve their chance at winning, they ain't goin' nowhere. Not to mention they have already given up on Opie. We may have more leave by keeping him than by getting rid of him.

Scholarships: What's the difference if we lose a scholarship? Pelphry hasn't fielded a complete team in three years. He relys on football, golf, and tennis players to fill out his line up. A good coach will fill the spots he has with winnning players and draw quality walk-ons to boot.

All this talk of Texas and NC is beyond foolishness. You can't compare Opie to any coach in the SEC much less top 20 coaches elsewhere.

Simple facts is simple facts. We screwed up by not hiring Self and then we compounded our problem by running off Altman and taking a shot in the dark with Opie. IT DIDN'T WORK. Time to stop the bleeding, cut our losses and move on. Everything else is just wasting time.

As for looking at this as a business, I realize that it is but aren't we losing the focus of what college is supposed to be about?

I think you have to look across the conference, not just divisions since a good number of our games are against the east. We had some good wins against the east this year.

I agree with your points in general, but look at two 'great' coaches, Williams and Barnes. They are dealing with mediocrity at best, and the Texas and NC fans have to be going crazy as they have some of the best athletes in the country. My point is that good coaches can have a difficult time in the W-L column too. Granted, their records are better than Arkansas but they can recruit better athletes and supposedly have better coaching. One could argue that they should finish in the top 5 every year by virtue of their coaching. But it's more than that – it's about players being able to execute the game plan which typically comes from talent and experience.

To answer your other question, I think we have to go down the path of graduation rates and stability for at least 2 more years so we get out of the danger zone. I think our football program will help here as well if we don't have a mass exodus at the end of next year. Maybe we won't have mediocrity in bball, maybe we will. We have to live through a few years of the Broyles mess before we can get to the upper tier of the SEC.

Just how I see it.