I find it hard to see if Sampson leaves UH for Arkansas in the fact of UH college basketball history and how easy it is to recruit at the UH. Maybe somewhere else.

I feel that there are a few here that are severely underestimating the program prestige at Arkansas. They have been to 32 NCAA Tournaments, 11 Sweet 16's, 10 Elite 8's, 6 Final Fours and 2 National Championship Games (winning once); they have an incredible 19k facility, and are routinely in the top-10 of attendance nationally. In addition, with the new-found source of high-quality basketball coaches in the league (Calipari, Barnes, Crean, Pearl, Howland, F. Martin, etc.), the SEC is now one of the top basketball conferences in the country, able to attract major coaches to its programs.

Sampson is no guarantee to go to Arkansas; but dismissing them out-of-hand because "it's not Houston" is incredibly shortsighted. Let's not forget that Houston had one tournament appearance in 25 years. Now, they have clearly re-invested in men's basketball to a high-degree (so it is very likely their competitiveness is sustained with or without Sampson now).

To UH fans: would Houston be willing to name Kellen Sampson the Head Coach-in-Waiting? From all accounts, it sounds like that actually may be the greatest asset a school could offer at this point (since Kelvin is likely to win wherever he is at).

Arkansas has tremendous history and tradition, but not unlike Houston, they have been rather dormant on the national scene for some time. They haven’t been to a Sweet 16 since 1996 with Nolan Richardson, who took them to something like 12 Dances.

A quick look around the Sweet 16’s SEC representatives and we’ll find a HOF coach in Calipari, proven winners Barnes and Pearl, and the scandalous LSU Tigers.

Targeting Sampson makes sense due to the east Texas recruiting territory, but I don’t see it. I hope they didn’t fire Anderson on that gamble.

What proven and elite coaches are out there for all of these major openings this year?

(03-26-2019 10:46 PM)esayem Wrote:  Why was Anderson fired? Some of these programs need to temper their expectations. Anderson never had a losing record. Good luck, Hawgs.

I was wondering this too. Why was he fired this year?

If 3 NCAA appearances in 4 years is unacceptable for Arkansas, then he should have been fired after his 5th year (when he went 16-16 and had only made 1 NCAA tourney in 5 years).

1st year: 18-14
2nd year: 19-13
3rd year: 22-12, NIT 2nd round
4th year: 27-9, NCAA tourney round of 32
5th year: 16-16
6th year: 26-10, NCAA tourney round of 32
7th year: 23-12, NCAA tourney round of 64
2019 (8th year), 18-16, NIT 2nd round

If only Dana Altman hadn't changed his mind in 2007.

Houston local CBS TV reporter tweeted:

"It appears that U.H. has done all it can to keep Sampson, offering multi-year deal worth $3million per."

That's more than Roy Williams makes. More than Mark Few. More than Jay Wright. More than Arkansas paid Mike Anderson. In our leauge, more than Mick Cronin and everybody else not named Gregg Marshall.

Sampson's Houston team is loaded next year if he returns. If he leaves, it won't be about an extra few hundred thousand per year...

(03-28-2019 09:06 AM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  

(03-26-2019 10:46 PM)esayem Wrote:  Why was Anderson fired? Some of these programs need to temper their expectations. Anderson never had a losing record. Good luck, Hawgs.

I was wondering this too. Why was he fired this year?

If 3 NCAA appearances in 4 years is unacceptable for Arkansas, then he should have been fired after his 5th year (when he went 16-16 and had only made 1 NCAA tourney in 5 years).

1st year: 18-14
2nd year: 19-13
3rd year: 22-12, NIT 2nd round
4th year: 27-9, NCAA tourney round of 32
5th year: 16-16
6th year: 26-10, NCAA tourney round of 32
7th year: 23-12, NCAA tourney round of 64
2019 (8th year), 18-16, NIT 2nd round

his teams were poorly coached especially this year

there were multiple games this year even late when they were an outside bubble team for the NCAAs that his teams came out and went 8 or so minutes with next to no points and then late in the game all the sudden played well and closed the gap to within a point or two and then let it slip away

if they had been even BAD and not just horrible in the earlier periods of next to no points they would have probably won several of those games....but he never could get them to not do that and it happened multiple times

they are losing their one real big player and have no replacement for him and he has not recruited all that well

there is really nothing that says next year will be anything but much worse than this year so why let him stick around because he is not going to come back from a season next year that is worse than this one

he also lost to other teams that had similar issues with playing bad, but Arkansas "out played down" to the competition and lost to teams that they should have beaten especially if they had just played half way decent that game

fan support was bad as well with half full games frequently

Folks, Houston is not as good a job as Arkansas.

Arkansas has more fan support, more tradition, and more money if they're willing to spend it.

I know Houston is a large city and theoretically more attractive to recruits than Fayetteville, but if it were that simple then there would be no such thing as successful programs in small towns. And yet there are numerous examples...

For one thing, guys playing at Arkansas will be on national TV a lot more than anyone playing at Houston. The conference a school is in very much matters.

The last part is not necessarily true anymore.

(03-28-2019 12:47 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  Folks, Houston is not as good a job as Arkansas.

I agree, but that's not all that goes into a coaching change.

(03-28-2019 01:59 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  The last part is not necessarily true anymore.

I think the conference is important because that tends to dictate the media deal.

It's all interconnected.

(03-28-2019 01:59 PM)esayem Wrote:  

(03-28-2019 12:47 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  Folks, Houston is not as good a job as Arkansas.

I agree, but that's not all that goes into a coaching change.

True, but some of the posters seem to think it's crazy that Kelvin Sampson would leave for that job. It's far from crazy.

The SEC is and always will be a football first league. A basketball coach at ANY SEC school except Kentucky will always be 2nd fiddle. A basketball coach with any ego and other opportunities isn’t going to an SEC program.

Look at the coaches.... Retreads, has beens and never will bes.
We are talking about basketball. Arguably the 4th most popular sport in The SEC behind Football, Football Recruiting and Baseball.

Don’t shoot the messenger. When it comes to basketball, all the money in the world won’t make it more popular in The SEC than football.

(03-28-2019 02:30 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  The SEC is and always will be a football first league. A basketball coach at ANY SEC school except Kentucky will always be 2nd fiddle.

The flip side of that is, there will usually be less pressure on an SEC basketball coach (except at Kentucky) than there would be at a school where hoops is the primary focus of boosters, media, and fans. That's an advantage to a coach who wants or needs time to build his program without being on the hot seat from day one.

Another advantage is that, unlike most other schools where basketball is not a priority, at an SEC school a coach can get all the resources money can buy, which is much better than being at a place where they demand winning but don't let you have the resources that make it more likely your team will win consistently.

USFFan

(03-28-2019 02:46 PM)usffan Wrote:  

USFFan

Next week?!? Doesn't he expect to be in the Final 4 next week?

On a side note, UH and UK have very similar logos.

(03-28-2019 02:04 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(03-28-2019 01:59 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  The last part is not necessarily true anymore.

I think the conference is important because that tends to dictate the media deal.

It's all interconnected.

I meant the national TV part.

(03-28-2019 02:30 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  The SEC is and always will be a football first league. A basketball coach at ANY SEC school except Kentucky will always be 2nd fiddle. A basketball coach with any ego and other opportunities isn’t going to an SEC program.

Look at the coaches.... Retreads, has beens and never will bes.
We are talking about basketball. Arguably the 4th most popular sport in The SEC behind Football, Football Recruiting and Baseball.

Don’t shoot the messenger. When it comes to basketball, all the money in the world won’t make it more popular in The SEC than football.

It doesn't have to be more popular than football. It just has to be a much closer 2nd to it. And the A.D.'s now are finding ways to increase basketball players profiles on campus and to do more to acknowledge their families when they come to events. Success will breed support.

(03-28-2019 04:23 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(03-28-2019 02:30 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  The SEC is and always will be a football first league. A basketball coach at ANY SEC school except Kentucky will always be 2nd fiddle. A basketball coach with any ego and other opportunities isn’t going to an SEC program.

Look at the coaches.... Retreads, has beens and never will bes.
We are talking about basketball. Arguably the 4th most popular sport in The SEC behind Football, Football Recruiting and Baseball.

Don’t shoot the messenger. When it comes to basketball, all the money in the world won’t make it more popular in The SEC than football.

It doesn't have to be more popular than football. It just has to be a much closer 2nd to it. And the A.D.'s now are finding ways to increase basketball players profiles on campus and to do more to acknowledge their families when they come to events. Success will breed support.

I understand the idea of making it more popular. I believe however it will take more than success.

Florida won the title in 2006 & 2007. The SEC Tournament didn’t sell out in Tampa in 2009. SEC were surprised by the lack of support in the Sunshine State.

While SEC Basketball may become more than Kentucky sometime in the future, I doubt any of us live to see it.

(03-28-2019 02:41 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(03-28-2019 02:30 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  The SEC is and always will be a football first league. A basketball coach at ANY SEC school except Kentucky will always be 2nd fiddle.

The flip side of that is, there will usually be less pressure on an SEC basketball coach (except at Kentucky) than there would be at a school where hoops is the primary focus of boosters, media, and fans. That's an advantage to a coach who wants or needs time to build his program without being on the hot seat from day one.

Another advantage is that, unlike most other schools where basketball is not a priority, at an SEC school a coach can get all the resources money can buy, which is much better than being at a place where they demand winning but don't let you have the resources that make it more likely your team will win consistently.

This is an excellent point.