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Most Arkansas fans saw Mike Anderson's return to Fayetteville in 2011 as a chance to return to the glory years and repair the hole left in the basketball program after the controversial ouster of former head coach Nolan Richardson fifteen years ago.
It's year-six. College coaches on this level don't survive one NCAA Tournament appearance in six years. They just don't. And if Anderson does, then he's like the first in the modern era to do it. By all intangible standards and unwritten rules, coaches get fired for those results. It hasn't happened to Arkansas yet. There are still opportunities on the horizon, but the sun is barely peaking through at this point.
Arkansas was supposed to tear through this four-game stretch and leave some wiggle room when it was over in case of a slip up later on the road at Auburn. This is/was the easiest 4-game stretch on the conference schedule - at Mizzou, vs Bama, vs Vandy and at LSU. They're 1-2, so far. The buffer is gone.
A record of 22-9 and 11-7 is the bubble. Last year was a fairly weak field, and South Carolina won 24 games and was 11-7 in conference and they still didn't get in the NCAAs.
South Carolina also didn't win any SEC Tournament games. Since this is projected to be a stronger field by many pundits, 11-7 and a couple of wins in the SEC Tournament still might not be enough for Arkansas. Eight SEC teams are right in the thick of it for the fourth place spot in the conference. The selection committee will almost certainly take three teams from the SEC, and they might take a fourth if they fit the requirements.
At this point, Arkansas has to beat everyone outside of South Carolina and Florida. That gets them to 22-9 and 11-7 in conference play but still only on leaves them outside of the bubble, at best. Then they have to win some games in the SEC Tournament. That's the recipe for a spot on the bubble.
Go 5-6 down the stretch (that would mean winning at UF or USC) and do a little damage in the tournament, and that would almost certainly get them in the NCAA Tournament.
But Arkansas can't worry about all that just yet; they have a road game tonight at LSU. The Tigers aren't any good. They're 9-14 and 1-10 in SEC play and are tied for last place in the conference with Missouri. They have lost 10 games in-a-row. Arkansas should win, but they showed in their loss at Missouri, a team with similar credentials as LSU, that nobody better count on it.
Arkansas took down LSU 99-86 on Jan. 21 in Bud Walton Arena.
