This week, FanHouse is taking a way too early look at the top teams heading into 2007 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. It's a time-honored filler for the off-season, and who are we to buck tradition? Today we look at teams 26 through 21.
Out with the old and in with the new: former head coach Stan Heath is gone and fans couldn't be happier with John Pelphrey. Although he was an "emergency" hire just after Dana Altman jilted Arkansas Athletic Director Frank Broyles, the truth is that Pelphrey, has extensive experience in the SEC as both a player for Kentucky and an assistant at Florida. This positions him to do far more with his squad than Altman could have. Pelphrey inherits a loaded and powerful roster, and is poised to make a first-year splash in the ultra-competitive Southeastern Conference.
Some claim Arkansas has the talent to make a Final Four run. With five returning starters, who are all a) big, b) fast, and/or c) athletic, it's not hard to see why. Notable returnees include seven-footer and strong defender Steven Hill; Patrick Beverley, who was superb as a frosh, averaging 13.9 ppg; and 6' 6" swingman Sonny Weems, who averaged 11.8 ppg a 4.8 rpg. Arkansas will be deeper in the post than anyone in the conference with three 6' 10" big men, two of whom are seniors, ready to come in and relieve Steven Hill.
Expectations will be high for Pelphrey and his Razorbacks. Still, one year removed from Heath's reign, Hog fans should be satisfied with an NCAA tournament appearance and a run to the Sweet 16. Anything thereafter is gravy for a first-year coaching staff.
South Alabama coach John Pelphrey, who played in the SEC at Kentucky and has led the Jaguars to consecutive 20-win seasons, will be introduced as the Razorbacks head coach at a news conference at 3 p.m. ET on Monday, according to sources close to the situation.
Pelphrey, 38, was an assistant at Florida and helped his best friend, Gators coach Bill Donovan, build the program in Gainesville. Pelphrey took over the job at South Alabama in 2002 and is 80-67 in his five years at the helm.
Pelphrey had turned down the University of South Florida a couple weeks ago. Pelphrey may not be the big name hire that Arkansas was shooting for. He may not be the biggest name in the mid-major rankings as Dana Altman was.
Pelphrey, though is an up-and-comer in the coaching ranks. Plus his style of play is what the Razorback faithful may find comfortingly familiar.
Louisville coach Rick Pitino offered a simple solution.
"If they want that style of play, they should go after John Pelphrey of South Alabama," Pitino said. "He presses and runs the whole game and does a great job with it."
"That style of play," is the Nolan Richardson "40 minutes of hell." So, at least they have that going for them.
Well, the wild end to a week in coaching changes before Easter Weekend gave way to a very quiet weekend. Nothing happened. Nothing. No solid rumors or reported meetings.
The quiet from Arkansas and Texas A&M was almost disquieting. Still, there is some nervousness in Nebraska where Doc Sadler's name is now the popular rumor to fill either job.
Sadler, though, has denied any interest in jobs and the Nebraska Athletic Department has maintained that they have not been contacted by either school about interviewing him. Of course, Arkansas, has hired a search firm to help. That means the search firm can go back channels to gage interest by Sadler before Arkansas actually contacts Nebraska.
Don't worry, come Monday there should be plenty of new intrigue and rumors.
The school said in the release that two basketball players tested positive for marijuana. Random drug testing, a normal athletic department practice, took place March 27, and although results were received March 29, the school said "appropriate personnel did not receive notification until Tuesday."
The school did not release the names of those who tested positive, citing federal privacy laws.
The school also said one basketball player was suspended for academic reasons.
While these aren't the sort of institutional problems that should make a coach retreat from a school, they only lend credence to the idea that there's a lot going wrong in the Arkansas Athletic Department.
It didn't take long for Stan Heath to find a new job after Arkansas fired him. South Florida will announce tomorrow that it has hired Heath, signaling that the USF administration is willing to make a significant investment in developing a solid basketball program.
How serious is USF about competing in basketball? Heath's contract will pay him about $800,000 a year. That's a significant upgrade over the $275,000 that former coach Robert McCullum would have made this year, although it's far less than the top coaches in the Big East make.
Heath went 82-71 in five seasons at Arkansas, and it was a surprise when he was fired last week after making the NCAA tournament the last two years. South Florida went 12-18 last season.
This is a stunner. Dana Altman, the long time Creighton Blue Jays head coach, is taking the Arkansas job.
Creighton's Dana Altman has accepted the Arkansas job and will be introduced at a 5 p.m. ET news conference this afternoon, according to multiple sources close to the situation.
Altman, 48, has built a power at Creighton for the past 13 seasons. He led the Bluejays to a 260-141 mark in his tenure. Creighton lost to Nevada in the first round of the NCAA tournament this past season.
This is a surprise, in part because Altman has resisted plenty of offers before this. It was also believed that he was very comfortable in Omaha. Most thought he might consider the Iowa job, but this is a late development.
Arkansas Athletic Director Frank Broyles had been reportedly talking to Altman. Of course, he had also talked to John Calipari and apparently Bruce Weber of Illinois this weekend.
Landing Altman may not be the homerun Arkansas was looking for, but Altman is at least a solid double. One of the top mid-major coaches for years who has shown continued success and built Creighton into the top team in the Missouri Valley Conference.
How about that for a coaching rumor? John Calipari had his latest contract extension/raise from Memphis, but like Billy Gillispie he left it unsigned at his office while heading down to Atlanta for the Final Four. According to Andy Katz at ESPN.com, this was just simply because, "Cal enjoys the drama."
Memphis spokesman Lamar Chance said on Saturday he didn't know whether Arkansas had contacted Calipari yet, but that permission had been granted.
Calipari would fit what Arkansas wants. They want a coach that is a proven commodity with NCAA Tournament success. They want someone who can recruit and win right away.
A lot of people have suspicions about Calipari. He comes off at times as pure snake-oil. There is, however, no disputing how good he has been at recruiting and winning.
The recent rumblings that Kansas coach Bill Self is a candidate to take over at Arkansas have struck me as bizarre. What possible reason could Self have for wanting to leave Kansas, a school with a better tradition and better talent, for Arkansas? For his part, Self said he's not headed to Arkansas when a local reporter asked him about an ESPN.com report saying he was a candidate:
"That's inaccurate," Self told The Kansas City Star on Wednesday afternoon. "I don't know about Billy, but they're not going after me. I don't believe there's any truth to that. There have been no overtures toward me."
How false? Per Katz, Broyles didn't even have Gillispie's phone number. A couple of days ago at FanHouse, Nathan Fowler wrote,
unless Arkansas is run by incompetents (which some who have followed the sordid Houston Nutt soap opera might argue isn't far from the truth) you'd have to think that they wouldn't have let go a coach who just went to the NCAA Tournament without at least some assurance that their #1 candidate would listen to them.
The conclusion I draw from Katz's TV report -- that Broyles based his decision to fire one coach on his confidence in landing another, and that he didn't even know how to get in touch with his desired replacement -- is that "incompetent" is the only word to use to describe Broyles.
I was wondering if anyone else noticed this. Although the first round of this year's tournament was characterized by lopsided scores and few upsets, there was a time on Friday night when all four games were tied at the same time:
This week, FanHouse is taking a way too early look at the top teams heading into 2007 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. It's a time-honored filler for the off-season, and who are we to buck tradition? Today we look at teams 26 through 21.
Not even Monday yet, so much for taking the full weekend off. It would appear 
Well, the wild end to a week in coaching changes before Easter Weekend gave way to a very quiet weekend. Nothing happened. Nothing. No solid rumors or reported meetings. 
After Dana 
It didn't take long for Stan Heath to find a new job after Arkansas fired him. 
This is a stunner. Dana Altman, the long time Creighton Blue Jays head coach, is 
How about that for a coaching rumor? John Calipari had his latest contract extension/raise from Memphis, but 
The recent rumblings that Kansas coach Bill Self is a candidate to take over at Arkansas have struck me as bizarre. What possible reason could Self have for wanting to leave Kansas, a school with a better tradition and better talent, for Arkansas? For his part, 
During a brief TV appearance, ESPN basketball reporter Andy Katz this morning passed along some very bizarre news. Katz said the reports that Arkansas athletic director 
