Mike Anderson firing offers a variety of lessons about the changing SEC

By
Blake Lovell
-
(Photo by Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire)

Consider this: Former Arkansas head coach Mike Anderson has never had a losing season in 17 years as a Division I head coach.

17 years.

Go down the line of coaches around the country with that much experience, and the majority of them had a losing season somewhere along the line.

But not Anderson. Not a single one since he took over as UAB head coach back in 2002.

Unfortunately, a winning season is no longer the metric that coaches are judged by in college athletics.

That’s especially the case in the revamped SEC. After years of struggling to find consistency outside of Kentucky and Florida, the league has become one of the most formidable in the country.

It wasn’t long ago that the SEC was getting three or four teams into the NCAA Tournament. Anything less than seven would now be considered a slight disappointment.

In Anderson’s tenure, the Razorbacks were among that group several times. They made the NCAA Tournament three out of the past five years, and most notably, were seemingly on their way to upsetting eventual national champions North Carolina in 2017 before a controversial sequence resulted in a seven-point defeat.

And little did we know how big of a role that game would play in Anderson’s future in Fayetteville.

Arkansas has still not made it past the first weekend of the tournament since 1996, which was the year after the Hogs captured a national championship.

Meanwhile, other SEC programs are experiencing unprecedented success.

Rick Barnes has transformed Tennessee into a national title contender in just four years on the job. Bruce Pearl took Auburn from a team with losing season after losing season to an SEC champion and Final Four contender. Frank Martin led a struggling South Carolina program to a Final Four a few years ago.

Simply put, good is no longer good enough for most decision makers around the conference.

Ultimately, that’s what caused Arkansas to make a change.

But in what is almost certainly an impossible request in this era, let’s forget about wins and losses for a second and take a stroll through Twitter.

We start with Anderson’s response to his firing:

We continue with reactions from current players, former players, and those who worked with him:

There’s lots more like those.

It’s natural for there to be an emotional reaction in these types of situations. But it also drives home the fact that Anderson is truly one of the good ones in the business, and he’s the type of coach you wouldn’t think twice about sending your son or daughter to play for.

He has been a father figure to numerous players throughout the years, and he has given opportunities to kids that may not have gotten them anywhere else in life.

He’s the type of person that’s easy to trust. If you were stranded on the side of the road and he drove by, you wouldn’t have the slightest doubt that he’d stop and help you.

That’s just the feeling you get when you talk to him. I’ve only interacted with him via press conferences and interviews throughout the years, but it’s something you quickly pick up on when trying to assess the type of person he is.

Those that have been much closer to him would tell the same thing almost instantly.

On the court, he’s an old school coach who learned from one of the best old school coaches in Nolan Richardson, and he’ll no doubt that similar approach into his next job.

And don’t worry, there will be no shortage of opportunities for a coach with nine NCAA Tournament appearances, an Elite Eight, and zero losing seasons on his résumé.

Like it or not, many of us often value wins over everything else. I’m not sure what it says about us, but it says something.

But in all honesty, college coaching needs more people like Mike Anderson.

In a perfect world, he’d be the type of coach that never be fired or have even the slightest hint of doubt about his job security. He does it the right way, and from a numbers standpoint, he’s had success everywhere he’s been.

But in the new Wild West era of college basketball, everyone wants to compete for a championship. There’s never been more money, and there have never been higher expectations.

Four SEC teams in the Sweet 16 this year – with all four legitimately having a shot at making the Final Four – only raises the bar even higher for every coach that is currently employed within the conference.

It’s unlikely that most Arkansas fans were rooting for one of their own to fail. After all, rooting against Anderson is a hard thing to do.

However, they want championships. And fair or unfair, their wishes weren’t unlike any other fanbase around the league.

College coaching is a ruthless business that at times leans so far towards the demand to win big that it makes you wonder if we’re really going about all this the right way.

But sometimes, it’s worth remembering that it goes way deeper than just wins and losses.

Even if that is what undoubtedly become the driving force in this high-stakes era of SEC basketball.

For more SEC basketball coverage, follow me on Twitter @theblakelovell.