A little love from the Valley
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Dana Altman was hired as Arkansas’ basketball coach Monday, ending the Razorbacks’ weeklong search to replace Stan Heath.
Altman coached Creighton for 13 seasons and went 260-141. The Bluejays went 22-11 this season for their ninth straight 20-win season, a Missouri Valley Conference record.
Creighton officials were more concerned recently that Altman could be off to Iowa, which is a job he had coveted. But the Hawkeyes never contacted Altman. No one was convinced that Altman was going to Arkansas.
Scott Sutton of Oral Roberts, who was a former Bluejays coach who left there to go to Arkansas, is a possible replacement for Altman, according to ESPN.com’s Andy Katz. Sutton is the son of legendary coach Eddie Sutton.
In 1974, Eddie Sutton came to Arkansas from Creighton.
A source close to the situation said Creighton also is losing athletics director Bruce Rasmussen, who will go with Altman to Arkansas as his director of operations for men’s basketball.
The move, viewed as a step down for an athletics director, would put Rasmussen in line for an administrative position once athletics director Frank Broyles retires, which is expected at the end of the year, the source said.
The 48-year-old Altman is 343-208 in 18 years at the Division I level. He coached at Marshall and Kansas State before going to Creighton.
After Broyles fired Heath March 26, the ex-coach said Broyles had grown concerned about a decline in the Razorbacks’ season ticket sales. Arkansas attendance last season was 14,400 — down from 18,294 in 1998-99.
In introducing Altman to the media at Bud Walton Arena, Broyles credited Altman for having successful teams and attracting fans.
“It’s not just Xs and Os. You’re doing something special because the fans want to come see you play,” Broyles said.
Altman, soft-spoken, said he was excited to follow in the footsteps of Eddie Sutton and Nolan Richardson. Sutton, the former Oklahoma State coach who also coached at Creighton, took Arkansas to the Final Four in 1978. Richardson’s teams reached the Final Four in 1990, 1994 and 1995 and won the national title in 1994 with a style of play dubbed “Forty Minutes of Hell.”
“The style of play will be exciting to the fans,” Altman said. “We press 40 minutes a game — not quite the old Nolan press, we change it up a bit. We trap in different spots. We do press all the time.”
Heath was hired after taking Kent State to the round of eight in the NCAA Tournament in 2002, but that was his first season as a head coach. This time, Arkansas had eyed Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie — then the Razorbacks received permission to talk to Memphis coach John Calipari.
Instead, the Razorbacks ended up with another coach from a mid-major conference, although the Missouri Valley has done a lot to shed that label in recent years. Altman might not be the big name many Arkansas fans wanted, but his credentials are solid. Creighton has been to the NCAA Tournament seven times in the last nine seasons and won a school-record 29 games in 2002-03.
Creighton loses Altman just a few days after assistant Kevin McKenna left to take over the Indiana State program. The Bluejays lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to Nevada, 77-71 in overtime.
Arkansas has fallen from the heights it enjoyed under Richardson during the mid-1990s. The Razorbacks have not won an NCAA Tournament game since 1999. Broyles fired Richardson in 2002 believing the coach had lost confidence in the program.
ESPN.com’s Andy Katz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
