Arkansas has set themselves up for more pain.
As it stands now, 2 recruiting classes were recruited for basketball on grass. The upperclassmen were recruited for ground and pound. Two entirely different skill sets and physical attributes.
The first of those two classes was recruited under the huge handicap of a new guy coming in, having missed the December signing period, and only a few weeks until the February one, out of which time comes a couple of material dead periods.
They have effectively given themselves two options:
(1) Stay the course with offensive philosophy, figure you just had the wrong guy to execute the right idea, and limit yourself to those coaches. Or
(2) Switch philosophies again, resign yourself to two wasted recruiting classes (one of which was kind of wasted anyway), and further resign yourself to a second painful transition.
No good options there.
You would have to think the AD had been talking with coaches’ agents through black door channels. If so, they’ve done a masterful job of keeping mutual interest on the down low.
If they haven’t been doing that, just fired Morris because they were fed up, and don’t have several strong and interested candidates already identified, well, jthomas666 is right when he points out our problems in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Then there’s the perception thing within the coaching fraternity — contesting Bielema’s buyout (they might be right on that one, but it’s still a bad look), firing Morris after a year and a half. That’s not good for your rep within a close-knit group.
Hiring a new coach is almost always a gamble. But the combination of all those aggravating factors will make it hard to attract a coach who’s not more of a gamble than most.
When you advocate firing a coach in mid season for something other than misconduct, be careful what you wish for....you just might get it.