Arkansas Razorbacks Basketball

The Arkansas Razorbacks men's basketball team, colloquially known as the Hogs, represents the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas in NCAA Division I men's basketball competition. The team competes in the Southeastern Conference and is coached by John Calipari. Arkansas plays its home games in Bud Walton Arena on the University of Arkansas campus. The Razorbacks are a top-twenty-five program all-time by winning percentage (.641), top-twenty program by NCAA tournament games played, top-twenty program by NCAA Tournament games won, top-fifteen program by Final Four appearances, and despite playing significantly fewer seasons than most programs in major conferences, top-thirty by all-time wins. Under the coaching leadership of Nolan Richardson, the Hogs won the national championship in 1994, defeating Duke, and appeared in the championship game the following year, finishing as runner-up to UCLA. The Razorbacks have made six NCAA Final Four appearances (1941, 1945, 1978, 1990, 1994, and 1995).

History

Early success under Schmidt (1923–29)

Arkansas had a relatively late start in basketball; it did not field its first team until 1923. Francis Schmidt coached the Razorbacks from the 1923–24 season until the 1928–29 season, while also coaching the football and baseball teams.

Schmidt oversaw the construction of the gymnasium that was home to the Razorbacks from the inaugural season through the 1936–37 season. The project was headed by Schmidt and Jay Fulbright (father of future United States Senator from Arkansas, J. William Fulbright). Schmidt and Fulbright organized a group of businessmen that facilitated the transfer of a former car showroom to the university to serve as the gym for the Razorbacks. The wooden gym, made out of surplus World War I material and officially named Schmidt Gymnasium, became known as "Schmidt's barn," in reference to its makeshift nature and lack of accommodations.

After a difficult first year that resulted in a 17–11 overall record and a 3–9 conference record, Schmidt quickly led the Hogs to success and a dominating run in the Southwest Conference during his tenure. Building off the program's first season, the 1924–25 team finished third in the conference, quickly turning their record around to 9–3 in conference play. This second season laid the groundwork for tremendous success with Schmidt, as the Razorbacks won the conference championship outright in just the third year of the program's existence with a record of 23–2 (11–1). The 1925–26 season kicked off a string of four straight Southwest Conference championships under Schmidt, and five straight overall. Schmidt also coached the Hogs to the first of three perfect SWC seasons in program history in 1927–28, with a conference record of 12–0 and a 15.25-point average margin of victory in conference play. The 1927–28 season also marked the beginning of a school record 31-game winning streak that ran until the last few games of the next season. Schmidt's last four teams at Arkansas went a combined 75–6 (42–4).

The last couple years of Schmidt's dominant SWC run were marked by serious star power, with future Razorback basketball coaches Eugene Lambert Sr. and Glen Rose earning First-Team Helms Athletic Foundation All-American recognition during Schmidt's last two seasons (1928–29 and 1927–28, respectively), along with Tom Pickel earning First-Team honors from College Humor Magazine in Schmidt's final season as coach. Schmidt's Razorbacks had four of the five All-SWC selections in 1928 (Rose, Pickel, Lambert, and Wear Schoonover). During Schmidt's time at Arkansas, the Razorbacks finished first in the SWC four out of six years, and compiled an overall record of 113–22 (.837), the highest winning percentage of any Arkansas coach ever. Schmidt left Arkansas to take the football and basketball jobs at TCU, where he was coach until 1934.

Bassett years (1929–33)

In the 1929–30 season, Charles Bassett took over as head coach, leaving the head coaching job at Texas A&M that he held for two years without finding much success, going a paltry 16–18 (5–15) in his two years as head coach in College Station, including a last-place finish in conference play for the 1927–28 Southwest Conference season. Arkansas's success under Bassett was limited to his first season as coach, when the Hogs won the Southwest Conference Championship with multi-sport star and current College Football Hall of Fame member Wear Schoonover garnering Second-Team All-American recognition from College Humor and earning First-Team All-SWC honors for the third straight season. The Razorbacks did not finish above third place in the Southwest Conference standings for the rest of Bassett's tenure. Aside from the SWC Championship in 1930, the other major bright spot in Bassett's tenure came on January 8, 1931, when the Razorbacks defeated rival Texas, 29–21, the day UT dedicated its new gym. Bassett's last season was the 1932–33 season, when the Razorbacks went 14–7 overall with a 6–6 conference record, the first time since the inaugural 1923–24 season that the Hogs did not finish the year with a winning record in conference play. After four seasons, Bassett's overall record was 62–29 (.681).

First Glen Rose era (1933–42)

Glen Rose took over in the 1933–34 season and returned the program to a competitive position within the SWC. Named a Helms Athletic Foundation First-Team All-American as a Hog in 1928, Rose was the first former player to coach the Razorbacks. Rebuilding the program after the decline under Bassett, Rose's first season as coach produced a .500 conference record (6–6) and a tie for third place in the final SWC standings. The Hogs finished with a winning conference record and no lower than second place in the conference standings for the rest of Rose's first stint with Arkansas, save for one season.

The 1935–36 season ended with the Hogs competing for the right to represent the United States in the 1936 Olympic Games