UA hires Altman from Creighton to get Hogs to top
Posted on Tuesday, April 3, 2007
FAYETTEVILLE — Frank Broyles searched longer than he’d hoped to hire Arkansas ’ new basketball coach but ended up delivering one that met the athletic director’s criteria.
Dana Altman, 48, the coach at Missouri Valley Conference power Creighton for 13 years, was introduced Monday as the 11 th Arkansas coach in the program’s 84 years. He replaces Stan Heath, who was fired March 26 and was hired Monday at South Florida.
Altman’s compensation will be announced after the paperwork is done, and he never asked about the pay, Broyles said. Broyles told him what he would make after they’d hammered out most of the other job details.
A source said the total package could approach $ 1. 5 million, which would be on par with football coach Houston Nutt. The Omaha World-Herald has reported that Altman earned between $ 1. 25 and $ 1. 4 million at Creighton University.
Broyles tried to woo Texas A&M’s Billy Gillispie and other coaches from more high-profile schools but was rejected before hiring Altman.
“This outcome is as good as Arkansas could have hoped for,” ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas said. “They have taken a lot of swings and finally hit a home run.”
UA Chancellor John White told about 200 people who gathered at Walton Arena that Altman had been hired to “restore the basketball program to national prominence.”
The profile Broyles sought was an established coach with a winning background. White made reference to those priorities Monday when he said Broyles wanted someone who brought “results, not promise.”
Heath had one year of head coaching experience when Arkansas hired him five years ago. He rebuilt a dilapidated program and made back-toback NCAA Tournaments but couldn’t reach the heights fans had come to expect in the previous three decades under Nolan Richardson and Eddie Sutton.
Sutton also came to Arkansas, in 1975, from Creighton, a private school in Omaha, Neb.
Altman has been a head coach at the NCAA Division I level for 18 years and has a 343-208 record, eight NCAA Tournament appearances and a 2-7 tourney record. He went 260-141 in 13 years at Creighton, where the Bluejays made seven of those NCAA trips in the past nine years.
Creighton is one of nine schools to win 20 or more games the past nine seasons.
Altman also has coached at Kansas State (1991-94 ) and Marshall University (1990 ).
As important to Broyles as winning was the economic influence Altman had at Creighton. Average home attendance, which was less than 5, 000 when Altman arrived, hit a conference-record 15, 909 this season at the 3-year-old Qwest Center. Arkansas’ actual average attendance was 14, 439 this season, down 8. 5 percent from two years ago.
“He built the fan base,” Broyles said three times in a row. “That means he’s doing something besides X’s and O’s. He’s building relationships with the fans.”
If the name didn’t exactly bowl over Arkansas fans, then Altman seemed to understand. He addressed the crowd at Walton Arena with a reserved but confident demeanor, called the Hogs and showed that he can be self-deprecating, too.
“I’m kind of a low-key guy, and sometimes people don’t think I’m all that entertaining, flashy,” Altman said. “Boring has been a good word used to describe me. But our teams have always played hard and have been successful.
“ I’m 48 years old, and with your permission, I’d like to finish my career at the University of Arkansas.”
When Altman told the crowd his teams use some form of defensive pressure the entire game, which often leads to uptempo play, it elicited cheers. Arkansas never established a firm identity the past five years.
This isn’t how Broyles initially envisioned the search turning out.
Broyles told people close to him that he believed he had Gillispie lined up and he planned on sending a booster’s jet to retrieve Gillispie from College Station, Texas, the same day he fired Heath. A third party had relayed to Broyles in the previous weeks that Gillispie would be interested.
But Gillispie never engaged in the formal process, refusing to return Broyles’ calls for four days until Texas A&M Athletic Director Bill Byrne finally told Broyles that Gillispie had said he was staying.
Plan B was Kansas’ Bill Self, who politely declined.
Arkansas tested the interest of Southern California’s Tim Floyd, Memphis’ John Calipari and Marquette’s Tom Crean, among others. None bit. Broyles finalized the hire Sunday night after meeting Altman on Friday night in Atlanta.
Broyles called the process frustrating at times and said he quickly realized that trying to pry away coaches from elite programs was nearly impossible.
Most major-conference schools have to hire from midmajor programs, Broyles said. He cited Florida taking Billy Donovan from Marshall in West Virginia 11 years ago and Tennessee hiring Bruce Pearl from Wisconsin-Milwaukee two years ago.
Broyles said he asked about 10 of the country’s leading coaches for advice, and Altman’s name kept coming up.
“You can’t hire Bill Self,” Broyles said. “I called Bill Self and asked, ‘Would you be interested ?’ He said, ‘No, Coach. I’ve got the best job in America.’
“ You go across the [eliteprogram ] coaches you want, and they tell you, ‘I’m happy. I’m making as much money as I ever thought I’d make in my life.’ You can’t move one.”
Missing on first and subsequent coaching targets is not unusual, ESPN’s Bilas said.
“These situations, you have to be fully prepared for this and you have to be experienced, smart and have your ducks in row because things happen quickly and you have to be able to react,” Bilas said. “It was mishandled from get-go. It was mishandled from the time they let Nolan Richardson go [in 2002 ] until now, but it doesn’t mean you can’t have a good outcome.”
Miami, Illinois, Georgia and Tennessee twice have offered Altman jobs since he’s been at Creighton, and he said no each time. He and his wife, Reva, are Nebraska natives, and the school made a strong commitment to basketball.
The difference this time was that Arkansas had a winning tradition and has proven that a national title can be brought to Fayetteville.
Former NBA All-Star Mitch Richmond, who played for Altman at Moberly (Mo. ) Junior College and Kansas State, gave part of the credit for his success to Altman.
“I believe in everything he does and believe he does it the right way,” Richmond said.
University of Arkansas at Little Rock Athletic Director Chris Peterson has known Altman since 1988 when they were both at Kansas State, Altman an assistant coach at the time.
“I guess the sports fan is looking for a ‘wow’ coach, but Coach Broyles did an outstanding job,” Peterson said. “You ask basketball coaches... and those guys all go, ‘Wow,’ when they talk about Dana.”
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