Richardson discussing ASU job
Posted on Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Former Arkansas Razorbacks coach Nolan Richardson restated his interest in the vacant job at Arkansas State on Monday and said he had been in contact with the university.
“I have visited with them and I will have some more visitations with [Athletic Director Dean Lee ] and the chancellor,” said, Richardson, 67, who spoke at the Downtown Tip-Off Club luncheon in North Little Rock. “I will have some more dialogue with them here in the next day or so.” Dickey Nutt resigned from the Arkansas State job on Feb. 19 with three games to go in his 13 th season, and the Indians, who open Sun Belt Conference Tournament play Wednesday, finished the regular season 10-19 overall and 5-13 in conference play under assistants Al Grushkin and Shawn Forrest. Even before Nutt stepped down, rumors had begun to circulate that Richardson would be on Arkansas State’s list of candidates.
Richardson said at the time of Nutt’s resignation the idea of coaching Arkansas State was intriguing. He has coached internationally in Panama and Mexico the past six years and said he has a hunger to get back into the college game.
“It’s a job. I went to Mexico, I went to Panama. I mean, I came to Arkansas, I left Tulsa,” Richardson said Monday. “It’s a job, and it’s all about what I enjoy doing. I enjoy the part of making boys men.” Richardson, 508-206 in a career that included stops at Tulsa and Western Texas Junior College, hasn’t coached college basketball since he was dismissed from Arkansas in 2002 after a dispute with the administration that resulted in a lawsuit against the university.
“That was supposed to have been my last job,” Richardson said.
In his luncheon remarks, Richardson made an apparent reference to his Arkansas contract, which has paid him $ 500, 000 a year for the past six years but expires in June. The “golden handcuffs” Richardson said, were about to come off.
“You take that any way you want to write it,” Richardson said with a smile when asked if that was a contract reference.
Richardson said he had not submitted an application to Arkansas State or the search firm Carr Sports Associates the university has retained.
“Applying is one thing and being able to discuss the job is another, and that’s what we’re doing,” he said of his discussions with Lee and Chancellor Robert Potts.
Nutt’s pay at Arkansas State was reduced from $ 250, 000 to $ 180, 000 when he signed his last extension in 2005. A raise granted after the Indians won the Sun Belt West and reached the tournament final last year increased Nutt’s pay to $ 185, 000.
Richardson said that “right now” there was no monetary figure in his mind that would cause him to accept or decline a potential offer at Arkansas State.
“I’ve just got to sit down and pay attention to what they can do and then decide on whether or not that’s what I want to do,” he said.
Richardson said he felt Arkansas State, where average attendance at the Convocation Center has declined by close to 3, 700 over the past 10 seasons, had the potential to become a college basketball hotbed.
“It could be. Winning can do a lot of things,” Richardson said. “When I went to Tulsa, they averaged about 2, 000 fans. After the first five games, it was over 8, 000 every night. So, you know, winning cures everything. Winning, you can say anything. Did you know that ? But if you’re not winning, you can’t say very much. So right now, Jonesboro is a place that is probably not winning but has the potential of having, in my estimation, large crowds at ballgames.” Before his luncheon audience, Richardson reminisced about his career and years in Fayetteville, where the Razorbacks won the 1994 NCAA national championship and played for another the next season. During a questionand-answer period, Richardson was asked if he was interested in the Arkansas State job, but before he could comment, UALR assistant and former Arkansas center Joe Kleine butted in.
“I’ll answer that. We don’t want him in the Sun Belt,” Kleine said jokingly.
Richardson answered the question himself afterward.
“It doesn’t necessarily have to be Arkansas State. It’s am I through coaching ? That’s the bottom line,” Richardson said. “I thought I was, and then I went over to Panama and then I went to Mexico City and I said ‘Wait a minute, I’ve had six years of vacation... I’m saved up, I can work some more.’ So there’s no question I can still work.”
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