It didn't take long for Arkansas fans to call for Stan Heath's ouster. Fourteen games into the season and the Razorbacks basketball coach is already being excoriated for his perceived failures. Tempers flared after the Hogs lost their conference opener Saturday to Mississippi State, a team that many thought would be a pushover this season after several players graduated and its point guard, Gary Ervin, transferred to Arkansas during a tumultuous offseason.

  Three's Company

For a team that started the season with a promising 11-2 nonconference record, the 69-67 loss to the Bulldogs is still cause for worry. We have seen here before, after all. Last year, Arkansas jumped out of the gates with a 12-1 record, before going 6-10 in conference play and declining an invitation to the N.I.T. because the players were "tired." Fans were angry, and many said that Heath would be fired after this season if he didn't steer the Razorbacks to March's NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2001.

But there is reason to believe that won't happen. And that has a lot to do with two people: Heath's predecessor Nolan Richardson and Arkansas football coach Houston Nutt. Richardson, of course, was fired in 2002 and claimed that the university racially discriminated against him and infringed on his free-speech rights during the dismissal process.

He then brought his case to federal court in a lawsuit that was dismissed in July 2004 by U.S. District Judge William R. Wilson Jr. He has since appealed the decision and asked his arguments be reinstated by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis and those presiding over the case have yet to uphold or overturn the ruling. So what does this have to do with Nutt or Heath?

Among the claims Richardson made was that Nutt was treated better than him when both were coaching at Arkansas. If you compared just the individual accomplishments of both men, it's hard to argue with Richardson, who won a national championship and took his teams to three Final Fours. He was given a seven-year, $7.21 million contract. Nutt, meanwhile, has never won ten games in a season or come close to leading Arkansas to a BCS Bowl berth. But after his flirtations with Nebraska in 2003 he was able to leverage a $1.05-million contract with incentives. To his credit, Nutt does graduate players and has never publicly asked the university to buy him out (Richardson didn't do the former, but did the latter).

Apparently, that means a lot to the athletic director Frank Broyles, who has tolerated Nutt's back-to-back losing seasons in 2004 and 2005. Broyles didn't even ask Nutt to provide a written evaluation of the program after the football team went 4-7 this season. Of course, Heath was subjected to this embarrassing exercise after his team compiled a winning record last season.

In fact, Heath's teams have improved each year, whereas it can be argued that Nutt's best season was his first in 1998. That year, Arkansas went 9-3 and reached the Citrus Bowl. The Razorbacks have shown flashes of brilliance since, but have given fans little to cheer about the last two years.

As a result, even if Heath somehow botched this season and could only qualify his team for the NIT, the university would have a hard time getting rid of him. How can Broyles fire one coach who has produced better results each of the last three seasons when he didn't remove the other coach who has seen his program deteriorate during the same period of time?

He can't, not unless he wants to give Richardson's claims more legitimacy. Broyles has been backed into a corner and he only has himself to blame, while Richardson has inadvertently helped his replacement and at the same time stuck it to his former boss. The result? Heath can now sit back and relax -- no matter how bad things get.

A victory over an unranked nonconference opponent may not seem like much. But for the Arkansas Razorbacks last Wednesday's 78-65 win over Texas Tech could be a turning point for a basketball program that had lost its elite status years ago. It also could signal the restoration of bipolarity in the Southeastern Conference that existed in the 1990s when Arkansas and Kentucky were the dominant powers in the league.

It wasn't so much that Arkansas pummeled the Red Raiders. The Razorbacks didn't. Instead, what stood out during the 40 minutes of play was how the Razorbacks worked to get the win. Arkansas coach Stan Heath, who has posted few impressive wins in his four years in Fayetteville, outsmarted Bobby Knight and employed a strategy that effectively utilized the strengths of his tall, athletic players.

 Stairway to Hog Heaven

Courtesy The Arkansas Traveler

The Razorbacks were able to shut down the passing lanes and stultify Texas Tech's motion offense, while giving Knight a taste of his own medicine on their offensive end. In the process, they proved resilient after losing the lead late in the first half and putting the game away after halftime--something they seemed unable to do in previous seasons. It was the most complete game Arkansas has played in the Stan Heath era, and for a team that has not been to the NCAA Tournament since 2001 that means a lot. It shows that Arkansas may be on the rise again.

And that is important for the SEC. Since the league expanded to 12 schools in 1992, only one team has ever challenged Kentucky for supremacy -- the Razorbacks. Arkansas claimed its spot at the top of the college basketball world more than a decade ago but its halcyon days lasted only one year after it won the national title in 1994. Since then, the program has declined and Arkansas has become an afterthought.

But even when the Razorbacks were down and surrendered their role as Kentucky's foil, no other team was able to step in and challenge the Wildcats on a consistent basis. Florida, Mississippi State, Alabama and LSU have all tried. But they have failed. 

Now, Arkansas appears to be reemerging from the depths of mediocrity, and it's about time. After enduring the aftereffects of the controversial firing of former coach Nolan Richardson in 2002, the Razorbacks have been slowly rebuilding and adjusting to a new style of play that is less frenetic and more traditional. In the process, Heath has taken advantage of what Richardson left behind -- a program with a national reputation and world-class facilities. He has been able to lure players from all over the country and has pledged to recapture what was lost amid academic scandals, poor recruiting and embarrassing episodes that created the slippery slope Arkansas slid down.

It appears Heath may be finally fulfilling that promise. He has his players running his offense and they are doing it well. That much was evident Wednesday night. when Arkansas improved its record to 9-2. The win over Texas Tech may not mean a lot when it comes to RPI. But it demonstrates that the Razorbacks are no pushover and are on their way back to giving Kentucky a run for its money. And that is good for the SEC.