| | Until this year, Nolan Richardson had not led Arkansas to an SEC Tournament title. This season, Richardson's Razorbacks accomplished that feat when no one expected them to.
Richardson told Gary Miller on ESPN's Up Close that this year's Arkansas squad is special because of what the players have gone through to get to this point. Arkansas won the SEC Tournament despite entering the postseason with a 15-14 record.
Richardson also revealed what kind of advice President Clinton gave him recently. An edited transcript of Richardson's March 14 comments follows.
Miller: The Arkansas Razorbacks entered the SEC Tournament with a 15-14 record and were on the verge of not making any (post-season) tournament. But with four wins in four days over top 25 teams like Kentucky, LSU, and Auburn in the championship game, you're in the Field of 64. Nolan, what an accomplishment, you had never won an SEC tournament even though you had won national titles, what an accomplishment this must be for you.
Richardson: Well, Gary, you know, it was an amazing feat by a very young basketball team. All year when we first started, I spoke to our people (our media) about the fact that we had one senior, and he was a walk-on three years ago, and he earned a scholarship in his junior year. And to start a major college program, saying that you had a starter back and he happened to be a walk-on, he also became the team captain. And then you had a couple or three sophomores who had done a pretty good job in space play, it was an amazing feat to have six or seven freshmen on the ball club and to be able to go down the stretch in the last month. I think in the last month our basketball team began to be a pretty good basketball team.
Miller: You have got one senior and a junior and the rest are all freshmen and sophomores. You have won an NCAA title, and have been in two championship games, but you called this the most gratifying win you have ever had, how come?
|  | | Nolan Richardson's Razorbacks won the national championship in 1994. |
Richardson: Well, it's a very easy story to tell, because as you mentioned at the beginning of the show, I won in national and junior college and I thought that was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. And then I went to Tulsa in 1980-81 and we won the NIT in my first year as a basketball coach there at a major college. Believe me, boy, I've never been so excited in my life, to be able to do something of that nature. And then in '94, to win a national championship, even though we went to the Final Four in '90 with a young basketball team, but in '94, boy, I was really excited. In ?95 we went back again and I thought we were going to win our second one, but to be able to come into this year, having this young basketball team, and not only that we weren't doing very well, and of course you know how coaches and fans and people are, I mean it's, "What have you done for me lately." So, therefore, the wolves were out again.
They began to question my coaching and that constantly took place, but the other part that was so sad was the fact that, during that period, our players were losing family members. Teddy Gipson, his father was killed, a 16-wheel accident. Charles Tatum's first cousin (they were raised in the same home), coming from the Georgia game, all this happened coming from the Georgia game, was killed in another 18-wheeler accident. Then Joe Johnson, who was only coming to our basketball team in the middle of the season (in other words, in the first half of the season he was ineligible)?. He was one of the things I hate to say, he's a prop 48 or prop 42, I hate those words, but he kept taking the test and he passed. And we had Larry Satchell, who was also not eligible until the second semester, so I had those things to worry about, and then along comes Tatum once again, his grandfather dies, it was one thing after the other and we never had a real basketball team together from even day one. And when you start thinking about that, and then you have a young man who quits the basketball team (Jason Gilbert) and everybody in the state thought this was the worst thing that could ever happen to a program. You have to deal with that, and players are dealing with those kinds of things, and at the same time you're not winning, and if you're not winning then we've created a monster here.
And I love that monster because I created it, you have to feed the monster and we were not feeding that monster. We had a bunch of little puppies, as I say. You know, you take these little puppies and they jump out of the basket, Gary, and you yell at them and hell, they just go in all directions. But as the puppies begin to grow up and you yell at them, and they stop and pay attention, and they may come back and jump back in the basket, and so all those things are going on. And then now, we win a few games, we're getting to play better, and we head off to the tournament, and all of this is accumulated, and in my mind I don't sleep, because I'm one of those guys that, if you have got to get up at four, five, six, seven, I want to win, I want to win basketball games. That has been my trademark for all my life.
I've been in college coaching 23 years, I've had one losing season, I've been to post season tournaments 22 out of 23 years and so you have a problem when you can't feed the monster. And so, when we go over and win four games in a row by one of the youngest teams I've ever coached, I mean, I've expected (in the past) to go to the national championship and probably win, those were expectations, but to take a group of young men the way we left and all the things that had happened, that was the greatest feeling I have ever felt, just to get that monkey off my back.
Miller: Since you had won before, did you begin to lose your energy in coaching? How reinvigorating was this win for you?
Richardson: No, I've never lost my energy, you know, coaching is my energy. I love the game, I love it with a deep passion, I love to watch kids grow, I love to teach, and I love to coach. So I have always had the energy. My greatest motivation in the coaching profession is to win another national championship. And then I'm a Hog, so I'm greedy. I'll probably want to win another one after that, but that's my motivation. So when I came into the season, I worked twice as hard, I lost 17 pounds, I worked out like I'm going to play. I enjoy when basketball season starts, I mean the smell of the ball, the gym, the ball bouncing. I mean, that's me, that is my life. The good Lord has blessed me in many ways, Gary. I've done a lot more than I ever expected I would ever do in my lifetime. Coming from my little home in El Paso, which I love so much, and being raised by a grandmother who had no kids who ever finished college, I mean, she's my hero, and everything I do I want to make sure that somewhere in this good heaven she's still smiling at me.
Miller: In the field of 64, only three teams got in from the ACC. We had Bobby Cremins on the show yesterday and here's what he had to say about how teams that don't expect to get in might cost somebody else a slot.
Cremins: This league has produced more NCAA wins than any other conference, more Final Fours, and myself and all the coaches are really upset of the disrespect the ACC is getting. I cannot believe Virginia is not in the tournament. Pete Gillen did a fabulous job there. Either we've got to add some more teams, which I think we should do, maybe make it 72, and somehow get these teams in. Two years in a row, if you had told me only three teams would go to the NCAA from the ACC, I would not have believed it. Again, St. Louis and Arkansas probably took two slots away, but the ACC deserves more respect.
Miller: Do you think the field should expand?
Richardson: I've always said the field ought to be everybody in the tournament, everybody! Just add another week. For the simple reason that it's all about money. If it's about money, if CBS and whatever all the places that are giving 6 billion dollars, I mean why not involve all the schools? Every one of the schools can play it off very simply, and we can arrive at the same stage. Of course that doesn't sound right, but at least you get all the ones who think they ought to be in, they're in. If we're going to play, let's all of us play, let's play for our conference, and then when the NCAA's turn out, everybody is in. But I know that's not going to work. But on the other hand, when he said that the ACC, over the years, go back into the '90s, each year and each decade, and you find out where the best teams were. I can remember that in the nineties, we won the national championship and finished second, Kentucky won two national championships and finished second, and so if you count the nineties Mississippi State was in the Final Four during that time, Arkansas was in the '90s at that time. I mean, when you start thinking about the schools that were at the big dance, or what I call the biggest dance of them all (the Final Four), you would be surprised and amazed about the SEC. And so, therefore you can't say what the ACC used to be like. I mean, many years ago I used to think as a youngster there was only one league in the South, the ACC. And there was only one league of football in the South, the SEC. But those days are over. Those days are absolutely over. So if you put in the computer what was the best, then surely the ACC was going to come up, but if you put what's in the computer of the DECADE, I'm not sure the ACC will come up.
Miller: We showed a clip of President Clinton in the Razorbacks locker room, he was around during those championship years, have you heard from him since you won the SEC championship?
Richardson: I did, I heard from him right after my press conference after the SEC tournament.
Miller: How big a fan is he?
Richardson: He's a real big fan. He's probably a great basketball fan. I'm sure he's a big, big, big Razorback fan, but I honestly believe he loves basketball.
Miller: Has he ever given you any advice?
Richardson: Well, tell me which fan doesn't give advice? (laughing).
Miller: Like?
Richardson: I like his advice. He says, "Get the lead, and increase it (laughing)."
Miller: You said your team earlier in the year defensively would play two minutes of hell and then would play 38 minutes of "I don't know where we're going." Now you're back to 40 minutes again, what changed?
Richardson: Our scheme of things is a little bit different from most teams when they press and when they trap. We do a lot of trapping, unexpected trapping. We always try to make basketball players make decisions. I think the kids, my young pups, learn a little bit more as we continue to develop. We kind of got away, and worked on it and worked on it, and then by the time of the SEC tournament, we sprung it back. And they have really picked it up a lot better than even I expected them to do, particularly going into the tournament.
Miller: There are six SEC teams in this field, and none of them are higher than a four seed, are you surprised at that?
Richardson: I really am, because I just don't understand how you could be one of the top, and it's in every poll, one of the top conferences in the country, and the best place you get is fourth. But as far as we're concerned, just getting into the tournament and being able to play, I think it's important that you prove things also. We have to prove that we're a pretty good conference, and I think other conferences that have gotten No. 1 seeds, they have got to prove that they deserve that No. 1 seed.
Miller: Let's talk about Jason Gilbert. How hurt were you that there were racial allegations and that he was forced off the team. What's your take on that, Nolan?
Richardson: You know, I'm very sad. That saddened me more than anything I've encountered. I've coached kids all my life, and my kids will tell you there is only one race as far as I'm concerned and that's the human race. When it deals with the kids that come under my direction and my supervision, I look out for them the best I know how, it doesn't matter what color you are. It's such a sad thing. There were black kids that left this basketball team and they were labeled quitters, but if you lose another kid that just happens not to be black, then he's not labeled and then it makes it more of a racial issue. That should never take place, this is 2000, this is a new millennium. In the 60's, I could understand, in the 70's maybe, but after that I can't understand that. And that's why it bothered me so much, because I've had so many youngsters that happen to not be black that I coach that think I'm a better person than some of the black kids I've coached. And so therefore that was one of the things that was so disturbing to me.
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AUDIO/VIDEO
 Nolan Richardson talks about March Madness on Up Close.
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