Flanigan Poses Greatest Recruiting Threat Razorbacks Have Faced in Decades

Former Arkansas high school star was thorn when nearly 700 miles away at Auburn, now he's right across the border

Author:
Kent Smith
Updated:
May 9, 2023 7:58 AM EDT
Original:
May 9, 2023

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – When Wes Flanigan was 665 miles away on the Georgia side of Alabama, he was a thorn in the Arkansas basketball program's side.

Nearly every recruit Arkansas wanted to take a shot at, especially in Arkansas, ended up visiting Auburn also by way of Flanigan. The entire tenure of Eric Musselman has seen two or three Arkansas high school players on the Auburn roster each season. That was because as the crowned prince of Arkansas high school basketball royalty, Flanigan had connections that ran deep in the state.

However, Flanigan has a new job as of late. About a month ago, he parted ways with Bruce Pearl to become a foundational member of Chris Beard's staff at Ole Miss. That puts him less than 200 miles from his native Little Rock where the Flanigan family made Parkview one of the nation's most recognizable high school basketball programs. It also puts him 75 miles from the closest set of Arkansas high school players.

He's going to be trouble. His son, Allen Flanigan, looks like he will be the first Little Rock athlete to become a Rebel after announcing a couple of days ago that he intends to leave Auburn. Not since the days of Nolan Richardson has Ole Miss been a threat to lure in-state talent away, and that was on a very limited basis.

Flanigan initially had the deck stacked against him. Beard took over at Ole Miss as a bit of a purgatory assignment after getting fired from Texas for allegedly physically abusing his wife after felony charges for strangulation-suffocation and family violence. Even though charges were dropped as a result of his wife refusing to cooperate despite police records showing evidence such as bite marks and abrasions on his wife's face, Arkansas families still aren't as likely to send their young men to play for someone with that on his record.

However, Arkansas athletics may have given Flanigan the ammo he needs to steal a few elite players from the Natural State. A recently scheduled appreciation tour of eight cities across Arkansas has a notable exclusion. Not one town south of Little Rock is included, giving the Ole Miss assistant the opportunity to not only claim to recruits from the excluded areas that Ole Miss is closer, but that the Arkansas athletic department doesn't consider their areas part of the Razorback footprint. While this may not have been the intent of Arkansas athletics when it scheduled the tour, it's the sort of PR oversight that Flanigan can now pounce upon.

Add that to his ability to relate as a former Arkansas high school prep star and the usual anti-Arkansas pitch of pointing toward the Razorbacks' short bench and quick departure of players who may need more than a year to be NBA ready, and Arkansas finds itself in the midst of a recruiting battle that no other program can bring.

Beard alone brings the same traditional lack of concern that Ole Miss has always brought to the table when it comes to basketball. However, Flanigan changes the game. He instantly makes things far more interesting and worrisome for the Arkansas program. At the very least, he provides reason to keep an eye on whether he can carve a road into the state for Ole Miss at least to the level he did for Auburn. If so, that could be trouble for the Razorbacks going forward.