Richardson Warns Coaches to Steer Clear of Saban's Wake

Legendary former Arkansas Razorbacks coach says trying to take over legacy at Alabama horrible idea for coaches who already have jobs

Author:
Kent Smith
Publish date:
Jan 12, 2024 12:13 PM EST

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Arkansas Razorbacks

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Legendary former Arkansas basketball coach Nolan Richardson has a bit of advice for coaches looking to take over at Alabama for Nick Saban.
Don't.

If anyone knows about trying to follow elite coaches whose names are etched in history at a school, it's Richardson. He's been on both sides of the coin as a coach trying to follow a legend. He replaced the Godfather of modern Arkansas basketball in Eddie Sutton after he spent the the 70s and early 80s turning the Razorbacks into a national power.

Richardson also tried to help Stan Heath as he struggled to follow the national championship winning coach in the early 2000s after Richardson turned Arkansas into a rabid basketball machine. Needless to say, he has experience on the matter perhaps no one else in the history of college sports has.

"Anyone that takes that job that's got a job gotta be out of his mind because you don't follow the guy that is the guy," Richardson said on 103.7 The Buzz shortly after Saban announced his retirement. "You know, you may follow the guy after four or five guys have gone through there because there's no question of his records and the things he has done. Who can duplicate that?"

Of course, a much younger Richardson wasn't willing to take that advice when to jumped from Tulsa to Arkansas back in the mid-1980s. Nearly everything about the Razorbacks job screamed to not take it. Not only was Richardson stepping into Sutton's shoes, but he did so as the first African-American head coach in a state that had struggled mightily with the idea of racial tolerance. Still, there was enough there to entice Richardson despite the potential pitfalls.

"I think any job that you're going to go through is either going to look a little bit better with some things in your favor that you're looking for," Richardson said. "There's no question, I was pretty happy and we were doing a pretty good job at University of Tulsa. But you know, we didn't have a gym on the campus. We had so many shortcomings that we were able to get over. But University of Arkansas you had fans that came when it snowed and you're not supposed to be on the highway. We just couldn't attract that. And I enjoyed the fact that Eddie had already built it into a tremendous basketball program."

Still, the advice he shared in his more wise years almost proved to be prophetic. Sutton ran a slow, plodding half-court style of basketball, which meant players wouldn't be a good fit for Richardson's frantic high-speed style. He also found out a few weeks before he took that job that his daughter, Yvonne, would spend her time in her new home in Fayetteville battling Leukemia. Combined, it was the perfect storm of negative factors.

"I couldn't enjoy anything to be honest with you," Richardson said. "I enjoyed getting the job, but then she was sick that same year. Bringing her away from that, I had so many other things on my mind. University basketball was not one of the things that were on my mind at the time, to be honest with you."

The two years Yvonne was sick almost ended Richardson's stint at Arkansas before he could get his feet under him. The transition to his style of play was brutal. His 12-16 opening record was the Razorbacks' first losing season since 1973 and was a 10-game drop from Sutton's final year.

The following season, with a handful of players who better fit his system, Richardson had Arkansas winning again, just not enough to return to the NCAA Tournament. Still, the Hogs were in the NIT, which was progress, and should have been a blessing, but it wasn't. In the midst of dealing with the death of his daughter, who had lost her fight with leukemia about 10 weeks earlier, Richardson faced an ultimatum in regard to his opening game of the NIT.

"I can go back to my [second] year," Richardson said. "I was threatened to be dismissed if I didn't beat Arkansas State. There I was dealing with a sick daughter. You know, there's a lot of pressure a coach goes under without any fans knowing anything what's going on at all. Closed doors."

Richardson came as close as possible to becoming the footnote guy who followed the guy. The Razorbacks trailed ASU by 21 points in the second half before Ron Heury and Cannon Whitby's late game heroics forced overtime, allowing the Hogs to escape with a 67-64 win and their head coach still at the helm.

Nearly two decades later, the role for Richardson reversed. Following a tumultuous ending to his time at Arkansas with a very public feud with athletics director Frank Broyles, he was now the legend being followed. In this case, it was Kent State coach Stan Heath, fresh off a magical Elite 8 run the year before.

However, unlike Richardson in 1985, Heath lacked the seasoning needed to take on such a huge task. He only had a single season as a Division I head coach. According to Richardson, the university found itself in the difficult situation of needing to find a coach who could "look like me and maybe talk like me, hopefully not act like me."

"He took the job because he got very fortunate to have a pretty good team that the coach the year before left him and it got to the Sweet 16," Richardson said. "So, he was a hot commodity from standpoint of a black individual coach. So, you grab him up and you know, push Nolan out. We got this young guy and he's gonna do this. He's gonna to do that, and it doesn't happen that way."

Things got off to a worse start for Heath than it did Richardson. The Razorbacks only won nine games his first season. The following year it edged up to 12. Growth gradually continued as the Hogs notched their first winning record in 2004-05. Progress continued the following year with a 22-win season and the first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2001.

The next season things didn't appear to make a downward turn on paper as Heath rode 21 wins to get Arkansas back in the NCAA Tournament. However, it took a run to the SEC championship game to get there and Arkansas was unceremoniously bounced in the first round again with a 77-60 loss to USC.

Believing Heath had hit a plateau and feeling pressure to return Arkansas basketball to its glory years, Razorback administration had seen enough. The high risk hire of Heath to follow a legend had gone the way so many who follow coaches like Richardson and Saban often goes – a footnote in history.

So, it remains to be seen whether a coach will heed Richardson's advice and wait for a couple of coaches to fail after following Saban before stepping in to take the glory of restoring a proud program, or if someone will stubbornly do as Richardson did, risk following the man, and somehow do just enough to hold on long enough to build his own legacy.

There are potential pitfalls with either approach, but in the eyes of a man who experienced it both ways, there's a better path. Fittingly, considering Richardson stuck to other shoe brands during a period when Nike was taking over the basketball world, there's a single phrase he suggests be followed.

Just don't do it.