FAYETTEVILLE - Three consecutive losing SEC seasons, three straight SEC Tournament one-and-dones and three straight years of dwindling Walton Arena caught to up to fourth-year Arkansas men's basketball coach John Pelphrey.
Pelphrey was dismissed Sunday as the Razorbacks head coach, Arkansas athletics director Jeff Long announced.
A national search for a new coach "begins immediately," Long said.
In the meantime, veteran assistant coach Rob Evans, the former head coach at Ole Miss and Arizona State, serves as Arkansas' interim head coach for its day to day operations.
The records and attendance factored in the decision to dismiss Pelphrey.
So did, Long was quoted in Sunday afternoon's press release announcing the dismissal before Long faced a 6 p.m. press conference, an "assessment of the overall student-athlete experience within our program."
Asked to explain that press release sentence at the press conference, Long said, "Part of their experience is winning basketball games but that's not the only part. We want a program that give student-athletes the chance to grow and compete and be best kind of person we can be.
I don't believe our student-athletes were having the experience I believe they were capable of having."
Long said he and "the student-athletes" are "disappointed" not being included in the NCAA Tournament for three straight seasons (14-16, 14-18 an 18-13 over-all and 2-14, 7-9, 7-9 in the SEC.
Pelphrey's four year tenure, beginning with a 23-12 9-7 SEC team in 2007-08 that won Arkansas' first SEC Tournament first-round game since 1999, was not in vain, Long said, noting Pelphrey leaves the Razorbacks in better academic standing than the program he inherited.
Pelphrey was hired to replace Stan Heath, initially replaced by Dana Altman who resigned one day on the Arkansas job, after Pelphrey coached five years as head coach of South Alabama in the Sun Belt Conference. The Kentucky grad previously had been an assistant under Billy Donovan at Florida and Marshall.
"I appreciate the hard work of John Pelphrey and his staff," Long said. "I had very high hopes that John could be successful and I think John can be successful but it wasn't happening here at Arkansas."
While noting what went into his decision to dismiss, Long was emphatic on some things he said did not go into it.
One was a photograph, which surfaced on CBSSportsline.com the Thursday Arkansas lost to Tennessee in the SEC Tournament, of Pelphrey with two Sylvan Hills juniors after a game during a December NCAA rules allow college coaches just to observe high school games but not talk to juniors and sophomores.
The other was an ad placed in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette sports section by fans expressing concern for the Arkansas basketball program via an Alabama address.
"Absolutely not," Long said of the photograph. "That photo had no factor. If it turns out to be a violation, which I believe it is, it is a minor secondary violation and not be something that would rise to the level of dismissing someone."
Regarding the ad, Long said, "I can answer very clearly that what I call a cowardly ad in a newspaper would have very little effect on me. I respect fans who have reached out to me and expressed in a very appropriate manner and try to respond to them, but those who do things that are inappropriate I don't respond to because I don't think they deserve a response."
Pelphrey will be paid $600,000 annually for the remaining three years of his contract, Long said.
As for the search, Long said he will conduct it without a committee, which hired Heath, and without a search firm, which hired Pelphrey after retired athletics director Frank Broyles hired Altman, now the coach at Oregon.
Long said there is no timetable but presumes the hiring will be shortly before or after the Final Four April 2-4 because many candidates would be involved in the NCAA Tournament.
Long said he would keep the hiring process as "private as possible to attract the best candidates possible."
No names were mentioned of course but some names expected to be bandied are Mike Anderson, the Missouri coach and former 17-year Arkansas assistant for Nolan Richardson, Marquette coach Buzz Williams, Kansas State coach Frank Martin, Minnesota coach Tubby Smith, formerly a national championship head coach at Kentucky, and former Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie, the then Texas A&M coach Arkansas sought to to interview when Altman was hired.
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