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While Eddie Sutton made the Arkansas Razorbacks a well-known and highly-respected national contender in college basketball, he never achieved the ultimate goal.
That was accomplished by his successor, Nolan Richardson, who matched Sutton's feat of leading the Hogs to the Final Four and then took it a step further by winning the 1994 national championship.
Both Hall of Fame coaches lost in the national semifinals to blueblood programs on their initial visits to the Final Four, Sutton in St. Louis and Richardson in Denver.
Sutton's 1978 team lost to the Kentucky Wildcats, 64-59, and Richardson's 1990 squad fell to the Duke Blue Devils, 97-83.
Only difference was until 1982, a third-place game was played at the Final Four. In '78, Arkansas edged the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 71-69, on Ron Brewer's last-second shot.
Brewer's game-winner is the second buzzer-beating shot in this video that shows every one in the NCAA Tournament from '77 to 2024.
Brewer, of course, is Razorback royalty, along with his son, Ronnie Brewer Jr., who also played in the NBA. Both were first-round draft picks: Ron going No. 7 overall to the Portland Trailblazers and Ronnie 14th to the Utah Jazz.
The younger Brewer, of course, is part of current Arkansas coach John Calipari's support staff, a valuable man on the bench and in recruiting.
Calipari got the Hogs within a snout of the Elite Eight in his first year as Arkansas' bench boss, an up-and-down season that included an eight-point loss to the Florida Gators, now vying for the national title.
Calipari got his start on a college coaching staff -- as a graduate assistant -- at Kansas in 1982, about 16 months after the last third-place game in the Final Four.
Hall of Fame center Ralph Sampson's Virginia Cavaliers won that last third-place game, beating LSU in Philadelphia in 1981.
Hall of Famer Isaiah Thomas led the Indiana Hoosiers of coach Bob Knight to the '81 title over the North Carolina Tar Heels of Dean Smith and Hall of Famer James Worthy, in a battle of Hall of Fame coaches.
Those games, after much discussion and with a certain amount of reluctance, were played the same day President Ronald Reagan was shot hours earlier in Washington, D.C.
After that 1978 trip to the Final Four, Sutton's Hogs nearly made it back the next season but were beaten in the Elite Eight on a last-second bucket, 73-71.
That thriller featured a match-up of first-team All-Americans: Arkansas' 6-foot-4 Sidney Moncrief and 6-foot-9 Larry Bird of the undefeated Indiana State Sycamores.
Bird had 31 points, 10 rebounds and three assists while Super Sid had 24, 8 and two. Both played all 40 minutes, as did Razorback senior 7-footer Steve Schall and 6-10 freshman Scott Hastings.
Point is, it's hard enough to reach the Final Four once. To do it two straight is quite a feat. Richardson did that when his Hogs won the 1994 national championship and reached the title game in '95, losing to the UCLA Bruins.
"Arkansas is in Hog Heaven!" 26 years ago today, Arkansas won the National Championship
Posted by SEC Network on Saturday, April 4, 2020
There have been 10 men's programs reach the Final Four at least three times in a row. That includes the Houston Cougars, who square off Monday against Florida for this season's championship.
Those reaching the Final Four three times consecutively are:
• Michigan State (1999-2001)
• Kentucky (1996-98)
• Houston (1982-84)
• North Carolina (1967-69)
• Ohio State (1960-62)
• San Francisco (1955-57)
• Ohio State (1944-46)
More impressively, these two appeared five straight season:
• Duke (1988-92)
• Cincinnati (1959-63)
Of course, one legendary program dwarfs all others when it comes to NCAA Tournament success. That's the school led by perhaps the two greatest college players ever — Lew Alcindor (later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Bill Walton.
The school with the most Final Four appearances in a row is:
* UCLA (1967-76)
Yes, dear readers, that's an astounding 10 straight Final Fours, the first nine under the direction of Bruins revered coach John Wooden, who won eight of those championships.
Thing is, Wooden and UCLA also cut down nets in 1964 and 1965. If Alcindor could've played as a freshman, the big bad Bruins would've won 10 straight championships. Hard to fathom these days.
Wooden retired after winning it all in 1975 and his successor, Gene Bartow, made the '76 Final Four, but lost to Indiana. Those Hoosiers gave Knight the first of his three titles and they are the last undefeated men's champion.
Houston is playing in its seventh Final Four, having also competed on the season's last week in 1967, 1968, 1982, 1983, 1984 and 2021.
Those 1960s teams featured Hall of Famer Elvin Hayes, but they were always outmanned by Alcindor and UCLA.
The early 1980s Cougars were tremendously talented, led by a pair of future Hall of Famers in Akeem (later Hakeem) Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler.
Olajuwon was a game-changer, a program-changer, when he arrived from Nigeria for the 1981-82 season. Clearly a gifted athlete with quick, agile feet fashioned by playing soccer, the 6-11 "Akeem the Dream" was raw when it came to basketball but developed quickly.
"Phi Slama Jama" was the nickname bestowed upon the high-flying dunking Coogs, known as the world's tallest fraternity.
Arkansas finished a game ahead of Houston in the Southwest Conference standings in 1982 with a 12-4 record and finished 23-6 overall.
Houston and Olajuwon, though, improved as the season progressed and reached the Final Four in New Orleans. Waiting for the Coogs was North Carolina, which boasted a plethora of talent in junior James Worthy, sophomore Sam Perkins and freshman Michael Jordan.
The Tar Heels beat Houston by five and nipped Georgetown by a point for the title on Jordan's game-winning jumper from the wing., finishing 32-2 on the season.
Houston returned to the Final Four in '83 and was a prohibitive favorite over upstart North Carolina State and coach Jim Valvano, who only got into the NCAA Tournament by winning their league tournament after finishing 8-6 in the ACC.
NC State's improbable run to the Final Four included a first-round win by two in double overtime, followed by victory margins of one, 19, one and seven over Georgia in the national semifinal.
All five Wolfpack starters became NBA draft picks: one in the first round, two in the second, and one each in the third and fourth.
Meanwhile, Olajuwon was the overall No. 1 pick following the 1984 season, Drexler was a first-rounder in 1983 and Michael Young in 1985. Five other Coogs were drafted from the 1983 and 1984 teams.
But, it was Valvano who is credited with creating the now famous phrase about the NCAA Tournament when "survive and advance" became his team's rallying cry in 1983.
Still, Houston was the clear favorite, the No. 1 team in the country against the sixth seed from the Midwest Regional. Nobody was surprised when the Cougars led, 42-35, with 10 minutes to play.
Shockingly, NC State rallied and won on a last-second dunk of a 35-footer that came up well short of the rim. It's a loss Houston's players and program have never truly lived down.
With Drexler gone, Olajuwon led Houston to its third Final Four in three years, this time facing mighty Georgetown and Hall of Fame center Patrick Ewing. The Hoyas prevailed, 84-75 to finish 34-3.
Arkansas finished with national rankings of Nos. 9 and 8 in the 1983 and '84 seasons, but finished behind Houston in the SWC standings each year despite a pair of 14-2 records. Houston was 16-0 and 15-1 in those seasons in the league.
For the Cougars of 2025, all of that history probably doesn't matter. But their coach, 69-year-old Kelvin Sampson, is well aware of Olajuwon and those great Phi Slama Jama teams of the '80s.
Despite six trips to the Final Four, Houston is still chasing that elusive national championship. They're about a free throw or two underdog to Florida, but they weren't supposed to beat Duke in the semifinals.
Houston's defensive-minded guards will have to contain Walter Clayton Jr., Florida's sensational shooter who's scored 30 and 34 points in the last two games to beat Texas Tech and Auburn.
Like against Duke, if the game is in the 70s or 80s, Florida should win. If the Cougars can control Clayton and his high-octane teammates, this one's up for grabs.
In contrast to 1983, it's Houston that wants a game in the 60-point range. That'll suit Sampson just fine, even though his team could win a shootout if they bury a basket full of threes.
Arkansas fans likely will pull for Florida, as it'll help justify the 14 SEC teams invited to the 68-team NCAA Tournament and the league's reputation this season of being historically strong.
Personally, it'll be more fun to see Sampson win a national championship and for Houston to exorcise the demons from four decades ago when the school boasted its most talented teams.
HOGS FEED:
• Razorbacks Sweep Missouri with More Homers in Doubleheader
• How Hogs' portal board looks after key targets commit elsewhere
• Quebec power: Davalan powers Hogs to 10th straight SEC win over Mizzou
• SEC figuring out what Broyles knew at Arkansas 50 years ago
• Van Horn shuffles Razorback lineup amid Aloy cooling off
More must-reads:
- Six must-watch CBB teams heading into 2025-26 season
- North Carolina reportedly considering nuclear option with Bill Belichick, and that's justified
- The 'Most NFL QB two-rushing-TD games' quiz
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Iowa begins Ben McCollum era with transfer player getting named to preseason All-Big Ten team
The Iowa Hawkeyes are entering a new era on the men's college basketball side of things. After 15 seasons under Fran McCaffery, which produced many highs but also some lows, the Hawks went out and got one of the best young up-and-coming coaches in the game. Ben McCollum completely remade Iowa's roster Ben McCollum, formerly of Drake, is the new head coach in Iowa, and there's a ton of hype surrounding his tenure before it's even begun. One of the biggest things that McCollum has done right away is quickly remake the Hawkeyes in his image. He brought in eight players via the transfer portal, including five who followed him from a Drake team that went 31-4 and won a March Madness game in a big upset over Missouri last season. The Bennett Stirtz hype train continues — for good reason Speaking of hype, one of those players, senior Bennett Stirtz, is getting a ton of it as the season quickly approaches. So much so that Stirtz was named to the preseason All-Big Ten team by the conference. It makes sense, too. Stirtz, a 6-foot-4, 190-pound guard from Liberty, Missouri, was tremendous for McCollum at Drake last season. There will certainly be questions about his ability to translate to Big Ten play, but he already knows McCollum's scheme, and there is reason to believe he'll be just fine based on what he did against Missouri in the NCAA Tournament. Last season at Drake, Stirtz led the Missouri Valley Conference in scoring (19.2), steals (2.1) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.86). He ranked second in the conference in assists with 5.7 per game, and he led every player in the NCAA in minutes played with 39:4 per game. He was named the Missouri Valley Conference Larry Bird Player of the Year and the Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the Year. Before going to Drake, Stirtz played at Northwest Missouri State. Against Missouri in the NCAA Tournament, he notched 21 points, four assists, one rebound and one steal in Drake's 67-57 upset win. In a Round 2 loss to Texas Tech, Stirtz scored 21 points with eight assists and three rebounds. He should be just fine in the Big Ten based on those results, so keep an eye out for both him and the Hawkeyes this season. More than likely, McCollum is going to start out fast in Iowa City.
4 concerning Vikings statistics that must improve after the bye
The Minnesota Vikings are a 3-2 football team heading into their bye week. They've done some good things through the first five weeks of the season, but they also have a lot of areas they need to improve. Frankly, the Vikings are a bit fortunate to have three wins, considering the comebacks they had to mount to beat the Bears and Browns. They've trailed going into the fourth quarter in four of their five games, including three games where they didn't score a touchdown in the first 45 minutes of action. That level of play isn't going to be nearly good enough for the rest of this season. The Vikings have had one of the easier schedules in the league so far, but they have one of the toughest schedules for the remainder of the campaign. Improvement must start with cleaning up these four unsightly statistics, which are all areas where the Vikings rank at or near the bottom of the league. Sack percentage (offense): 11.7 percent NFL rank: 32nd Through five weeks, no team has taken more sacks than the Vikings, whose quarterbacks have gone down 21 times on 180 dropbacks. That 11.7 percentage leads the league; the Ravens are the only other team with at least a 10 percent sack rate on offense. J.J. McCarthy was the worst offender, taking nine sacks on just 55 dropbacks over the first two weeks (16.4 percent). But Carson Wentz was sack-prone too, with 12 of them on 120 dropbacks. It's something McCarthy will have to show that he can improve in order to regain the starting role. Sacks fall on the play-caller, the quarterback, and the offensive line to varying degrees. All three have to find a way to fix this drive-killing issue for the Vikings after the bye week, starting against an Eagles defense that is surprisingly towards the bottom of the league in sacks so far. Third down conversion percentage (offense): 31 percent NFL rank: 31st This one, to some extent, goes hand in hand with the previous stat. The Vikings are converting third downs less than a third of the time, which is not where you want to be. Only the Titans and rookie QB Cam Ward have been less effective on third down this season (29 percent). Kevin O'Connell's team was up near 40 percent last year. Part of this stat has to do with the average third-down distances teams face. But despite their sack woes, the Vikings are actually near the middle of the pack in terms of yards needed on third down. One reason for that is that third down is where a big chunk of those sacks have occurred. Third and longs are tough for everyone, so a big key to being successful on third down is avoiding those situations by staying on schedule on early downs. With that said, the Vikings are also well below the league average with a 47 percent conversion rate on third downs of three yards or fewer remaining, so they also need to improve in short-yardage situations. Percentage of first downs gained via rush (defense): 47.1 percent NFL rank: 32nd Most of the statistics for the Vikings' defense are pretty positive. They've been good so far, even if it's fair to admit that their advanced numbers are skewed a bit by a dominant performance against the Bengals in Week 3. The one area why the Vikings could use some real improvement is in their run defense. The raw numbers for the Vikings' rushing defense (yards per game, yards per carry, etc.) aren't great. But this stat we found was particularly interesting. 47 percent of Vikings opponents' first downs are coming on the ground, which is the highest rate in the league. Teams aren't having a ton of success against the Vikings through the air, but why throw the ball when you're confident you can move the chains with the run game? That stat would be notable by itself, but it's even more interesting when you look at the 2024 numbers and see that the Vikings had the second-lowest rate in this category last season, with just 25.5 percent of opponent first downs being acquired via the run. Accepted penalties per game: 8.8 NFL rank: 1st (in a bad way) Simply put, the Vikings have to find a way to stop generating so many flags against them. They lead the league in both total accepted penalties (44) and penalties committed on a per-game basis. They've had procedural issues on offense, they've committed fouls on defense, and they've been flagged in the kickoff and punt phases on special teams. Across the board, they have to clean up their execution and avoid the negatives that put them in more difficult siutations.
There may be a new big-name head coach available and a pursuit by Dolphins owner Stephen Ross would be a recipe for disaster — even if Miami fires Mike McDaniel
The Miami Dolphins may, eventually, have a head coaching vacancy before the end of the year. And, should that development materialize, team owner Stephen Ross will be faced with what very well could be seen as the defining decision of his legacy as the team's owner. Ross has been through a slew of coaches since assuming majority control of the Dolphins organization in 2009. Tony Sparano, Joe Philbin, Adam Gase, Brian Flores, and currently Mike McDaniel have served as the head coaches of the Dolphins under Ross — plus interim terms from both Todd Bowles and Dan Campbell. During his tenure, Ross has had an eye towards big-name head coaching candidates on more than one occasion. He flirted with Jim Harbaugh out of Stanford while Sparano was still under contract as the coach of the team, which drew ire and strife within the organization. And who can forget the inappropriate contact with Sean Payton, in which the Dolphins were reportedly primed to offer a $100 million contract to coach in Miami after sending compensation to New Orleans? Brian Flores' suit against the Dolphins squashed that quickly — and Miami was subsequently stripped of first and third-round draft choices for tampering charges for both Payton and quarterback Tom Brady that summer after investigation. As a potential vacancy for Miami lingers, there may soon be another big-name coach available on the market — one that the Dolphins are very familiar with. His name is Bill Belichick. And if it comes to be reality, my only words for Stephen Ross would be this: "Please don't." New report indicates Bill Belichick's tenure at North Carolina could soon be over — and he'd be a disaster hire for the Dolphins despite his coaching legacy A report from Ollie Connelly this afternoon highlights the tenuous state of affairs for former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and his current team, the North Carolina Tar Heels. In an effort to extend his coaching career, Belichick dipped to the college ranks this year after a "gap year" in 2024. It has been an unmitigated disaster, with the Tar Heels sitting at 2-3 with wins over Richmond and Charlotte. They've been uncompetitive in their three contests against TCU, UCF, and Clemson. Unmitigated disaster is a suitable adjective not only for Belichick's time at North Carolina, but essentially also his entire career from the moment that Tom Brady packed his bags and headed south for Tampa Bay. There's a 29-39 record in New England, the decision to make a former defensive coordinator (Matt Patricia) serve as his offensive play caller for a second-year quarterback, tabloid headlines, being bypassed in the 2024 hiring cycle, landing at North Carolina, petty pissing contests with Robert Kraft and the Patriots, and now this. It's been one goofy, unserious development after another that has many questioning the legacy of Belichick beyond his experiences with Brady as his quarterback. Bill Belichick's coaching record with and without Tom Brady Belichick's coaching record with Tom Brady: 249-75 (.769 win percentage) Belichick's coaching record without Tom Brady: 84-104 (.447 win percentage) Belichick's current coaching record at North Carolina: 2-3 (.400 win percentage) as of October 8th 2025 Make no mistake about it — there's a wealth of football knowledge here that is unrivaled. Bill's seen more football than most would ever dream of and he's forgotten more about football than I'll probably ever know. Belichick will be a first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee when he's eligible. But he's given no one any reason to believe that he's still an effective head coach in the past half of a decade. The incubated nature of his coaching tree in New England posed major problems down the stretch for his ability to assemble a quality assistant staff. And, as we've seen for a decade plus now, those in his coaching tree that have tried to spread their wings and fly on their own elsewhere in the NFL have failed spectacularly any time they've been given an opportunity. The Dolphins know a little something about that, too — although Brian Flores' failures with the Dolphins were not because of defensive acumen or scheme. It was instead because of a power struggle over personnel, a failed bid to acquire embattled quarterback Deshaun Watson in 2021, the inability to assemble a quality coaching staff on offense, and the alleged scar tissue from the organization's misdeeds during a 2019 rebuild year in which Ross, as accused by Flores, offered him significant bonuses for every loss. And all of that is before we acknowledge that Bill Belichick will be 74-years old next spring and would be the second-oldest head coach in the league if he were to re-enter the ranks of NFL lead men in 2026. That's not a long-term solution to Ross' lingering legacy as the Dolphins team owner. It's a bandaid. And a used one, at that. So please, Mr. Ross. If you find yourself seeking a new head coach for the 2026 season and the name Bill Belichick crosses your mind, I beg you. Just...don't. This is one big fish not worth attempting to reel in — go find your prized catch elsewhere if you need a new coach this winter. window.addEventListener('message', function (event) {if (event.data.totalpoll event.data.totalpoll.action === 'resizeHeight') {document.querySelector('#totalpoll-iframe-426').height = event.data.totalpoll.value;}}, false);document.querySelector('#totalpoll-iframe-426').contentWindow.postMessage({totalpoll: {action: 'requestHeight'}}, '*');
Bijan Robinson has a simple message for Texas QB Arch Manning
Bijan Robinson was a tremendous running back for the Texas Longhorns during his time in college football. Now with the Atlanta Falcons and known as one of the most exciting young players in the NFL, Robinson was an All-American and a Heisman Trophy candidate for the Longhorns. He's uniquely qualified to talk about Texas football, and there is a lot to talk about right now. The big storyline surrounding the program is Arch Manning and his struggles in 2025. Those struggles were highlighted by Texas' loss to Florida, which saw him complete just 16 of 29 passes for two touchdowns and two interceptions. It was just the second multi-interception game of Manning's college career, and he has now thrown at least one interception in all but one game this season. Bijan Robinson tells Arch Manning and Texas Longhorns to focus Perhaps that's why Robinson is telling him to tune everything out. There's been a ton of noise and hype surrounding Manning ever since he emerged on the recruiting trail out of New Orleans, Louisiana. Noise and hype can be good, but things are tough right now, which is why Manning needs to focus. “Continue to stay consistent,” was Robinson's message to Manning via "The Rich Eisen Show" (h/t On3). “Stay consistent as much as possible. Don’t listen to the media because the media will either steer you in the right direction or it will tarnish you for your career. So, for him, always know that everyone has his back in that building. Coach (Sarkisian) and the team have his back. Everybody around him has his back. It’s not just him, it’s the whole team. The whole offense needs to come together, especially this week playing against Oklahoma." This is a big moment for Manning, head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns. If they bounce back against No. 6 Oklahoma this weekend in the Red River Rivalry, there's a slim chance they can still make a case for the College Football Playoff. At the very least, they'd be able to get the taste of the bad loss to Florida out of their mouths. A win could put the Longhorns back in the CFP conversation, though, especially if they go on to beat ranked teams like Vanderbilt, Georgia and Texas A M later on in the season. However, a loss would all but end Texas' CFP cause. Focus will be key for the Longhorns. As Robinson puts it, they've got to tune out the outside noise, put their heads down and focus only on trying to beat the Sooners. “This is going to be a really big game for, not just Texas and the program, but the individual players," Robinson said. "These are big games for them. They’ve got to hone in, become player-led and become who they’re going to become this week. So, my advice to them is to just put their head down, stay out of the outside noise and just go on that field on Saturday and show everybody what they can do.”
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