The Arkansas men’s basketball team improved to 2-0 on Monday night with a 90-65 victory over visiting Southern Illinois. This was hardly a contest for the Razorbacks, who led the Salukis at halftime by a score of 56-25.
With the game never in much doubt, and perhaps because there was little interest in the matchup, the Arkansas students left something to be desired in attempting to create a raucous atmosphere. That ruffled the feathers of head coach Barry Hinson, who spent a moment in the postgame press conference ripping the Arkansas students for leaving a game early, thus reducing the home-court advantage for the Razorbacks.
Did I mention that Hinson is the head coach of Southern Illinois?
That’s right, the visiting coach of a team that lost by nearly 30 points on the road took aim at the home team’s fans for not showing up, and he was quite passionate about it.
Southern Illinois basketball coach Barry Hinson GOES OFF on Razorback fans: "Get your butts back in this gym" #WPS #ARNews pic.twitter.com/FCNIP2GKfm
— Austin Kellerman (@AustinKellerman) November 15, 2016
Wow, that is quite a ringing endorsement for the Arkansas Razorbacks basketball program from an opposing coach. I cannot think of anything quite like this. Sure, we’ve seen visiting coaches take cracks at opposing fans before, but that tends to be for unruly behavior or distasteful chants aimed at visiting players – never like this.
This is a criticism more reserved for home team coaches upset that their fans and students left a game early. Nick Saban has done it in the past with Alabama and Michigan State football fans, but could you imagine a coach like Bill Self ripping Oklahoma students for leaving a game early?
There is another possible reason for Hinson’s reaction – maybe he felt his program was disrespected by fans feeling so comfortable with the outcome that they showed no interest in seeing Arkansas take on a lightweight program? Who knows, but at least he seemed to have a good sense of awareness about his comments after his postgame comments.
