Listen to the radio or search the message boards and you'll find folks fawning all over Bret Bielema after he took the Arkansas football team from 3-9 to 7-6.
Mike Anderson has solid support after the basketball Razorbacks finished 27-9 for their best record in nearly two decades. There's also people who insist Arkansas made a brilliant hire with Jimmy Dykes, who managed to get the team formerly known as the Lady'Backs into the NCAA Women's Tournament in his first year.
But the best coach on campus is Arkansas baseball coach Dave Van Horn and he has been for some time. This assessment shouldn't be taken as disrespectful toward the track program, which has likely piled up more championships than all other Arkansas sports combined. But track and field is mostly an individual sport wrapped around a team concept.
Arkansas baseball is all about team and packing Baum Stadium, which could see some record crowds beginning at 3:30 p.m. today for the start of an NCAA Super Regional against Missouri State. With two more wins, Arkansas will advance to the College World Series after making the NCAA Tournament for the 14th consecutive season under Van Horn, a former player and graduate assistant who arrived back on campus as head Hog in 2003.
Van Horn is a straight shooter who will call out a reporter or a player if he believes that player is not fulfilling expectations he's set for him. That's an old-school approach I fully support, even when Van Horn's displeasure was occasionally directed at me in my job as a Razorback baseball beat writer for 14 years.
Arkansas had just gotten blasted in the opener of a three-game series at Alabama one year when Van Horn kept his players huddled up in the outfield much longer than usual. When Van Horn finally walked over to the few reporters still waiting, I asked if there was anything he could share from the long discussion.
Basically, Van Horn told me it was none of my business and that anything he had to say was between him and his players. Whatever was discussed, Arkansas played much better the remaining two games and came close to winning the series against the Tide.
I'm sure Van Horn was not a delight to be around in March when the Razorbacks fell to 14-14 after a 2-0 defeat to Missouri State. Senior outfielder Tyler Spoon hinted as much in an article that appeared in these pages earlier this week.
"He may have been a little upset," Spoon said of Van Horn, who was a feisty player at second base for the Razorbacks in 1982. "But he kept telling us he believed in us."
We've seen this all before with Van Horn and longtime pitching coach Dave Jorn, who deserves much credit for Arkansas' success through the years. Baseball is a grind and Arkansas has caught fire late many times and flourished when others had wilted.
For those who don't follow college baseball closely, getting to the College World Series is comparable to advancing to the Final Four in basketball or playing in a top-tier bowl game in football. Arkansas (38-22) will head to the CWS in Omaha, Neb., for the fourth time under Van Horn if the Razorbacks can get past Missouri State (48-10), a No. 8 national seed.
Keep in mind that while the SEC's reputation in football took a hit last season, the league is still strong in baseball with five teams who've advanced to the Super Regionals of the NCAA Tournament. Let's also not forget that Van Horn had a quality program to return to because of former Arkansas coach Norm DeBriyn, who retired on an upswing following the 2002 season.
Arkansas wouldn't even have had a baseball program worth considering if not for DeBriyn, who led four teams to the College World Series and continues to be a great ambassador for the school after 33 years as the Razorbacks' head coach. There's no doubt Nolan Richardson built upon the foundation set by Eddie Sutton in basketball and that's exactly what happened in baseball when Van Horn returned to Arkansas after leading Nebraska to the College World Series in 2001 and 2002.
While Arkansas football and basketball fluctuate greatly, Arkansas baseball continues as a model of consistency under DeBriyn and now Van Horn. Even if Arkansas fails to win another game, Van Horn has shown again he is the best coach on campus by turning a mediocre team into winners with all the moxie he displayed as a player.
He put the fight in these Fightin' Razorbacks.
Sports on 06/05/2015