FAYETTEVILLE — Mike Anderson is still Missouri’s basketball coach, but he’s expected to listen to an offer from Arkansas, which is trying to fill its coaching vacancy.
Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long was in the process Tuesday of contacting his Missouri counterpart, Mike Alden, according to sources, to obtain permission to talk with Anderson, as is stipulated in the contract extension Anderson signed with Missouri in 2009.
After Arkansas officials have permission to talk with Anderson, he can discuss their job offer and determine whether to accept it.
Jimmy Sexton, Anderson’s Memphis-based agent, has been discussing a new contract with Missouri officials, which according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch would increase his annual compensation from $1.5 million to $2.0 million and extend the agreement from five to seven years.
“It’s an ongoing situation with Missouri,” Sexton said Tuesday in an interview with Memphis radio station WHBQ-AM. “We’ve been in discussions with them for several weeks now.
“Nothing is imminent this second, so I can’t really speak to it. But there should be some resolution to that in the next few days.”
Sexton didn’t mention any negotiations with Arkansas, which began a search for a coach March 13 when Long announced the firing of John Pelphrey.
Sexton has not responded to messages from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Long has not spoken to the media since a news conference the night of Pelphrey’s firing, and a UA spokesman said earlier this week Long wasn’t available for interviews on how the search process has been progressing.
If Arkansas hires Anderson, it will have to pay a $550,000 buyout to Missouri.
While Anderson’s buyout is substantial, it isn’t close to the $3.8 million buyout for Marquette Coach Buzz Williams, who also has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the Arkansas job.
Williams’ buyout was tweeted by Democrat-Gazette Sports Editor Wally Hall on Monday night and has been confirmed by four sources.
Williams’ buyout likely makes him cost prohibitive for Arkansas, which also is obligated to pay Pelphrey $1.8 million over the next three years. If Pelphrey gets another coaching job, his salary will be subtracted from what Arkansas owes him.
Anderson, who has a 111-57 record in five seasons at Missouri with three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, has been considered a top target for Arkansas because of his ties to the Razorbacks. Anderson was an Arkansas assistant coach for 17 seasons (1985-2002) under Coach Nolan Richardson, who coached Anderson at Tulsa.
Missouri’s board of curators held regularly scheduled meetings Monday and Tuesday in Rolla, Mo. Steve Owens, Missouri’s interim president, spoke with reporters after Tuesday’s meeting but declined to comment on Anderson’s contract status.
“I think it is safe to say that we are all big fans of Mike Anderson,” Owens said in a teleconference, according to the Post-Dispatch. “We appreciate very much what he does on the court and particularly off the court. But any hypothetical contract negotiations, we don’t confirm either their existence or their status.”
Owens said he didn’t want to comment on the contract negotiations or how the curators voted on a new deal for Anderson.
“That would confirm or deny whether a vote had been taken on it, wouldn’t it?” he said.
An announcement from Arkansas or Missouri about where Anderson will be coaching may not come for another day or two because Anderson is attending a funeral today for a close friend in Tulsa.
Jim Pharr, who Anderson has known since his playing days at Tulsa and who continued to support Anderson and Richardson at Arkansas and then Anderson when he moved on to coach at Alabama-Birmingham and Missouri, died Saturday at age 76.
Richardson is speaking at Pharr’s memorial service today.
Sports, Pages 19 on 03/23/2011