For a little more than 12 hours, the rumor mill was running on jet fuel.
A guy at ESPN tweeted Sunday night that the University of Arkansas at Little Rock would offer its head men's basketball job to Darrell Walker, a former NBA player and coach as well as University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Razorback.
The Darrell Walker who owns a college diploma and college head coaching experience.
Those were the things Walker was told were holding him back. So he started checking the boxes, and it appears now he will be the Trojans' coach.
He went back to college and finished his degree six years ago, and then he started searching for the college head coaching experience. A friend -- artist Kevin Cole, who is based in Atlanta -- told Walker about Clark Atlanta University, a 30-year-old school in Atlanta that had won 15 games the two previous seasons combined and needed a coach.
Two years later, Walker was 45-18 as a head coach.
With his NBA background -- 10 years as a player, almost three as a head coach and another 15 as an assistant -- plus a degree, the deal with Clark Atlanta was done quickly.
As they have throughout his NBA career, his wife Lisa and his kids stayed home in Little Rock, where they bought a home soon after they were married. They met at the UA: He was the basketball star; she was a track star.
Those who have watched Walker grow from a restless, talented teenager from the tough streets of Cabrini Green, a former public housing project in Chicago, to a Renaissance man never doubted him.
This is a kid who attended Westark Junior College to get eligible to play for Eddie Sutton, and he thrived on challenges, some he created.
Sometimes he would talk about walking to high school and stepping over people, and he didn't know whether they were strung out on drugs or dead.
Patsy Sutton took him under her wing, and he became a good student and better person.
In the early 1990s, he realized he had an eye for art and has become a collector. He helped Clark Atlanta raise more than $200,000 with art auctions.
It wasn't until after he turned 50 (he was 57 on March 9) that he decided he wanted to be a college coach, and the job he craved most was UALR. It was the hometown university.
He just needed to check all the boxes.
Now, according to various websites, his day has arrived and the deal will be final this week, maybe today.
Apparently he's working on a staff that likely will include North Little Rock native Charles Baker. Baker was head coach at Shorter College in North Little Rock and an assistant at Louisiana Tech, Kansas State, Colorado and Colgate. He is currently head coach at Southwest Christian Academy in Little Rock.
Hiring Walker is a good move on the part of Chancellor Andrew Rogerson and Athletic Director Chasse Conque.
Walker long has been part of the fiber of not just central Arkansas but the state.
The contact list in his cellphone includes multiple successful business people -- many of whom apparently voiced their support to Rogerson and Conque -- including one who is a former teammate, personal friend and a reference on his resume, Michael Jordan. Walker and Jordan were teammates in Chicago for a year when they won an NBA title.
UALR has some student-enrollment issues, and some of that is because of an identity problem.
Walker has the charm, charisma and enthusiasm to help. He's got a ton of basketball knowledge, and he's now a proven head coach.
He checks all the boxes for what the Trojans need to build a successful and stable program, and when he does win, he won't be moving. He's finally coming home.
Sports on 03/27/2018