The timing was lousy, media-wise, when Central Arkansas made the announcement a month ago it was hiring John Shulman as its new men's basketball coach.
The Arkansas Razorbacks had beaten Vanderbilt in the first round of the SEC Tournament, but the swirling rumors that Eric Musselman was on the hunt for a new job were picking up.
Plus, everyone, especially this reporter, liked Anthony Boone who was terminated at UCA. Boone is one of the nicest people in the world and one of two Ole Miss jerseys ever retired.
His knees were so bad his senior season he didn't practice, saving everything he had for games. His basketball jersey is the only one retired from that sport.
He spent five seasons at UCA as an assistant and five as the head coach, but the last two seasons the Bears won just nine games and in one of his final acts as AD, Brad Teague terminated him.
Teague then hired Shulman before transferring to take over UCA's new Aviation Academy.
Matt Whiting replaced Teague. A native of Monticello, Whiting has a marketing degree from Arkansas-Monticello and a master's in business administration from Arkansas-Little Rock. He joined the UCA staff in 2016 and was associate athletic director for external affairs.
Shulman's hiring was more than a ripple in the world of college coaching changes.
After five years at Alabama-Huntsville, where he was 112-39 and made the NCAA Division II Tournament every year, he got the attention of ESPN's No. 1 basketball analyst, Jay Bilas.
"There is no one in the game I respect more than John Shulman," Bilas said. "I have worked closely with John for over a decade teaching young players and mentoring young coaches, and I have never been around a more passionate person dedicated to serving others. John is an outstanding coach and teacher of the game, and he is a relentless competitor. He is also a person of high character, integrity and empathy for those in his charge. John is not only a winner, he has the heart of a champion. His players will not just have him as a basketball coach for four years, they will have him as their coach, advocate and friend for life.
"Central Arkansas made an inspired choice to have John Shulman as its basketball coach."
Shulman hit the ground running and in short time got two of Arkansas' better high school players to change their commitments to UCA: Layne Taylor of Farmington and Lake Hamilton's Ty Robinson.
Taylor had committed to North Texas but because of family issues had been released and re-opened his recruitment.
Robinson was committed to South Florida. But when head coach Dusty May left for Michigan, Robinson was released from his NLI and opened up his recruiting again.
Both are considered outstanding shooters and Shulman's teams like to pull the trigger.
. . .
One thing Arkansas Razorback fans will learn is John Calipari keeps his cards close to his vest and that's why there haven't been daily reports of players who are transferring or changing their commitment to play for Cal at Arkansas.
Former Kentucky freshman Zvonimir Ivisic, of Vodice, Croatia, wasted no time in entering the portal and landing at Arkansas.
The first time the Razorbacks and Wildcats played this season, Ivisic was coming off an injury and played less than three minutes.
In the second meeting, he came off the bench and in just under 20 minutes grabbed a game-high 9 rebounds, scored 12 points and blocked 2 shots in Kentucky's 111-102 win. Another indication those teams loved offense this season and tolerated defense.