UD assistant looking forward to return to Arkansas

NEXT GAME

Dayton at Arkansas, 2 p.m. Saturday, ESPN, 95.7, 1410

Assistant coach Tom Ostrom calls Dayton’s game Saturday at Arkansas “the most important game because it’s the next game.”

That’s the way a coach has to look at things, but this is a more intriguing game than most for Ostrom. He spent four seasons at Arkansas on the staff of head coach John Pelphrey. This will be Ostrom’s first game in Fayetteville, Ark., since Archie Miller hired him in 2011.

“My family and I really enjoyed our time there,” Ostrom said Thursday. “Our son (J.T., now 4) was born there. We have a lot of roots there. We made lifetime relationships there.”

Ostrom keeps in touch with a number of people at Arkansas, including: Athletic Director Jeff Long, a Kettering native; Jon Fagg, senior associate athletic director, and Chris Wyrick, a former associate athletic director who now is vice chancellor of university advancement.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for those guys,” Ostrom said. “I really look forward to seeing them.”

The Razorbacks were 67-59 in Ostrom’s four seasons. They made the NCAA tournament in the first season, 2008, and beat Indiana in the first round. That was the last time Arkansas made the tournament. Pelphrey was fired after the 2011 season and is now an assistant coach at Florida.

Arkansas is like a professional sports team in the state, Ostrom said. While there are other Division I schools, he said, nothing compares to Arkansas sports.

Arkansas ranked 21st in the country in average attendance last season (14,023). The Razorbacks drew 14,618 fans to their last home game against Iona on Nov. 30 and are averaging 14,627 at Bud Walton Arena.

“It’s a great atmosphere,” Ostrom said. “It holds over 18,000 people. It’s a very passionate, enthusiastic fan base. It’s a loud arena. It’s a great place to play college basketball. What makes Arkansas so unique is they support every sport. The baseball games, they’re not just baseball games, they’re events. It’s sold out. People tailgate before baseball. They’ve won 20 track and field national championships. They’re passionate about every sport.”

Arkansas has one player remaining on the roster who signed with the Razorbacks when Ostrom was on the staff: senior point guard Rashad Madden. He averages 10 points and 5.8 assists.

“We targeted him as a ninth-grader,” Ostrom said. “He’s developed into one of the better guards in the SEC.”