The Arkansas Razorbacks: shooting the president can support

Interview, March, 1994 by Cory Johnson

President Clinton's poll ratings have been harder to follow than a bouncing ball. Perhaps he should get a clue from his friend Nolan Richardson, coach of the University of Arkansas Razorbacks, the President's favorite college basketball team. Heading into the March madness of the NCAA tournament, national polls rank Richardson's Razorbacks among the top six in the country, and many insiders pick Arkansas to win this year's collegiate basketball campaign.

The first black coach in the Southeast Conference, Richardson has seen his approval ratings rise and fall with every win - or lack thereof. "My first year here, in 1985, we lost sixteen games [of twenty-eight] and I just tried to survive," he says. So, as a coach, what does he think of the President's game plan thus far? "I think that the President's doing a good job, basically. In our business, or in trying to run the country's business, you've got to get in, find out what the problems are, and fix things the best you can. The only advice I would give him is not to listen to so much advice, because in politics, as in basketball, someone else is always keeping score."