Head Coach Mike Newell

The names on the resume jump off the page – a who’s who in basketball’s coaching fraternity . . . Lon Kruger of the Atlanta Hawks, Lou Henson of New Mexico State, George Washington’s Tom Penders, and Rob Evans of Arizona State. There’s an ex-football coach – Barry Switzer – and even a former Heisman Trophy winner – Steve Owens.

All singing the praises of the new head basketball coach at the University of Arkansas-Monticello. Mike Newell is back in Arkansas. After an 11-year absence, the man who put UALR basketball on the national map is the new head coach of the Boll Weevils. The same Mike Newell who took over a moribund UALR program in 1984 and turned the Trojans into instant winners. The same Mike Newell who won 113 games his first five seasons as a head coach, one more than the legendary John Wooden won in his first five years at Indiana State. The same Mike Newell who guided UALR to an historic upset of Notre Dame in the NCAA Tournament.

Newell was introduced to the media at a news conference at the University of Arkansas System Office in Little Rock May 8. Predictably, the first question was “Why UAM?” “Because I wanted to get back into college coaching at the NCAA level and because I wanted to be someplace where we have a chance to win a national championship,” Newell responded. “I think we can do that at UAM.”

Newell takes over a program on the rise. Former head coach Charlie Schaef, who left UAM for Ouachita Baptist University in April, guided the Boll Weevils to a 20-8 record and the Gulf South Conference West Division championship last spring, only the second conference title in school history in men’s basketball.

“This is the first program I’ve ever taken over that wasn’t at the bottom,” says Newell. “Coach Schaef did a great job getting this program put together. We have a strong nucleus of guys coming back who know the price you have to pay to be successful. I want to take that and add to it.”

Personable and charismatic, Newell’s appointment has generated excitement among UAM supporters and has Boll Weevil fans passing the summer talking basketball as well as football. “One of the things I want to do is create a big-time atmosphere when our fans walk in that fieldhouse,” Newell says. “It doesn’t matter if the arena seats 1,500 or 15,000 if you can create an atmosphere of excitement.”

Newell views his job as part coach, part fund-raiser and part cheerleader for his program. Since taking the job, he has worked the phones for recruits, visited with regional supporters and sold box seats for new permanent chair-back seating to be installed in Steelman Fieldhouse before the start of the 2001-2002 season. “We want coming to a UAM basketball game to be an experience,” says Newell. “I think our fans will be surprised and happy with the changes we’re going to make.”

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Newell grew up in Indiana, which is to hoops what Texas is to football. By the time he reached high school, he knew he wanted to coach. “I was the one in high school who was always organizing pick-up games,” Newell remembers. “When we chose sides, I always took the worst player first because I wanted to try to teach him to play better.”

Newell was an All-American at North Vermillion High School and signed to play for Press Maravich at Louisiana State. A year later, he transferred to Sam Houston State in Huntsville, Tex., and in 1973 led the Bearcats to a 28-0 record and an NAIA national championship.

After earning both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in education from Sam Houston State, Newell coached in the high school and college ranks before being hired by Billy Tubbs to be an assistant at the University of Oklahoma in 1982. Newell spent two seasons with the Sooners before landing the UALR job at the age of 32.

He immediately lit a fire under a struggling program. The Trojans were 17-13 his first year, then posted a 23-11 mark his second season, which ended in the second round of the NCAA Midwest Regional with a double-overtime loss to Jim Valvano’s North Carolina State Wolfpack. Two days earlier, Newell’s Trojans had made national headlines with a 90 83 victory over 10th-ranked Notre Dame and Digger Phelps.

“People always remember that game and ask me about it,” says Newell. “At the time, it was probably the biggest upset in NCAA Tournament history. It gave us instant national respect and made it a lot easier to sell our program.”

Newell took the Trojans to three NCAA Tournaments and two trips to the NIT in six seasons. His 1986-87 squad won 26 games and reached the NIT Final Four at Madison Square Garden in New York. Newell won three Trans-American Athletic Conference championships and was named the TAAC coach of the year twice before leaving UALR for Lamar following the 1990 season.

Newell’s three seasons at Lamar were marked by on-court success and off-court political struggles with a new administration that soured him on college athletics. “When I left Lamar, I really had misgivings about college sports,” says Newell. “That’s when I decided to go the pro route.”

Newell became a scout for the NBA’s Miami Heat, spent one season as coach of the Shreveport Storm of the Continental Basketball Association, then jumped back to the NBA as a scout for the Detroit Pistons. From 1996 to 2000 he coached in the junior college ranks at Southern University at Shreveport-Bossier and spent last year as a regional scout for the Los Angeles Clippers.

But always in the back of his mind was the desire to return to college coaching. “What really killed me was March,” Newell says with a laugh. “When all the conference tournaments would start on ESPN, I’d get a knot in my stomach. I really missed the teaching aspect and we can get to the Elite Eight. From there, with a little luck and some breaks, we can win it all.”