By the Numbers: Bush and Hogs Basketball

In a few hours, George W. Bush will become an ex-president. We will leave it to people better qualified than us to assess the full legacy of his administration. But there’s one aspect of his presidency about which we feel compelled to speak out: His time in office has been bad for Razorback basketball.

Below are the stats, along with, for comparison’s sake, a look at how the program performed when a certain Hog fan, one William Jefferson Clinton, occupied the Oval Office.

Bush Administration 
Overall record: 141-107  (.569)
SEC regular-season record: 55-72 (.433)
SEC Tourney record: 7-8 (.467)
NCAA Tourney record: 1-4 (.200)
NCAA championships: None
Final  Four appearances: None
SEC Tournament championships: None

Clinton Administration
Overall record: 187-86 (.685)
SEC regular-season record: 78-51 (.605)
SEC Tourney record: 12-7 (.632)
NCAA Tourney record: 17-6 (.739)
NCAA championships: One (1994)
Final  Four appearances: Two (1994, 1995)
SEC Tournament championships: One (2000)

Many people will sensibly argue that it’s the players and coaches that are most responsible for a basketball team’s performance, not the president of the United States. We tend to agree.

However, the relationship between the Hogs and the White House shouldn’t be entirely discounted. Bush, after all, is a Longhorns fan and presumably wouldn’t mind watching the Hogs struggle (we’re looking into rumors that, through various machinations, Bush had Michael “Heckuva Job” Brown placed in charge of the Hogs’ scouting team).

If nothing else, though, having a Texan in the Oval Office probably just creates bad karma for the Hogs.