Rumor has it that the Arkansas Lady Razorbacks will introduce Tom Collen as their new head coach on Friday, March 23, 2007.

"A person familiar with the hiring process (an Arkansas school official) spoke on condition of anonymity Thursday because the official announcement hadn't been made yet. The Lady Razorbacks have scheduled a 2 p.m. news conference Friday regarding its women's basketball coach." (NOAH TRISTER, AP Sports Writer).

Tom Collen, 53, has been the head coach for the Louisville Cardinals for the past four seasons.  The Cardinals lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament and went 27-8 this season.  They were ranked in the Top 25 most of the season.  Prior to Louisville, Tom was an assistant under Gary Blair at Arkansas (1993-97) and then went onto Colorado State (1997-2002).  He also did time at Utah and Purdue as an assistant before Arkansas.  As a head coach, Collen is 217-70 in nine seasons.  The Cardinals have made it to the last three NCAA tournaments under Collen. The Lady Razorbacks haven't seen the tournament since Gary Blair went to Texas A&M in 2003. 

As of now, no one at Arkansas other than the unamed official above is confirming or denying Collen's hiring.  Even Kenny Klein, Louisville's sports information director had no information about Collen's "discussions" with Arkansas.

Lady Razorbacks coach Susie Gardner resigned earlier this month after Arkansas set a school-record losing streak, ten games at the end of the season.  The 2006-07 season for Arkansas started off great as they went 15-1, but they ended up at 18-13 and won only 3 of 11 regular season SEC games. 

This will certainly be an interesting (and competitive) turn of events for the Lady Razorbacks.  In my humble opinon, no woman in the head coach position is going to get far with a school that promotes football as it's numero uno sport, period.  Perhaps what the Lady Razorbacks need is a coach of Collen's gender and calibur to make the women's basketball team the new number one...or at least recognizable for the talent that they have and place deserved.