Given the drama and triumph the Red Wolves delivered during its previous two games of the Sun Belt Men’s Basketball Tournament, to lose by 20 in the finals to second-seeded James Madison was a bite of rotten banana. Still, one only had to take a step back to appreciate the pure extraordinariness of the 2023-24 season.

“Only two teams in this conference got to play today, and I’m proud of that,” said Coach Bryan Hodgson during the post-Finals presser. “It’s not a great feeling, but the message was to remember this feeling. Because we will be back.”

We’ll be back. Not even the Terminator could speak these words with more conviction than did Coach Hodgson, a first-year head coach who brought together a brilliant hodgepodge of talent to will itself to one victory shy of a conference title.

“[Hodgson] came in, he didn’t know any of us,” said super senior Caleb Fields, again at the post-Finals presser. “He didn’t really know me. And it took two days for me to come back [from the transfer portal], so it really shows I believed in him and what he had for this team.”

“We just all bought in and trust him,” said Freddy Hicks of his head coach. “He’s done a lot, not just for us, but for the University.”

At the very least, Hodgson has given the University and all who support it a belief in Red Wolves basketball again – no small accomplishment considering the despair so many fans had fallen into over decades of painfully mediocre seasons. Looking back, it wasn’t easy.

Before the first three-pointer was even fired, Coach Hodgson was making his presence known. He pulled Red Wolves out of the transfer portal, like Fields, Izaiyah Nelson and Terrence Ford. He added size and ability, like Derrian Ford, Hicks, Dyondre Dominguez and Tayrn Todd. He publicly challenged Eric Musselman to a game. He recruited a pair of top-value talents – R’Chaun King and Josh Hill – which to this date is ranked the 58th best recruiting class nationally. He scheduled the toughest out-of-conference slate in the conference. He was a common figure at Red Wolves football games, and just for fun, he put his team (and himself) through a Navy Seals bootcamp. In a pair of pre-season exhibition contests, his Red Wolves put up 112 points – twice.

Then there was reality to deal with. Terrence Ford was seriously hurt – he’d eventually have to sit out the year after an unsuccessful comeback attempt. Malcolm Farrington, the three-point sharp shooter, was also gone for the year. The season opener saw Arkansas State fall to Wisconsin 105-76. The team would lose to Iowa by 14, to San Diego (not State) by 14, to Jackson State at home, and then, perhaps most alarmingly, to in-state rival UA Little Rock. It was at this point when I wrote the following assessment:

Opposing teams are adjusting to Arkansas State at the the half, and these Red Wolves are having a great deal of trouble adjusting to the adjustment. Additionally, they’re having trouble playing to the speed Hodgson demands. On Friday night, the Red Wolves managed just five fast break points – and just two in the second half. By contrast, the Trojans bucketed sixteen.

Let’s Try to Be More Fair to Arkansas State Basketball

It was a “let’s pump the brakes” moment. Fans and media had sniffed far too much of the gasoline Hodgson was injecting into the program, and we were all having delusions of grandeur. What did we expect? That the Red Wolves would drop 112 points on Wisconsin as easily as we did Trevecca Nazarene? That Derrian Ford would immediately blip into a superstar? That this cobbled team of Jonesboro vets and imported newcomers would just magically gel into the 1996 Chicago Bulls?

Yeah, there were problems. Major problems. The Red Wolves were hopeless on defense – just five guys on the court randomly waving their arms. The Red Wolves were ghastly on the road – they wouldn’t pick up a true road victory until December 13, when A-State overcame Louisville. The Red Wolves were too reliant on the three – the strategy seemed to be who could make it to the three-point line first before popping one up. It wasn’t good basketball.

While the win over Louisville was helpful, it was the earlier road loss to Alabama that seemed to signal something inside Arkansas State. Five Red Wolves scored in double figures. The balance felt good, even in defeat. The team was catching up to Hodgson’s desired pace of play. The next game was the victory over the Cardinals, then a home win against UAB, who would finish fourth in the American with 20 wins. Conference play opened with a 1-point loss to Georgia State, followed by three straight wins.

Slowly, Red Wolves basketball was acquiring the lesson Red Wolves football had to master under Butch Jones – learning how to win. Caleb Fields found himself leading the conference in assists. Avery Felts, previously a one-note three point gunner, became a class defender and even a serviceable rebounder. Derrian Ford, who entered the season with the unfairest of high expectations, grew more aggressive in the paint, and Nelson learned to channel his exuberance so that he could block shots without committing a thunderstorm of fouls.

The Red Wolves saw leaders rise to the challenge. Dyondre Dominguez, the 6’9″ forward and UMASS transfer with a three-point stroke, seemed to hold the team together after Freddy Hicks went down against Belmont. Ford, too tentative early in the season, was nudged by Hodgson to increase his rebounding production, and he did. Role guys like Julian Lual and Lado Laku delivered big off the bench. No longer was the team a bunch of guys firing threes. It was a unit who fed off each other’s talents.

Before losing the regular season finale against Appalachian State, the Red Wolves won eight of their last nine – the loss coming to eventual champion James Madison. Arkansas State brought that heat to Pensacola, first ejecting Louisiana (who had beaten A-State twice), then dumping the Mountaineers on a buzzer beater from Hicks. But by the time the Red Wolves faced James Madison in the tournament finals, the legs were shot; there was no steam in the boiler. The deep Dukes rolled past Arkansas State, ending their extraordinary season.

What’s Next?

With a four-star center and a three-star power forward entering the fold, the Red Wolves look to be an odds on favorite to win the Sun Belt in 2024-25. But questions remain: can Terrance Ford regain his health and assume the mantle from the departing Caleb Fields? Will we continue to see growth from Ford and Nelson?

Most importantly, can Hodgson possible keep all the pieces in the box in this day of instant portal gratification? Pick your talent, Red Wolves fans – each and every one may decide tomorrow to test the free agent waters.

Me, I’m a romantic optimist. The team seems to really like Coach Bryan Hodgson, and in turn, Coach Bryan Hodgson seems to really like the team. We’ll be back, Hodgson had promised.

Perhaps he meant everyone.

Primary Photo courtesy of the Sun Belt.