The most successful Arkansas basketball coaches all had direct lines to some of the greatest coaches in the college game. Eddie Sutton first learned the craft as an Oklahoma State player and assistant coach under Henry Iba, who won two national championships and two Gold Medals as head coach of U.S. Olympic teams.
Iba also coached Don Haskins, who went on to coach Nolan Richardson at what was then called Texas Western, now UTEP. With mostly African-American players, Haskins led that program to a national championship in 1966 over an all-white Kentucky team. Richardson has long credited Haskins as a very influential mentor.