Report: Chris Jans, Darrell Walker scheduled to interview for Arkansas job
Arkansas is set to interview Mississippi State‘s Chris Jans and Little Rock’s Darrell Walker for its vacant head coaching position, according to a report from the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.
Both interviews are set to take place over Zoom, as athletic director Hunter Yurachek is currently in Phoenix for College Football Playoff Committee meetings.
Yurachek has continued to work on finding a new basketball coach following the resignation of former headman Eric Musselman, who took the job at USC on Thursday. The Razorbacks had previously reached out to Ole Miss‘ Chris Beard and Kansas State‘s Jerome Tang, but both decided to stay put in their current positions.
In two seasons with Mississippi State, Jans has led the Bulldogs to consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, compiling a 42-37 record in that time. Before arriving in Starkville, Jans put together a 122-32 record in five seasons as New Mexico State’s head coach. He is the last coach to beat UConn in the NCAA Tournament, downing the Huskies 70-63 in the first round in 2022.
For Walker, he’s the reigning Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year after leading the Trojans to a share of the OVC regular season title. After six seasons, he’s put together an 82-99 record with the program but turned his team around in a major way this past year.
Walker was an All-American guard for the Razorbacks in the early 1980s. He went on to be a 10-year NBA vet, winning a title with the Chicago Bulls in 1993 and turned to coaching two years after retirement. After one season as an NBA assistant, he was named head coached of the Toronto Raptors from 1996-1998 and spent one season in the same position coaching the Washington Wizards in 2000. Walker was also the interim coach of the WNBA’s Washington Mystics during the same year.
He stay in the pros an assistant in the NBA until 2014, where he became the coach at Clark Atlanta (Division II) before his hiring at Little Rock in 2018.
Whether Jans or Walker ultimately take the job remains to be seen, but high expectations will follow whoever becomes the next Arkansas head coach. Musselman took the Razorbacks to two Elite Eights in three NCAA Tournament appearances and has sent five players to the NBA. Despite this, Arkansas finished this past season 16-17 and missed out on the postseason.