Nolan Richardson VHS Treasure finds its way from the 90's into your home

While looking for video of Paul Eells [That’s right autocorrect, it’s Eells, not Eels. He’s a legend not an aquatic animal.] and former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson, working together on coach’s old show Rollin’ With Nolan, an internet gem that popped up as they do from time to time.

What was found is like tripping over a strange Mayan artifact sticking out of the sand. Apparently, Richardson put together a VHS tape teaching young children how to play basketball and gave it the same name as his coach’s show.

Someone in the cyberverse got their hands on this thing and uploaded it with little fanfare. All that is about to change now, though, because with a day to kill before football season kicks off and a week before the Razorback basketball team tests its foreign language skills, we give the people of Arkansas Christmas in Slightly Past July.

Not only will the nostalgic part of the crowd find a wonderful gift under the tree, but a whole new generation of young men and women will learn from Richardson instead of their beloved father, who is doing his best to imitate whatever. he saw Michael Jordan do in the ’90s.

There are three things you will notice from the tip.

1. It’s a pretty sweet Razorback polo shirt that Richardson wears.

2. The canned music in the background had to have been pulled straight out of an ’80s jazz exercise video.

3. The PR guys must have told Richardson minutes before shooting to remember that this tape is also marketed to girls because he makes sure to add a cute “o girl” at the end of every bullet point.

Then you find out that Richardson has beef, but not in the modern sense. It’s an acronym he uses for a shot that would be impossible to get out of your head if you were in the old Wendy’s campaign with the little old ladies in the drive-thru.

From now on, if you hear that word, you’ll picture Richardson riding Pat Bradley during shooting drills.

“Where’s the meat, Pat? You have to eat meat if you’re going to be the ‘shoota’ I brought you here to be!”

Arkansas guard Pat Bradley makes a layup during a Kentucky upset at Bud Walton Arena.

Razorback Communications

As Richardson works his way through shooting drills, he stops to teach a group of youngsters perfect elbow form. That’s when you realize “Holy basketball, Batman, Nolan Richardson is left-handed!”

Having seen or heard every game this man coached with the Razorbacks, it was surprising that I didn’t realize this. Perhaps his fashion sense on the bench was so captivating that it never made sense to look at his hands beyond when he was clapping to emphasize a point to his players.

The sad part is seeing his lesson on how to properly use the guiding hand that brings so much regret.

I wish this VHS had made it to Warren in the early 90’s. So many neighborhood street games and YMCA rec/church league battles would have ended differently.

How was a kid from southern Arkansas supposed to know to get the guiding hand out of the way early and shoot in such a way that the ball automatically bounced back to you without Richardson’s guidance? We were all terrible and it didn’t have to be that way.

The video even goes into one of the signature moves of those Razorback teams of the late ’80s and early ’90s, the stop jump. This is a part of the movie that it wouldn’t hurt for current coach Eric Musselman to steal for the purpose of his own team.

There’s also an exercise for people who just want to lay in bed and magically be a better basketball player when they get out. It’s hard to shake that feeling that sometime in the next week, a wife somewhere is going to yell at her husband to stop tossing the ball in the air while he’s in bed, only to break his concentration and his nose with a comment.

Perhaps the best thing about the video is that every time Richardson or a staff member talks about or teaches a technique, it is highlighted with footage of the team of Todd Day, Lee Mayberry and Oliver Miller Razorback using those skills.

Alabama Crimson Tide guard James Robinson (31) in action against Arkansas Razorback guard Lee Mayberry (11) during the SEC tournament at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center. Alabama defeated Arkansas 90-89.

RVR Photos-USA TODAY Sports

Scroll to Continue

Not only does it jog the memory of how talented and athletic those players were, it also provides an understanding of the thought process and philosophy behind the tools that Richardson not only wanted his players to have, but needed.

While many fans thought Richardson just threw the balls up the court and told them to run hard on offense while he focused solely on defense, nothing could be further from the truth. This video reveals who the tactician was and the artistry it took to weave all these specific skills that some coaches were afraid to teach at the time into something of athletic beauty.

All those baseball passes that led to dunks and layups didn’t just happen on the fly. They were practiced as routinely as dribbling to create the perfection and proper brain recognition of when to take the shot and when to knock it down.

It also becomes obvious that Richardson dreams of spinning the ball. Ball spin and proper technique down to the slightest angle of the thumbs are analyzed to ensure the rotation is perfect on both shooting and passing.

The video concludes with questions that are quickly answered. With Richardson so well known as a master of defense, it’s hard to imagine why the university would put out a tape on the fundamentals of basketball without mentioning anything other than offensive skills.

That’s when it is revealed that this is part of a series of videos made by Richardson. Somewhere in this world there are additional VHS cassettes with the former boss teaching motivation, pressure defense, fast-break basketball, multi-zone defenses, and basketball strength and conditioning.

If those videos can be found, they would be worth their weight in gold. But for now, thanks to the miracle of YouTube, at least we can all enjoy this gem.

Nolan Richardson VHS Treasure finds its way from the 90’s into your home

Leave a Comment Cancel reply