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Mike seeing team come together like he said back in August
If you were paying attention back in August, Mike Anderson gave us a pretty good idea of what to expect with this team and that’s pretty much what you’re getting.
Our first indication of what was ahead for this Arkansas basketball team came back in August, when Mike Anderson had a press conference to, well, basically talk hoops and what was ahead.
Everybody listened, nodded and said it was the same thing they’ve heard for seven years.
In case you missed it, here is where you can watch the entire thing.
By the middle of January nobody remembered him warning this was a young team that would be better as the season went along, hopefully reaching its top level at the end of February.
After opening conference play 2-4, then narrowly dropping a road game against a ranked Texas Tech team, oh, the naysayers were out in abundance and the usual psychopathic internet trolls were having a field day on social media.
Anderson stayed patient. He kept just saying this team is young and he’s seeing things in practice and wanting it to start showing up in games.
We saw some of that Saturday in a 90-89 win in Baton Rouge over LSU where a talented young team got an 18-point lead in the second half … then didn’t have either the maturity or basketball IQ to hold that and, let’s be honest here, got lucky at the end.
The Tigers missed three shots in the final seconds to win it, including a layup. In basketball cinderella teams make deep runs using that kind of luck.
But the positives we saw was Isaiah Joe returning to form with 4-of-8 on three-pointers and 18 total points and the biggest may have been making a pair of free throws down the stretch.
And Keyshawn Embery-Simpson added 16 points, including 4-of-6 on three-pointers and playing a tenacious defense, diving for loose balls, taking charges and the other things Anderson and the coaches have seen in practice.
Reggie Chaney is already starting to show flashes of the things he can do coming off the bench. That was needed when Daniel Gafford got in foul trouble, then was bounced in the final minutes in Baton Rouge.
Chaney’s defense has shown up in practice and, at times, in games. When he learns to play more consistently, he’s going to be a solid defender down low who can go outside at times for some offense.
From the caterwalling on talk shows and what I’m hearing from people who are on the message boards you would have thought the Hogs were already down and out in the league standings.
Actually they are right in the middle, tied with five other teams for fifth place … all with 4-4 records in the league and there’s only a couple of games separating them in the overall marks.
The SEC has two really good teams in Tennessee and Kentucky, but we won’t know until March how good they are. LSU was on a roll right there will the Vols until they couldn’t take advantages of breaks late against the Hogs on Saturday.
It’s becoming increasingly clear this team is having all the problems young teams tend to have … streaky shooting, unbelievably ridiculous fouls at the wrong time, too much standing and thinking at times, bad decisions in crunch time holding the bal and just hoping somebody moves enough to be able to take ticking bomb out of their hands before the shot clock blows up.]
For the fans who haven’t paid really close attention, they aren’t winning too many of these close ones, especially in crunch time when games are won late by the team making the least dumb decisions or, just plain and simple free throws. I have had NBA shooters spend hours on shooting free throws (which is not magic but the result of a lack of practice effort.
Great shooters spend an almost obscene amount of time shooting. That doesn’t include practice dunks, by the way. We’re talking 100 MADE free throws, not shots.
The Hogs are taught correctly,we’re told, hen haul off knock the paint off the rims when they get into a game.
Don’t believe it? LSU was 80% at the charity stripe while the Hogs made 7-of-11, which isn’t that bad considering the Tigers’ overwhelmingly number of shots that got in a game that was heavily in favor the home team on foul calls … but it is what it is.
Arkansas’ overall lack of respect in the league is a subject for a different day and one that won’t be fixed quickly after the previous athletic director let the league run over Hogs’ athletics like you do with a little brother is jumps up every once in awhile to try and make a point, then gets told, “Go away son, you’re bothering me.”
That’s the impression and what we’ve been told by folks in a position to know, both in Arkansas and in the league offices in Birmingham.
So Anderson ignores it as best he can and just keeps on doing what can. It’s also just the way he operates. He’s never going to get too high or too low. He’s keeping things on an even keel.
That’s what he’s said several times since August.
And, once again, it appears it may work.
As long as they don’t faceplant Tuesday night (in another 8 p.m. start) against a Vanderbilt team that hasn’t won a league game, they should stay in the same group of players in the standings like Auburn, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Alabama.
Then, once again, we’ll see a Razorback team go to Atlanta that could surprise some folks for a game or two.
Then they’ll end up with an NIT berth or a high seed in the NCAA. Neither of those will placate some in the fan base.
Those are the ones who either weren’t paying attention back in August or have what I call selective amnesia.
But it appears the Hogs are playing it out exactly like Mike said back in August.
