Hogs will take record 25 athletes to NCAA Indoor Championships

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Hogs will take record 25 athletes to NCAA Indoor Championships

No. 1 Arkansas produced a school record 25 entries for the 2021 NCAA Indoor Championships, which are being held March 11-14 inside Randal Tyson Track Center.

The Razorbacks will contest 18 events over the three-day meet.

Previously, the highest entry mark for Arkansas has been 15, which occurred twice in recent years (2015 and 2019), which were national championship seasons for the Razorbacks, scoring 63 and 62 points, respectively.

Heading into the NCAA Indoor meet next week, the Hogs maintain a firm hold on the No. 1 position in the weekly USTFCCCA national rating index over Texas A&M, Texas, Georgia and Florida among the top five.

The next group among the top 10 include LSU, BYU, USC, Alabama, and Texas Tech.

Arkansas doubled the number of entries by any other school as Florida, Texas, and Texas A&M have a dozen each. They are followed by Georgia (11), LSU (9), and USC (9).

Among entries by conference the SEC leads with 99, followed by the ACC (40), Mountain Pacific (37), Big 12 (36), and Big 10 (22).

The Razorbacks have four entries in three separate events – 400, Mile and 3,000m. They also have four athletes who are entered in two individual events.

They include Jada Baylark (60|200), Kennedy Thomson (800|Mile), Katie Izzo (3000|5000), and G’Auna Edwards (Long Jump|Pentathlon).

For the second consecutive year Arkansas and Florida are the only two women’s teams to have qualified in both the 4×400 and distance medley relays.

The Razorbacks enter the NCAA Indoor with a collegiate-leading time in the distance medley relay as their 10:53.77 ranks second on the UA all-time list.

In the 4×400 relay, the school record performance of 3:28.50, which broke the 2005 SEC meet record, ranks second collegiately.

In the women’s history of the NCAA Indoor, dating back to 1983, no school has won both relays. The distance medley relay was contested starting in 1994, replacing the 4×800 relay. In 1984, Tennessee claimed the 4×400 as well as the 4×800 relay.

This marks the 21st consecutive year the Razorbacks have qualified an athlete in the pole vault and the eighth straight season Arkansas qualified multiple athletes in the pole vault.

In the past 15 years, the Razorbacks have advanced more than one vaulter into the NCAA Indoor on 14 occasions.

Matthews one of first three chosen for ‘Arnold Palmer Cup’

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Matthews one of first three chosen for ‘Arnold Palmer Cup’

Brooke Matthews’ stellar 2020-21 continued on Wednesday afternoon, as she was one of three initial women’s golfers, and one of six golfers overall, chosen to take part in the Arnold Palmer Cup for the United States, announced today on Golf Channel.

Matthews was the only new selection for the United States team on the women’s side, joining Rachel Kuehn of Wake Forest and Allisen Corpuz of Southern California.

The event will take place from June 11-13, and will be hosted by Rich Harvest Farms. For both the men and the women’s teams, the remaining members will be selected the week of May 3.

Coach Shauna Taylor has a history of placing golfers into the event, as Matthews is now the fifth Razorback to be selected, joining Maria Fassi, Dylan Kim, Kaylee Benton and Alana Uriell.

Matthews is also no stranger to high stakes amateur events, as she has played in the US Amateur twice, while also taking part in the NW Arkansas Championship, an LPGA event in which she took 49th place in as an amateur in a field loaded with professional players.

At the collegiate level, Matthews has been excellent this season.

The Rogers native started off the season with a bang, winning the Blessings Collegiate Invitational over reigning SEC Player of the Year Ingrid Lindblad by five strokes.

She followed that up with a runner-up finish at the Ally at Old Waverly a few weeks after that.

All told so far this year, Matthews has played 10 of her 18 rounds under par this season, and finished both the BCI (-10) and the Ally (-7) well under par.

King on Walker being best college player he’s seen and it’s not close

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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King on Walker being best college player he’s seen and it’s not close

Bill King of Nashville Sports Radio said on ESPN Arkansas’ Halftime with Phil Elson, Matt Jenkins and Matt Travis on Wednesday afternoon.

Halftime Pod Presented By Eastside Liquor — March 3, 2021

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Halftime Pod Presented By Eastside Liquor — March 3, 2021

Spink gets third SEC Freshman of Week honors this week

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Spink gets third SEC Freshman of Week honors this week

Freshman Indianna Spink continues to stand out among SEC women’s tennis rookies, earning her third SEC Freshman of the Week honor in just six weeks.

The Razorbacks improved to 9-0 on the season after defeating Memphis (4-3) and Missouri (4-2) this weekend. Arkansas is off to its best start since 2005 and currently stands as the only remaining undefeated team in the SEC.

A staple for the Hogs in the No. 2 position, Spink took down Laura Bente of Memphis 6-4, 6-2 and Ellie Wright of Missouri 6-3, 7-5.

Both of Spink’s wins helped Arkansas clinch the back-to-back wins against the Hogs’ opponents.

Against Wright, Spink trailed two games to five, then rallied to win five-straight games en route to her 7-5 second-set win and straight-set match victory.

Spink becomes the first Razorback in program history to win SEC Freshman of the Week thrice during her rookie campaign and brings Arkansas’ program total to 16 honors.

In doubles play, Spink and her teammate Morgan Cross defeated Aran Teixido Garcia and Katherine Cao of Memphis 6-3 on Friday (Feb. 26).

The duo is now entering the week ahead riding a six-match doubles win streak.

The Razorbacks return to Fayetteville for a Friday-Sunday series against SEC foes, No. 10 Vanderbilt and Kentucky.

Friday’s match against the Commodores at the Billingsley Tennis Center is set to begin at 3 p.m.

Woo Pig Classic next up as Hogs finish non-conference games

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Woo Pig Classic next up as Hogs finish non-conference games

Arkansas continues its homestand this weekend, playing five games as part of the Wooo Pig Classic in the final non-conference weekend tournament of the season.

All five of the No. 20 Razorbacks games will air on SEC Network+.

WOOO PIG CLASSIC TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

Last week’s recap

Arkansas (11-2) went 8-0 last week, playing a Monday doubleheader against UTA and six home games in the Razorback Invitational.

The Hogs blew away their Razorback Invitational competition, winning three of six games in run-rule fashion.

Redshirt junior pitcher Mary Haff threw the ninth no-hitter in program history and the second of her career in a 9-0 (5 inning) win over Texas Tech. She was one error away from a perfect game. Arkansas outscored the Red Raiders, 17-0, in two games.

Arkansas also picked up two wins against North Dakota State (9-0 and 5-0) and Southeast Missouri (9-3 and 6-3). Infielder Braxton Burnside had an ultra-impressive week hitting .458 with six homers, 11 RBI and 16 runs scored.

Over her last three games, Burnside clobbered five home runs and had two-homer games against Southeast Missouri and Texas Tech.

The Razorbacks have won their last 10 games.

Bogle bombs leading SEC

The Razorbacks have been on a power surge to begin the season, totaling 33 home runs over their first 13 games to lead the SEC and rank second nationally.

Among teams that have played at least 10 games, Arkansas ranks second in home runs per game (2.54) behind Oklahoma (12 games, 44 home runs, 3.67 per game). Over their last eight games, the Razorbacks blasted 22 bombs with Burnside’s six leading the charge.

In the Razorback Invitational finale against Texas Tech, Burnside hit the second of her two homers an estimated 299 feet into the Bogle Park left field parking lot.

Designated player Linnie Malkin is second on the team with six, and true freshman infielder Hannah Gammill has added five. Nine-hole hitter Keely Huffine has provided pop at the bottom of the lineup with four bombs.

On Saturday, Arkansas tied the single-game program record hitting five home runs against Texas Tech.

The Razorbacks also set a program record hitting four homers in the first inning. All but one of Arkansas’ hits in the five-inning run-rule game was a home run.

In the polls

After its 8-0 week, Arkansas climbed four spots in the ESPN.com-USA Softball Poll to No. 20. The Razorbacks are also ranked No. 20 in the USA Today/NFCA Coaches’ Poll.

Currently, the D1Softball.com Poll has given the Razorbacks their highest ranking of the season at No. 15.

Softball notes

• Outfielder Hannah McEwen has reached base in every game this season and leads the team in on base percentage (.585) and walks (14).

• Gibson paces the team in batting average (.429), hits (21) and doubles (6). She ranks fourth in the SEC and seventh nationally in hits.

• Malkin’s 18 RBI leads the team and ranks fourth in the SEC and 10th in the country.

• Haff is tied for the nation’s lead with six victories. She is also sixth in the SEC with a 0.68 ERA.

Looking at opponents

Drake (2-6): Arkansas has a 10-6 lead in the all-time series, but the Bulldogs have won the last two meetings in 2019 and 2016. The teams have met exclusively at Bogle Park the last eight meetings with the Hogs holding a 5-3 mark. Last weekend, the Bulldogs were swept in a three-game series at Kansas City.

Kansas (5-4): Arkansas swept a March. 10 doubleheader last season at Bogle Park against the Jayhawks in the last day of the season, 3-2, and 1-0, both in walk-off fashion. Ryan Jackson was hit by a pitch in game one, and catcher Kayla Green launched a walk-off home run in game two. The Razorbacks are 9-17 all-time against Kansas but have won three of the last four meetings. KU went 4-1 last weekend at the UTSA Tournament, picking up two wins against UTA and single wins against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and the host Roadrunners.

Northwestern State (5-2): The Razorbacks enter the weekend on a seven-game winning streak against the Lady Demons and are 8-6 all-time. Arkansas last defeated Northwestern State, 8-2, in 2019. The Lady Demons had their first two non-conference tournaments canceled this season and went 3-2 in their last weekend at the South Alabama Invitational defeating SIU-Edwardsville (two times) and Middle Tennessee while also falling to Missouri and South Alabama.

Information from Arkansas Communications is included in this story.

Bradley impressed with efficiency of Razorbacks’ play during streak

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Bradley impressed with efficiency of Razorbacks’ play during streak

With the Hogs on a hot streak towards the end of the season, SEC Network analyst Pat Bradley says he’s been most impressed by how efficiently they play.

Goode expects it to be interesting with Harsin following Malzahn

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Goode expects it to be interesting with Harsin following Malzahn

Nearly a decade ago, Bryan Harsin followed Gus Malzahn at Arkansas State and now he’s doing it again on The Plains and Brett Goode is looking forward to it.

Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast: 10 straight SEC wins

Tye Richardson
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Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast: 10 straight SEC wins

Tye & Tommy on the USC win, Pat Bradley joins, What’s Your Beef Wednesday and more!

 

Just like Musselman, fans should stay focused only on A&M now

Andy Hodges
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Just like Musselman, fans should stay focused only on A&M now

Make no mistake about it, Eric Musselman wasn’t taking Tuesday night’s game with South Carolina for granted.

The official line on the game in the sports books had dropped to 6 by game time, mainly when the news Jailyn Williams was going to miss the game for Arkansas.

Well, they aren’t always right.

“I was really concerned about this game,” Musselman said after the 101-73 win that truly wasn’t that close.

He called last week “emotional” in avenging two earlier losses against Alabama and LSU. The Razorbacks dominated both of them.

What he was really concerned with was a letdown. Quite frankly, that is something that was expected in a lot of corners.

And completely understandable.

The way this team plays with such a high level of maturity you have to stop and remember only one of the players that has any significant minutes and production played last year.

That was Desi Sills, who has stumbled through most of the conference schedule after injuring a shoulder, but bounced back with 15 points in 26 minutes against the Gamecocks (most notably going 5-of-7 from behind the three-point line).

“Our guys did a great job of being focused in practice the last two days and then in shoot-around this morning,” Musselman said.

He’ll give credit to the players, but that comes from the coaching staff starting with the guy at the top. Musselman has taken his years of coaching in the NGA, the G League and college to blend the X’s and O’s with the Jimmy’s and Joe’s and manage the mental part of the whole thing to produce a team that plays together.

And he’s done it in a year with an unprecedented global pandemic going on and having to wait months just to introduce the starting lineup to each other in person.

He’s winning at a 70 percent pace through two unusual seasons where some of the biggest names in the world of college basketball have struggled.

The only coach that’s gotten off to a faster start for the Hogs was Eddie Sutton in 1974-75 and 1975-76 (66 percent).

Musselman, as most coaches do, will credit the players.

“Our chemistry right now is phenomenal,” said Musselman. “The guys really, really, enjoy playing with each other. They understand their roles. They are playing really, really, unselfish.”

Maybe the most glaring proof of that is on offense. They pass the ball … a lot.

“We had over 300 passes tonight,” Musselman said. “I’ve never seen that in a college game. We had 305 passes for the game. We had 154 passes in the first half.”

That will wear a defense out that has the slightest drop in off-the-ball discipline and starts watching the ball too much.

This team has a star in Moses Moody (28 points against South Carolina), a couple of mature, experienced graduate transfer leaders in Justin Smith and Jalen Tate and a rising star in Davonte Davis.

Mix in wildcards Desi Sills and JD Notae (when they are on they are dynamic), plus Connor Vanover, who is 7-foot-3 and changes a lot of shots down low.

And you get the idea Musselman has put the win over the Gamecocks in the rear-view mirror by the time you read this and he’s only thinking about the next game.

“I’m just worried about how we beat Texas A&M,” he said at the end of his press conference.

Come to think of it, that’s probably not bad advice for the fans.

Moody on hot start, strong performance leading Hogs over Gamecocks

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Moody on hot start, strong performance leading Hogs over Gamecocks

Razorbacks’ Moses Moody (28 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals) on staying focused to bring them back to winning.

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