Bobby Reagan of Barstool Sports expects Arkansas to likely be ranked when the season starts — whatever that looks like — he told Tye Richardson and Tommy Craft (The Morning Rush) on ESPN Arkansas Monday morning.
Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast — Isaiah Joe is back for another ride
Tye & Tommy on Isaiah Joe deciding to come back for his junior season, plus the best and worst of the weekend!
HALFTIME: Eibner signs with Marlins; O’Gara on MLB, college football
Former Razorback Brett Eibner has signed with Florida, plus Phil Elson, Matt Jenkins and Matt Travis on ESPN Arkansas with Saturday Down South’s Connor O’Gara.
Barstool Sports’ Bobby Reagan joins The Morning Rush
Barstool Sports’ and CBB analyst Bobby Reagan joins the Morning Rush to discuss the Arkansas basketball, should Arkansas/Kentucky play twice a year, and if Isaiah Joe is a preseason SEC Player of the Year candidate. Check it out now!
This year, next week’s games not promised putting schedule together
To be honest, until the news last week Mark Womack in the SEC’s offices was going to be putting together the jigsaw puzzle the league’s football schedule has become I had forgotten about him.
Sorry, Mark, but then again I didn’t think about Greg Sankey much, either, until he was tabbed to replace Mike Slive a few years ago.
Now he’s got to juggle 28 different people offering him all sorts of advice on what additions to the teams’ schedules with more options than anyone could guess.
He’s probably not in a big hurry to get it finalized, either.
“It gives great conversation on afternoon shows for a while, does it not?” Sankey asked on Paul Finebaum’s show last Friday.
In another words, keeping the league where it just means more in the headlines with an interesting conversation point.
Which is why the initial rumors that teams would play the next two crossover teams in their rotation would be the logical choice. It gets really complicated because the league doesn’t like giving one team the appearance of back-to-back home advantages, either.
That’s about as close to being fair to everyone as Womack could possibly get, although Razorbacks athletics director Hunter Yurachek has reminded him the last time they found a game they could win in the league (Ole Miss in 2017).
For Arkansas that would be a road trip to play Georgia and getting South Carolina at home, which probably is about as good as it’s going to get.
Sam Pittman probably wouldn’t admit it, but going back to Athens at least gives him a leg up on planning. He and some of his staff know details of the highly-regarded Bulldogs few others would know.
Of course that doesn’t mean the Hogs still wouldn’t be an overwhelming underdog in that matchup but it is an interesting storyline.
That’s probably going to be the ultimate determining factor in the schedule-making process during all this.
In a year where everything is different, the television networks will likely try to maximize matchups when they finally kick off Sept. 26. Usually they try and put together the biggest games towards the end of the schedule.
In a year unlike any other, nobody can look ahead because next week’s game are not promised to anyone.
Joe gets Hogs off to hot August start with announcement he’s coming back
Isaiah Joe’s announcement Saturday likely is the result that quite simply Eric Musselman convinced the junior from Fort Smith his coaching staff can get him better.
Arkansas fans shouldn’t particularly over-think the why, but just be glad Joe will be back.
The dream continues??? pic.twitter.com/yY0mUsw8Lh
— Isaiah Joe (@Isaiah_joe10) August 1, 2020
“This has definitely been [a decision] not to be rushed,” Joe said on the social media post.
No sightings of Musselman doing cartwheels in front of the basketball center have been reported but it wouldn’t exactly be that surprising.
“We are so excited to have Isaiah back,” Musselman said in a release. “He received incredible feedback from the NBA and got valuable experience with NBA interviews. We know how hard of a decision this was for Isaiah and his family. Zai’s goal is to have a long NBA career and we can’t wait to continue helping him reach his dream.”
— Eric Musselman (@EricPMusselman) August 1, 2020
Joe made a school record 113 shots behind the 3-point line and everybody figured he would be gone this year. A knee injury in the middle of SEC play slowed him down a little and his NBA projections put him on the fringe of being drafted.
While Musselman made it clear he was giving Joe and his family feedback, you can bet at some point in the conversations he may have just simply told him his staff can help him make a significant jump.
Joe’s return makes this one of the most promising rosters for the Hogs — at least on paper — they’ve had in awhile.
Only three of the 13 scholarship players have played (Joe, Ethan Henderson and Desi Sills) but the talent coming includes a highly-regard recruiting class with four highly-touted freshmen.
And expectations are already starting to climb.
Billy Ray: ‘Once you’re a Hog, you’re a Hog, dawg … c’mon,’ on Morning Rush
Billy Ray Smith, Jr., may be living in California after retiring from the NFL but the lifelong Razorback has no problem keeping up with what’s going on back in Fayetteville.
“Once you’re a Hog, you’re a Hog, dawg … c’mon,” he said while laughing Friday morning with Tye Richardson and Tommy Craft (The Morning Rush) on ESPN Arkansas.
Busch Light Apple Morning Rush Podcast — 10 game SEC schedule, Billy Ray Smith and more!
Tye & Tommy on the 10 game SEC conference schedule, talk with Billy Ray Smith Jr., and remember Paul Eells!
Thurman on transition from Hogs to coaching high school players at Parkview
After his first season coaching Little Rock Parkview, former Razorback Scotty Thurman talked with Phil Elson, Matt Jenkins and Matt Travis (Halftime) on ESPN Arkansas about the contrasts coaching college players and high school.
Torres says on Halftime that Saban may be last of dying breed for coaches
Fox Sports podcaster Aaron Torres told Phil Elson, Matt Jenkins and Matt Travis (Halftime) on ESPN Arkansas on Friday afternoon Alabama’s Nick Saban may be last of hardcore brand of coaches.
