Catching up with former Hogs’ star Young, recalling some highlights
B.J. Young hasn’t been keeping up with Arkansas basketball the last year as he’s been playing in Europe, but it’s something he wants to change.
He talked with Tye Richardson and Tommy Craft with The Morning Rush on ESPN Arkansas Wednesday morning about that and recapping some of his fondest memories playing for the Razorbacks.
Sweet 16 voting continues in the greatest Razorback football game of all time
Two rounds down and we’re now sitting at the Sweet 16 of the Greatest Razorback Football Game of all-time bracket! Now, the match-ups get tougher, and we need your help! Sweet 16 voting in the Houston Nutt Region is now open! Make sure to submit your votes below!
Click here to view the full bracket!
Tomorrow (Thursday), we will wrap up Sweet 16 voting with the Ken Hatfield Region, and there are some good match ups coming up! Get out there and vote on what you think the Greatest Razorback Football Game of All Time!
Martin says he’s still undecided on direction he’s headed for next year
The popular thought when Arkansas’ baseball season was halted last month was shortstop Casey Martin would be joining teammates Heston Kjerstad and Casey Opitz in going to professional ball after the MLB Draft.
That may still happen, but Martin left a crack there Tuesday on ESPN Arkansas’ Halftime with Phil Elson and Matt Jenkins.
“Honestly I haven’t even made a decision yet,” Martin said. “That’s a big decision. From what I’ve heard they’ve dropped the draft to five rounds now. They decide something one day, then choose something else the next. It’s kinda in the air right now. I have all possibilities locked and loaded.”
Again, that really doesn’t mean anything one way or the other. Everybody has an opinion but the current COVID19 pandemic that has shut everything down has Martin dealing with something new.
“Without baseball you feel lost,” Martin said. “I’m just lost at this point.”
If you’re still playing baseball nearing the end of your junior year in college it’s become a lifestyle more than anything else.
“Honestly I can’t tell you the last time I haven’t been playing baseball around this time,” he said. “There’s probably never been a time since I started baseball.”
Elson, the play-by-play announcer for Hogs’ baseball, asked Martin what area of his game he felt needed work and it produced a remarkably candid response.
“Probably my pitch recognition,” he said. “We all know I struggled with that at times.”
Then it turned into a deep-dive hitting clinic.
“You’ve got to train your eyes,” Martin said. “Obviously you’ve been doing that since you’re little and just playing baseball a whole lot. We’ve got some VCR sets at the field to help train eyes to pick up the spin out of the hand. You look for different slots between the hands turned. Do they hide the ball better … do they not?
“You just go back on video and look at little things. Just keep your head still which goes back to training your eyes. You’ve got to keep your eyes in a locked position and you can’t be looking at every other place. (The pitcher) arm slot is a big deal. There’s usually a little square window and that’s usually the best place where you can pick up the spin out of their hand.
“You’ve just got to continue to train your eyes. It’s a lot easier said than done. Seeing pitches and not swinging is probably the best thing to do.”
The MLB draft is tentatively scheduled for July, but details are on essentially on hold due to the current global health crisis.
Hannahs says transfers should have reason, talking trash to Simmons
Dusty Hannahs only got to play two seasons at Arkansas after starting his career at Texas Tech, but he’s actually a little wary of giving a golden pass for college players to start jumping around.
“There needs to be a reason,” he told Tye Richardson and Tommy Craft on ESPN Arkansas’ Morning Rush on Tuesday. “If not it’s just going to turn into the Wild West. Everybody will be leaving after every season and it’ll just be weird.”
Hannahs went to Lubbock out of Pulaski Academy in Little Rock to play for Billy Gillespie and never got to play a game for him. He was fired amidst a myriad of problems from the NCAA to drinking.
“I played my freshman year for one of our assistants, then my sophomore year was Tubby Smith,” Hannahs said. “I knew that whole year I was leaving … it just didn’t feel right.”
He had a reason. The coach he signed on to play for was gone for the season. But Hannahs thinks players need a reason.
“Sometimes stuff happens that just affects your career,” Hannahs said. “When a coach switches, yes you committed to a university but obviously as a student-athlete your primary reason for going to a school most of the time is the coach. Once you lose the coach that’s the time most people look at transferring.
“I don’t agree with players getting to transfer just because they don’t like it.”
Hannahs was also asked about a little dust-up with LSU’s Ben Simmons at Bud Walton back in 2016.
“He kept bumping me during the game,” he said. “We weren’t really talking. I only really talk if a guy starts jabbering, then it’s on … I’ll talk all day. I kept walking to set up a play and he would just put a shoulder in my chest. He wouldn’t move out of the way. After the third time I realized he was doing this on purpose.”
Then Hannahs changed his attitude.
“We get to the free-throw line and I just took it upon myself to just start talking trash. I remember him being from Australia I started saying ‘you wanna put some shrimp on the Barbie, mate?’ and some choice words after that. I can’t really say all the words I said but that was like but that was like the premise of what I said.”
Losing to eventual national champion North Carolina in the 2017 NCAA Tournament is also something that hasn’t gone away.
“I still haven’t watched the game and don’t plan on it,” Hannahs said. “I just remember being so hurt over the calls and how the game felt.”
But he’s not reviewing any film of it.
“It was a tough night for months after that,” Hannahs said. “Even after I moved back to Little Rock in the summer every time I’d think of that game it was a bad thought. I didn’t like the feeling that thought gave me so I tried to block it out.”
Now he’s playing for the Memphis Hustle, the G-league team of the Memphis Grizzlies. He’s had a couple of 10-day contracts and was drawing some interest from other teams.
“When I heard it was a gut punch,” Hannahs said. “I got the word from my agent that another team was going to give me a shot and I was really excited.”
Now he’s in the waiting game caused by the coronavirus.
Along with the rest of us.
Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast — IJ enters his name, Dusty joins and more!
Tye & Tommy on IJ entering his name in the draft, Muss reacts to the class, plus Dusty Hannahs joins the show!
Sweet 16 voting continues in the Paul Eells Region of the greatest Razorback football game of all time bracket
Two rounds down and we’re now sitting at the Sweet 16 of the Greatest Razorback Football Game of all-time bracket! Now, the match-ups get tougher, and we need your help! Sweet 16 voting with the Paul Eells Region is now open! We also have a tiebreaker vote in the Broyles Region! Make sure to submit your votes below!
Click here to view the full bracket!
Tomorrow (Wednesday), we will begin Sweet 16 voting in the Houston Nutt Region, and there are some good match ups coming up! Get out there and vote on what you think the Greatest Razorback Football Game of All Time!
Musselman puts together 2020 class that is highest ranked in a long time
The final piece to Eric Musselman’s first real recruiting class came in Monday when KK Robinson got his paperwork in, giving Arkansas a No. 6-rated class in the composite rankings.
In case you’re wondering it’s been a couple of decades since the Razorbacks were in that category. Mike Anderson’s best ranking was No. 19 in 2013, his second class in Fayetteville.
Musselman knows how to recruit and works at it. The NBA background he and his staff have is part of it.
“Of course,” signee Jaylin Williams said on an Instagram interview with Musselman and his wife, Danyelle. “Knowing that coach Muss and coach (Corey) Williams and the other coaches all have NBA experience knowing that they know what to do to make sure I can try and get to the next level is a great feeling for a recruit or commit.”
All of that’s a big plus but it would be worthless without the unrelenting work Musselman and his staff put into recruiting.
There is SOMETHING coming out about recruiting from the Hogs these days 365 days a year. It’s not just men’s basketball, either.
Flying under the radar somewhat was women’s coach Mike Neighbors picking up the signature of the top-rated graduate transfer in the entire country when Destiny Slocum was officially announced Monday.
Musselman, though, has taken it to an entirely new level.
Robinson (Bryant) was expected to sign Saturday but his paperwork didn’t get announced until Monday and it completed a class that included Williams (Fort Smith Northside, Moses Moody (Little Rock) and Devo Davis (Jacksonville).
Robinson and Moody finished their high school path out of state at prep schools, but both made it clear the Razorbacks had the home edge.
They join some experienced guys in graduate transfers Vance Jackson and Jalen Tate.
Landing all those guys inside the state was a big deal for Musselman in just his second year.
“It’s not often you come into a state with that many guys and be able to land all of them,” Musselman said in a teleconference late Monday afternoon.
It hasn’t happened in recent years in Arkansas with some big names managing to escape out of state. The previous staff was more noted for the ones that went out of state.
Musselman is working to close the borders.
And don’t be surprised if all four freshmen end up on the floor at the same time. Musselman isn’t afraid of that.
“The same thing in the NBA,” he said Monday. “If you have really good rookies you play ’em. We’re going to play the guys that are the best and fit together. Whoever fits the best will be the guys that earn the rotation and earn the minutes.”
The bottom line to that is if they can play, they will. He made it clear he has the depth this year to probably get more guys on the floor than last season, so mistakes may land folks on the bench quicker.
None of it guarantees a single win, but there will be a lot of new faces … and they can play.
Listen live to Musselman’s teleconference as Robinson completes class
ESPN Arkansas will have the complete teleconference with Eric Musselman after K.K. Robinson completed Arkansas’ men’s basketball signing class by inking his paperwork Monday.
Musselman announces Hogs’ Joe will be testing water to go to NBA
The question about Isaiah Joe was answered early in Arkansas coach Eric Musselman’s teleconference with the media Monday afternoon … but we won’t know the final decisison for awhile.
Musselman said Joe has not signed with an agent and said it’s a decision Joe and his family will be making.
He is currently ranked the No. 61 overall NBA prospect heading by ESPN right now, which would put him late into the second round and potentially on the bubble.
He made a team-high 94 three’s at 34.2 percent during his sophomore year. He was the second-leading scorer on the team behind Mason Jones, averaging 16.9 points a game.
Joe played in high school at Fort Smith Northside.
