ICYMI: Moses Moody talked with Eric & Danyelle Musselman on Friday night to discuss signing with Arkansas!
Neighbors adds All-Pac 12 guard as graduate transfer from Oregon State
With Alexis Tolefree running out of eligibility, Mike Neighbors needed some help immediately and may have added it with All-Pac 12 guard Destiny Slocum announcing she’s headed to Arkansas.
Slocum made the announcement via Twitter on Saturday:
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— Destiny Slocum (@DestinySlocum24) April 18, 2020
Slocum was the National Freshman of the Year in 2017 at Maryland. Following that season at Maryland she opted to transfer to Oregon State.
After sitting out the 2017-18 season, she has been a starter the past two years for the Beavers, averaging 15.4 points and 4.5 assists as a redshirt sophomore, and 14.9 points and 4.7 assists this season.
Tolefree averaged 16.3 points a game this past season as the Razorbacks had a 24-8 record but was denied a bid in the NCAA Tournament with the postseason cancelled due to the COVID19 pandemic
Moody officially signs as Hogs’ highly-rated class nearing completion
FAYETTEVILLE — Moses Moody has signed a national letter of intent, according to an announcement from Arkansas coach Eric Musselman on Friday and a class ranked No. 6 in the nation nears completion.
The composite ranking from 247Sports.com has the Razorbacks ranked there, which is still fourth in the SEC behind Kentucky, Tennessee and LSU.
In the average rating per player, though, the Hogs rank only behind the Wildcats.
Moody, a Little Rock native attended Montverde (Fla.) Academy, is rated 38th on the ESPN Top 100 and 247Sports.com puts him as the eighth-best shooting guard in the nation.
He is also the highest-rated player to sign with Arkansas since five-star (16th nationally) Bobby Portis in 2013.
K.K. Robinson is the only commitment that hasn’t signed, having announced previously he plants to sign Saturday. He is ranked the No. 71 prospect in the country and the No. 12 point guard.
“Moses is such a complete player and fits our stylistic play so well with his versatility,” Musselman said. “He has the ability to score inside, off the bounce and from deep 3-point range. He can create shots for himself as well as create open shots for his teammates.
“He is an excellent rebounder for his position. He is a very good defender with his length and can guard a point guard, an off guard or a small forward.
“Moses has great maturity for an incoming freshman. It’s not often you can look at a freshman and feel like he has leadership qualities. He is an incredible teammate who is incredibly unselfish.”
Last November, Moody was one of 50 players in the nation named to the Atlanta Tipoff Club’s watch list for the 2020 Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy, given to the top high school player.
At season’s end, Moody was tabbed MaxPreps All-American Honorable Mention, one of the top 50 players in America to be recognized along with three other of his Montverde teammates.
In addition to his ESPN ranking, 247Sports Composite tabs Moody at No. 45 nationally and Rivals has him rated as the 54th best player in the country as well as the 13th-best small forward.
Moody is the top-ranked player from the state of Arkansas by ESPN and the seventh-rated player playing in Florida by 247Sports.
This past season, Moody averaged 11.6 points 3.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists while shooting 60.1 percent from the field, 46.9 percent from 3-point range and 82.1 percent from the free throw line this season.
Moody helped Montverde earn the nation’s consensus No. 1 ranking, going 25-0 in the regular season.
Moody, a two-year starter at Montverde, led Brad Beal Elite in scoring (17.7 ppg) on the 2019 Nike EYBL (Elite Youth Basketball League) circuit and was named All-EYBL honorable mention.
He was selected to be a part of Pangos All American Camp, NBPA Top 100 Camp, Team USA U17 training camp and USA Basketball Junior minicamp.
Prior to playing his final two seasons at Montverde, Moody was named to the Arkansas 7A All-State team in 2018 as he led North Little Rock to a state championship (over Isaiah Joe’s Fort Smith Northside team) and was named the tournament MVP.
He was additionally named to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette All-Underclassman team as he averaged 18.6 points, 7.2 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 2.1 stats and 1.4 blocks as a sophomore.
As a freshman, Moody played on a Little Rock Parkview team (with Razorbacks student assistant Khalil Garland) that advanced to the state championship.
Information from Razorback Sports Communications is included in this story.
Odom, Briles’ full media teleconference Friday on doing lot of teaching
Arkansas defensive coordinator Barry Odom and offensive coordinator Kendal Briles updated the media via teleconference Friday on becoming teachers and confident of installs on both sides of ball.
Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast — Pittman’s love for Arkansas, Steve Atwater and more!
Tye & Tommy on Pittman’s love for Arkansas, Clay on the assistants’ strengths, Steve Atwater joins and more!
Atwater plans to be smiling for eternity on bust for Pro Football Hall of Fame
Somewhere along Steve Atwater’s journey, former Denver assistant coach Charlie Waters tagged him with the nickname “Smiling Assassin” and it’s going to follow him to the Hall of Fame and stay there.
The former Arkansas All-American Friday was on The Morning Rush with Tye Richardson and Tommy Craft on ESPN Arkansas and said he wasn’t crazy about it at first but accepted it.
“I like to have a good time even on the field,” Atwater said. “Our defensive backs coach Charlie Waters first told me about it and I thought it was corny then and still do, but it’s all right.”
Each player has a bronze bust of their likeness and Atwater will have some kind of smile on his as each member has some input to how it’s made.
“You have guys with big huge smiles and Ronnie Lott had that scowl,” he said. “I’m going to smile. Not a big cheesy smile, but it fits the ‘Smiling assassin.'”
With the current global health pandemic putting gatherings of large people in question, the Pro Football Hall of Fame ceremonies in August in Canton, Ohio, fall into that category, too. Atwater knows the realities of the situation.
“Ideally would like to be in person,” Atwater said. “But I’ve always been one able to adapt to reality. If we have to do it by Skype or Zoom that’s the way we’ll have to do it. I’d love to have all of us get together and have a great time.
“If we have to push it out a year we have to do that. The big thing is we’re in. If for some reason it can’t happen in this instance it’s quite understandable. A lot of lives have been lost and it would be an issue.”
Atwater still lives in Colorado and works with the Broncos where he made his mark after an Arkansas career that will always be remembered, unfortunately, for a play he wasn’t able to make — a dropped interception that would have given the Hogs an upset win over Miami in 1988.
“That was a rough game,” Atwater said of the 18-16 loss that came on a field goal at the end. “If I’d caught that interception in the end zone they wouldn’t have been able to kick the field goal.”
Other teams like Florida State have given Atwater grief over the dropped interception because they would have jumped past the Hurricanes. in the rankings.
“The whole conference down there was upset with me,” Atwater said, laughing. “I wish I could have that one back. I also had interception in Super Bowl 32 and dropped it.
“Those drops were part of what was keeping me out of the Hall of Fame for awhile, but it doesn’t matter now.”
Through it all, from the time he arrived in Fayetteville to now waiting to be formally inducted into the Hall of Fame, Atwater’s biggest trait hasn’t changed.
“You gotta be a good person first and other things take care of themselves,” he said.
Kleine on Sutton’s honor, playing ‘miniscule part’ on 80’s great Bulls teams
Former Arkansas player Joe Kleine was on the Ruscin & Zach Show with Derek Ruscin and Zach Arns on ESPN Arkansas covering a wide range of topics from Eddie Sutton being selected for the Hall of Fame and playing with the Chicago Bulls.
ESPN is debuting a 10-part series on the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls and their dysfunctional trip to an NBA title with Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman among others.
“I was a very miniscule part of a great dynasty,” Kleine said. “That was the Golden Age of basketball when (Larry) Bird and Magic (Johnson) came in and then thru (Michael Jordan) was when NBA basketball was at it’s finest.”
Kleine was with the Bulls for the 1997-98 season was there when the run of six titles in eight seasons ended.
“Coming from the outside I had no idea (of the dysfunction),” Kleine said. “It was us against them. Not me, but Jordan, (Scottie) Pippen and Phil (Jackson). A lot of it was centered around the Bulls would not re-negotiate contracts.
“That was the main ingredient.”
Into the middle of the hysteria that surrounded Jordan’s rock-star status and the overall high profile nature of the Bulls, they brought in Dennis Rodman.
“That was like having a blazing fire then throwing gasoline on it,” Kleine said. “He was harmless … he was wild.”
But Rodman did work at basketball outside of the zany antics.
“He was there every day for practice,” Kleine said. “He was accountable.
Yurachek tells Halftime he’s working at home in wine room these days
In a day and age with a lot of questions and almost no answers with college athletics, Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek is keeping busy at home … working in the wine room.
No, seriously. That’s what he told Halftime’s Phil Elson and Matt Jenkins on ESPN Arkansas on Thursday afternoon.
“I’ve kinda been relegated to the wine room,” Yurachek said. “I’ve been sharing a home office with my wife and two sons that are at home and doing their school work. I’m kinda hunkered down in the wine room and found some work peace down there.”
It left co-host Elson more or less wondering where the problem was with that.
“The wine cellar is not a terrible place to be holing up to do work during the day,” he said.
“It is not,” Yurachek said, laughing. “Especially later in the afternoon.”
Getting back to the serious part of this global pandemic, though, Yurachek is probably overcoming so separation anxiety. He’s at almost every sporting event the Razorbacks have.
“The biggest void for me is seeing our events, seeing our coaches, seeing our student-athletes and seeing our staff and seeing our fans on a daily basis in person is what’s really missing for me,” he said.
On the most pressing subject lately, Yurachek echoed the general theme voiced by college administrators across the country about football being played.
“If it’s not safe enough for our fans to be in the stands, somebody’s going to have to really sell me on what protocol is in place that it’s safe enough for those young men on both sides of that line of scrimmage, one foot apart, sweating on each other, spitting on each other, sharing a football, how it is safe for them,” he said.
It will come down to, obviously, a decision to be made by people much higher up than Yurachek.
“There’s so many unknowns,” he said. “Way too many questions and not answers.”
