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McEwen named to All-American team by ‘Softball America’ in shortened season

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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McEwen named to All-American team by ‘Softball America’ in shortened season

FAYETTEVILLE — Junior outfielder Hannah McEwen has been named to the Softball America Shortened Season All-American third team, the publication announced Monday.

She finished the shortened 2020 season with the nation’s 15th highest on-base percentage (.565).

McEwen’s .418 batting average led Arkansas and was eighth-best in the Southeastern Conference. She led the team with 27 runs scored and totaled six doubles, two home runs, 12 RBIs and 19 walks.

The veteran compiled a .597 slugging percentage which ranked third on the team. She also began the season on a five-game hitting streak and registered eight multi-hit games on the campaign.

This year the junior earned Preseason All-SEC honors and was ranked No. 69 in Softball America’s Preseason Top 100.

Information from Razorback Sports Communications is included in this story.

Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast — Muss Year 1, Eddie in the HOF and more!

Tye Richardson
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Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast — Muss Year 1, Eddie in the HOF and more!

Tye & Tommy on Muss a year later, Eddie Sutton selected to the Hall of Fame, plus the best Hog FB games bracket!

If Hogs want alternate uniform, Stoerner has pretty good idea

Andy Hodges
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If Hogs want alternate uniform, Stoerner has pretty good idea

Before anybody starts jumping up and down, nobody is saying it’s official or just a good Photoshop but former quarterback Clint Stoerner’s twitter thing Saturday isn’t a bad looking option:

I’m more of a traditionalist, but this is not something as hideous-looking as the gray stuff Arkansas keeps flirting with for various uniforms.

It’s been a constant source of confusion to me for a few years now why somebody in the junior varsity marketing department over at the UA keeps fiddling around with one of the most unique brands in sports.

Come on now, how many other Razorbacks are there? It’s as unique of a brand as the most valuable professional sports franchies.

There simpy aren’t any others. Still, somebody thinks it’s a good idea to keep trying to re-invent the wheel as something other than round. That logo they use that looks more like Arkansas State leaps to mind immediately.

The gray-looking mess they’ve tried to wear a few times lands somewhere along in there which maybe is a concoction by an apparel company who designs the worst-looking uniforms in the history of sports when they don’t have adult supervision.

The argument some have convinced themselves is accurate is the best players want to wear these clown suits.

That is hogwash.

Not one time have I seen a quote that a five-star recruit chose a school to wear a particular uniform one time a year. That’s not going to land you a top-ranked class and I don’t care what these kids say publicly.

Besides, if you have a business that does nearly a quarter-billion dollars a year are you going to let the branding and marketing be determined by a bunch of 17 or 18-year-olds with more potential than results at the big-time level?

It was Tex Schramm who designed the Dallas Cowboys’ current uniform in 1983 (with pants that are as green as they are blue in real life). It is still used with very few exceptions and the one thing Jerry Jones hasn’t messed with (outside of the occasional throwback or change).

Schramm had a simple theory:

“When people turn on the TV and see that uniform I want them to know it’s the Dallas Cowboys they are looking at.”

His theory was how the uniform looked on TV was all that mattered designing them and he was right. The overwhelming majority of Razorback fans have never set foot in Razorback Stadium or Bud Walton Arena.

They watch every game on TV.

But if they’re going to do an alternate uniform that’s not a bad look at all … for about one game a year.

Even during global health crisis, rest of college football chasing ’Bama, SEC

Andy Hodges
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All this news the last few days about Alabama finding a way to streamline getting information to football players probably shouldn’t be as surprising as a lot of people appear to be.

With these new-fangled Apple Watches they can apparently act like a mini-tablet strapped to somebody’s wrist. I haven’t jumped into that water, yet, so a lot of this is not based on personal experience.

But you just figured the Crimson Tide, led by maybe the most paranoid coach in the history of college football, wasn’t going to stay disconnected long from the players. They just sorta shrugged and put a building of people to work figuring out a way.

Nick Saban said Thursday his new strength and conditioning staff equipped Alabama players with Apple Watches for the players’ training away from campus.

“They were very instrumental in setting up this whole program of what we’re doing with the players in terms of Apple Watches for their workouts, apps on their phones for weight training programs,” Saban said in a teleconference last week.

How was Alabama allowed to do this … or are they the only ones anybody’s discovered?

When the current global health pandemic forced changes at every university the first thought in the sports world was football coaches will figure out a way to keep control … somehow.

According to multiple reports, Alabama is using the watching to monitor players’ health, looking at sleep patters and heart spikes on each player.

The players who didn’t already have an Apple Watch were provided one before they left campus.

Alabama’s position is they are only looking at sleep patterns and activity level to monitor the players’ health and wellness. Of course they aren’t doing anything to oversee workouts.

“The SEC is aware that Alabama provided Apple Watches to some of our student-athletes,” Alabama’s compliance guy said in a statement.

If anybody else figured this out it’s not as big of a deal as the Crimson Tide doing it.

Again, though, nobody should be surprised. Alabama has won more games over the last 13 years than anybody else in college football (152 games) and that isn’t an accident.

Some other coaches, though, are getting whiny over the whole thing. They view it as Alabama and, by extension, the SEC getting a competitive advantage. It’s probably not a stretch if we find out other schools are ordering these things and getting them to the players as fast as possible.

Even during a global shutdown the rest of college football is chasing Alabama and the rest of the SEC.

Keeping things simple may let Hogs’ defense start making plays

Andy Hodges
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Keeping things simple may let Hogs’ defense start making plays

Arkansas has struggled along clinging to a mindset on one side of the ball or the other that hasn’t kept pace for the game today and there is some glimmer of hope that may change.

Razorbacks linebacker Grant Morgan didn’t exactly put it that way Friday in a teleconference but the implication was there, whether it was intended or not.

“It’s a variation off a 3-3, but you have an extra nickel and you have extra DB to stop the passing everyone wants to do,” he said explaining new defensive coordinator Barry Odom’s 3-2-6 defensive scheme.

That is the way college football is going. The previous defensive coordinator came in with a lot of hype that was largely built on an SEC defense 20 years ago but it was based on facing different offenses.

In recent years he had actually accomplished little, but many fans were just happy to have a “name” and didn’t exactly bother to do some checking. We in the media were just as guilty for not pointing it out a little more clearly.

The Hogs haven’t kept up with the changing face of college football over the last seven years and it has changed dramatically.

It’s a scoring game now.

Teams winning championships throw the ball around in numbers that are alarming to old-timers. The pass sets up the run these days.

And that’s been around awhile. When Tom Landry invented his once-mysterious Flex defense in Dallas back in the 1960’s it was, simply, to stop the run. It was a defense that required a lot of thinking and players who wanted to just cut loose were usually cut loose in short order.

Terry Bradshaw told me after he retired how those Steeler teams beat the Cowboys with regularity in the Super Bowls.

“Shoot, you just pass on first down,” he said. “That throws the whole Flex off because it’s designed to get you looking at second-and-long, then third-and-hope.”

It killed the Flex because because it required too much thinking.

On defense nobody will shut out the last five opponents in a season like Arkansas did in 1964 or Alabama’s 1979 team that allowed 58 points in 11 regular season games (and 35 of that came in two games).

College teams aren’t producing large numbers of NFL-ready offensive linemen, according to pro scouts and personnel people I’ve talked to. That’s why the pro teams are all now spreading it out and throwing it around.

It doesn’t matter, though, because scoring points is what wins games now. Teams that want to control the game by running will win some games if they have better talent, but nobody’s winning championships doing it anymore.

Now defenses just have to get stops at critical times. Arkansas hasn’t done that in recent years.

Morgan has seen most of it.

“This has been the fourth defense I’ve learned over the years,” Morgan said Friday. “This is the most simple defense we’ve learned with just letting us fly around.

“All of the language with the defense is just super easy. They all match. Everything goes with something else, so it kind of all just correlates with everything.”

The part about simplicity may be the most important part of all, when you stop and rewind the tapes from coaches the last couple of years.

We heard far too often about players not thinking too much and just doing it. The implication was youth wasn’t picking up the system, but everything was going to be better when they got some experience.

Jimmy Johnson who told me back about 1990 that defense wasn’t that complicated because basically “the bottom line is when the ball is snapped you see who’s got it and put him on the ground as fast as possible.”

That means schemes are fine but it comes down to making a play.

Buddy Ryan did that with the great Bears’ defenses of the mid-1980’s, which became a terror when he cut 75 percent of the playbook and just let some great players like former Razorback Dan Hampton just make plays.

It makes a difference in today’s new world of college football.

Sutton getting selection fitting for coach who Arkansas college basketball

Andy Hodges
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Sutton getting selection fitting for coach who Arkansas college basketball

It may have been a few years tardy, but the announcement of Eddie Sutton going into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame with one of the best groups ever tends to match his career.

Former player and current Little Rock coach Darrell Walker was with Sutton at his home in Tulsa when he got the news on Saturday afternoon.

Sutton’s career was built with really, really good players and he always seemed to find himself surrounded by them.

The official announcement came Saturday that Sutton will be joined by Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett will be the marquee names (and it will likely be a celebration heavy with emotion for Bryant, tragically killed in a car crash earlier this year).

The enshrinement and will be inducted Aug. 29 in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Also selected are Tamika Catchings, coach Kim Mulkey, coach Barbara Stevens  and former coach Rudy Tomjanovich.

What Sutton meant to Arkansas basketball, though, may truly never be fully measured. If you’re under the age of 40 or so.

No, he didn’t win a national title but if there had been no Sutton in 1974, Nolan Richardson wouldn’t have been here 20 years later. He wouldn’t have been interested.

The first time I interviewed Sutton was the spring of 1974 when he spoke in Warren on a hot April evening in a basketball gym with no air conditioning. He spent about 45 minutes talking to a high school junior writing a story.

He did everything except tell me the questions to ask, going into full depth about what he was wanting to do and how he was going to do it. At the annual banquet that night he asked how many people had ever been to a Razorback basketball game. There were less than 10 hands raised.

“You will want to get tickets now because they are going to be hard to get in a couple of years,” he told the crowd.

He was right.

In a day and age when few games were televised, Sutton played to the media better than any coach since. Eric Musselman may surpass him but it will be with a different media game.

When I had a little dustup with Texas A&M players and coaches in 1981 after U.S. Reed hit two free throws with no time left on the clock, Sutton called me the next day. Okay, it really was more than that, but that’s a different story for a different day.

“Come get me next time and I’ll go with you,” he said laughing before asking me to calm down a little.

Sutton taught an entire state to embrace college basketball. He played to the cameras and his sideline antics were worth the price of admission alone. Especially against A&M’s Shelby Metcalf, Texas coach Abe Lemons and Houston’s Guy V. Lewis.

Those nights in Barnhill (and most games were played after the sun went down in those days) were electric. Sutton even created a pep band with a director that basically turned into a cheerleader running all over the arena firing up the crowd.

He spent practices teaching his team and the media. It was not unusual for Sutton or his assistant coaches to wander over by the media sitting or standing around and go into an explanation about what they were teaching.

Sutton’s coaches’ shows on Sunday evening were a clinic and he used it to sell a fan base on his program and to educate them. He frequently spent a lot of the hour teaching the fans how to, well, be fans.

Until Sutton, Hogs’ basketball didn’t draw much interest and even less enthusiasm.

Even a large part of the media in the state didn’t pay much attention to basketball until, oh, about 1975 or so.

Over 11 seasons, he compiled a record of 260-75, including five Southwest Conference championships, nine NCAA Tournament appearances and a Final Four appearance in 1978.

Sutton helped lead the Razorbacks to national prominence, including coaching the Triplets — Sidney Moncrief, Ron Brewer, and Marvin Delph — Joe Kleine, Scott Hastings, Alvin Robertson, Darrell Walker, and numerous other Razorback greats.

His Arkansas winning percentage of .776 is the highest in the history of the Southwest Conference. He is a member of both the University of Arkansas Sports Hall of Honor, the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame and the Southwest Conference Hall of Fame.

In 2011, Sutton was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City, Mo. In 2016, Arkansas honored Sutton with a banner in Bud Walton Arena.

That’s the numbers and honors he’s already had. The Naismith Hall of Fame is the ultimate in the sport of basketball and will be the crowning achievement for Sutton, who has struggled with health issues the last few years.

Information from Razorback Sports Communications is included in this story.

SEC moves suspension back roughly 45 days to end of May

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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SEC moves suspension back roughly 45 days to end of May

There will be no spring workouts for Arkansas football or anybody else, for that matter, with the announcement the SEC has moved the suspension back to May 31.

The original date was April 15.

This includes all in-person athletics activities, including team and individual practices, meetings and other organized gatherings (voluntary or required). Camps and coaches clinics.

The league did increase the amount of time available for virtual film review that does not include physical activity is permissible.

Starting Monday, activity of this nature will be expanded to four hours per week, an increase from the previously permissible maximum of two hours per week.

The UA will continue to provide their student-athletes with care and support to meet needs in areas including academics, medical care, mental health and wellness, nutrition and housing as needed.

Information from the SEC and Razorback Sports Information is included in this story.

Hogs’ Morgan, Catalon, Woods on Friday afternoon on virtual meetings

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Hogs’ Morgan, Catalon, Woods on Friday afternoon on virtual meetings

Arkansas linebacker Grant Morgan, safety Jalen Catalon and wide receiver Mike Woods talked with the media Friday afternoon on a teleconference about how team is handling virtual meetings this week.

???? HALFTIME POD presented by Jeff’s Club House ???? 4/3/2020

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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0
???? HALFTIME POD presented by Jeff’s Club House ???? 4/3/2020

Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast — Best FB road wins, Clay on natty and Vance Jackson!

Tye Richardson
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0
Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast — Best FB road wins, Clay on natty and Vance Jackson!

Hogs’ commitments Williams, Davis named to media’s Super Team

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Hogs’ commitments Williams, Davis named to media’s Super Team

By Scott McDonald
Batesville Daily Guard

Although the 2019-20 high school basketball has not yet officially ended, the Arkansas Sports Media released its second annual High School Basketball Super Team on Thursday.

A panel of sportswriters and sportscasters from around the state which voted on the Top 10 every week during the season chose the Super Teams in a recent vote.

BOYS FIRST TEAM
• Justus Cooper, Izard County F 6-5 Sr.
• Davonte Davis, Jacksonville G 6-4 Sr.
• Derrian Ford, Magnolia G 6-3 So.
• Chris Moore, West Memphis F 6-6 Sr.
• Jaylinn Williams, FS Northside P 6-10 Sr.

BOYS SECOND TEAM
• Payton Brown, Waldron G 6-4 Sr.
• Riley Felkins, Jonesboro Westside G 6-3 Sr.
• Caleb London, Conway F 6-4 Sr.
• Detrick Reeves, Marion G 6-3 Sr.
• Ben Turner, Trumann F 6-6 Sr.

HONORABLE MENTIONS
Zane Butler, Greene County Tech; Tamarous Dodson, England; Jakari Livingston, LR Mills; Nick Smith, Sylvan Hills; Kel’el Ware, North Little Rock

GIRLS FIRST TEAM
Elauna Eaton, Nettleton G 6-1 Sr.
Sasha Goforth, Fayetteville G 6-1 Sr.
Izzy Higginbottom, Batesville G 5-8 Jr.
Kenley McCarn, Melbourne G 5-10 So.
Jersey Wolfenbarger, FS Northside G 6-4 Jr.

GIRLS SECOND TEAM
Chloe Clardy, Conway G 5-9 Fr.
Maryam Dauda, Bentonville P 6-4 Jr.
AJ McCandlis, Viola G 5-6 Fr.
Wynter Rogers, LR Christian F 6-0 Jr.
Makenna Vanzant, Farmington G 5-7 Sr.

GIRLS HONORABLE MENTIONS
Bailey Augustine, Walnut Ridge; Tracey Bershers, FS Northside; Shy Christopher, Cabot; Aubrey Isbell, Mountain View; McKenzie Jones, Kirby; Briley Pena, Nettleton; Destiny Salary, Jonesboro

Only two players were unanimous choices and both of those were girls — senior Elauna Eaton of Nettleton and junior Isabella Higginbottom of Batesville. The two super stars split their two regular season meetings this past season.

Higginbottom, a junior, was the only starter returning from the 2019 Class 4A State Champion Lady Pioneers but she was named the MVP of last year’s state tourney.

She went from averaging 16 points to almost 30 points a night in 2019-20 and scored over 40 points several times. She led the Lady Pioneers to their second straight 30-3 season and a share of the 4A-3 Conference title and both the district and regional tournament championships.

Eaton, a senior, averaged 23.1 points and 7.9 rebounds a game and led the Lady Raiders to a 27-5 record and a share of the 5A-East Conference title.

After losing to Mountain Home twice in regular season, Eaton and the Lady Raiders defeated the Lady Bombers in the semifinals and was set to play Greenwood for the Class 5A State Championship before the last two days of the State Finals in Hot Springs were indefinitely postponed due to the COVID-19 virus.

Those games have still not been rescheduled or canceled.

Three players on the first team this year made the first team last year. Eaton and Higginbottom were two of those with the third being Fort Smith Northside junior Jersey Wolfenbarger.

As a sophomore, she helped lead the Lady Bears co the Class 6A State Championship. This season, Wolfenbarger averaged 18.8 points, 6.1 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game as the Lady Bears finished 26-4 but fell in the state semifinals.

Sasha Goforth of Fayetteville moved up to the first team this year after being an honorable mention last season.

Goforth, who will play at Oregon State next season, led the Lady Bulldogs to a 23-5 record and a runner-up finish in the 6A-West. Goforth led the Lady Purple Dawgs to a 55-53 upset victory over Fort Smith Northside in the Class 6A state tourney and was set to face Bentonville in the championship game before it was wiped out.

The fifth and last member of the first team is Melbourne sophomore Kenley McCarn who stepped up to become the Lady Bearkatz leader after last year’s 2A State MVP Reagan Rapert moved to Missouri.

McCarn averaged around 16 points a game and led the Lady Bearkatz to a 34-2 record and their second-straight Class 2A State Championship. She was also named the state tournament’s MVP.

Two freshmen were named to the second team, Chloe Clardy of Conway and A.J. McCandlis of Viola.

Clardy stepped in and became the Lady Wampus Cats’ leading scorer this season and stepped it up another notch when sophomore Jaiden Thomas, the team’s second leading scorer, was injured in early January and missed the rest of the season.

McCandlis was instrumental in leading the Lady Longhorns to a school-record 40 victories this season and a runner-up finish to Kirby in the Class 1A State Championship. McCandlis averaged 11.6 points, 4.7 assists and 3.3 steals a game.

Farmington’s Makenna Vanzant is the only senior on the second team as she led the Lady Cardinals to a 32-3 record and a victory over defending state champ Batesville in the Class 4A state semifinals. Vanzant averaged 16.4 points, 3.5 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game.

Bentonville junior post Maryam Dauda couldn’t get into ASM’s first team but is ranked the top junior post in the nation and has not made a commitment. She led the Lady Tigers to a 27-1 overall record and a perfect 14-0 mark in the 6A-West.

Wynter Rogers of Little Rock Christian is the fifth member of the second team and was an honorable mention last season. Rogers helped lead the Lady Warriors to a state championship her sophomore season. This year the Lady Warriors finished 23-6.

There were no unanimous selections to the boys’ team but there are three who made the first team who were also first-teamers last season: Justus Cooper of Izard County, Chris Moore of West Memphis and Arkansas commitment Jaylin Williams of Fort Smith Northside.

Cooper led the Cougars to a 39-6 record and to the runner-up trophy in Class 1A as they were clipped 48-47 in the title game by Nevada. Cooper was a four-year starter for the Cougars which posted a 153-24 record during that time. He is also a four-time All-State team selection.

Moore led the Blue Devils to a 26-4 overall record and to the 5A-East Conference title. He had a great run during the Class 6A state tourney, averaging 17 points and 16 rebounds a game in leading West Memphis to the championship game.

Williams, the tallest player on the ASM Super Team, held the Grizzlies come out of nowhere to win the Class 6A state title last year. Williams will be an Arkansas Razorback next year.

Another Razorback commitment, Davonte Davis of Jacksonville, is the fourth senior on the first team. Davis averaged 21 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists in leading the Titans to a 20-5 record, the 5A-Central Conference title and a berth to the Class 5A State Championship game. Davis will also suit up for the Razorbacks next season.

Derrian Ford of Magnolia in the only underclassman on the first or second team this year and was named to the second team as a freshman last season when he helped lead the Panthers to the Class 4A State Championship.

Ford was the leading scorer on this year’s squad that finished 26-0 and made a return trip to the state title game.

Detrick Reeves of Marion makes his second straight appearance on the second team after he led the Patriots to a 16-14 record and a second place finish in the 5A-East.

Payton Brown of Waldron made the second team this year after being an honorable mention last season. Brown led the state in scoring with 32 points a game.

Riley Felkins of Jonesboro Westside was right behind Brown with a 31.4 points per game average in leading the Warriors to the 4A-3 District Tournament championship. Felkins knocked down a career-high 46 points in an 82-69 victory over Batesville on January 24.

Caleb London of Conway helped lead the Wampus Cats to a 21-8 record and to the Class 6A State Championship.

Ben Turner of Trumann scored over 2,000 points in his career with the Wildcats and averaged 25 points per game this season.

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