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Razorbacks’ Tolefree named All-American finalist for Division I Region

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Razorbacks’ Tolefree named All-American finalist for Division I Region

FAYETTEVILLE — Senior guard Alexis Tolefree was named a 2020 Division I Region All-American Finalist, the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association announced Wednesday.

Tolefree was one of 52 players selected, and will be considered for the WBCA’s NCAA Division I All-American Team. The 10-member team will be announced on Thursday, April 2.

Tolefree’s breakout senior season was nothing short of spectacular.

She averaged career highs across the board, pouring in 16.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.6 steals per game, all while shooting 42.3 percent from the field and 40.4 percent from three.

Tolefree was even better in conference play, averaging 18.6 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.8 steals per game, shooting the ball at a 41.6 percent clip from the field and at a 38.9 percent clip from deep.

Tolefree led the team in scoring and in steals in SEC play, and her scoring average in conference only games was the third best mark in the league.

The senior guard seemed to always be at her best when it mattered most, as she had several huge second half performances in games the Hogs would end up winning.

Most notably, Tolefree dropped a career-high 35 at Missouri, 23 of which came in the second half in Arkansas’ epic 13-point comeback. She also scored 30 against then-No. 15 Kentucky, including 25 in the second half, in a game in which the Razorbacks would set a program record for most points scored against an SEC opponent.

Tolefree scored in double figures in 25 of Arkansas’ 32 games, scored 20+ 12 times, and dropped 30 or more four times, the most on the team.

Three of her 30-plus came during conference play, while she also had 30 against Auburn in the first round of the SEC Tournament.

Tolefree is among elite company, as the following players joined her on the Region Two team: Aliyah Boston (South Carolina), Jessika Carter (Mississippi State), Chennedy Carter (Texas A&M), Rennia Davis (Tennessee), Tyasha Harris (South Carolina), Rhyne Howard (Kentucky), Rickea Jackson (Mississippi State), Erica Ogwumike (Rice) and Chelsey Perry (UT Martin).

Olympics postponed, but questions still remain for Hogs’ track athletes

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Olympics postponed, but questions still remain for Hogs’ track athletes

FAYETTEVILLE — Postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games has reset the international calendar for track and field athletes, putting Olympic dreams on hold for numerous athletes with ties to the Arkansas program.

However, questions remain regarding if, and when, any track meets will be held the rest of the 2020 season.

“There is disappointment, but at the same time we know it’s the best decision for all,” Arkansas women’s coach Lance Harter said. “Obviously, this is a virus that has taken a lot of lives already and doesn’t need to take any more, especially if attending an Olympic Games this summer would be the reason.

“Our athletes are still going to train with the idea that is there going to be a U.S. national championship, or some type of competition this season. They’re incredibly fit, now we’re just trying to get them to back off the intensity and kind of go into a cruise control.”

While the collegiate season has been canceled regarding conference and NCAA championships, track and field athletes usually compete in senior or junior championships in the U.S. (or their respective countries) during the summer.

“Hopefully, by mid-April we have a better idea what is going to be available for the 2020 track season,” said Harter. “The other decision for seniors is will they have an opportunity to come back next year or do they move on with their lives with the choices they have post-graduation.

“The whole timetable is in suspension, waiting to see what is going to happen. You want to stay as optimistic and positive as possible, but at the same time reality is reality.”

Arkansas alums competing professionally are also waiting to see what remains of this outdoor track and field season.

“Among our post-collegians we have a few athletes who are involved with the Diamond League and that is part of their livelihoods,” Harter said. “So that is even a tougher decision in waiting to see what’s the forecast for availability of competition.”

Arkansas alum Wallace Spearmon, Jr., a member of the USA Track and Field Board of Directors as well as serving on athlete advisory committees for USATF and Team USA, said in a Tuesday social media post:

“The Games being canceled has put a halt on athletes having to decide if they wanted to risk their life for the Games or practice social distancing, thank you. But there are still lots of unanswered questions, the Games are canceled but the season isn’t.

“I advise all professional athletes to speak to their sponsors about ways they can still market themselves and their brand. Speak to your AAC rep about tier questions, medical programs, and benefits. Speak to AAC about season plans, USATF plans, etc.

“Please don’t go full off-season mode without consulting with most of these people first. And before you say this isn’t important, please realize it’s not a matter of IF this will affect you, it’s when will it. Be smart and safe!”

Hogs ranked in Top 25 of ESPN’s ‘way-too-early’ ranking for next season

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Hogs ranked in Top 25 of ESPN’s ‘way-too-early’ ranking for next season

We get these things at the end of every season so now that the college basketball season has suffered a forced premature ending, ESPN has wasted little time ranking next season.

And it was interesting to see Arkansas in that ranking, which hasn’t happened in awhile.

The Razorbacks come in at No. 20 in the poll, talking about the No. 7-ranked recruiting class coming in along with getting guard J.D. Notae and 7-3 Connor Vanover finally on the floor in a game.

“(Eric) Musselman has done the rapid-rebuild thing before at Nevada and he’s on his way at Arkansas,” Jeff Borzello wrote in the story.

To put that in a little perspective, a ranking in the Top 20 means they are easily an odds-on bet to make the NCAA Tournament in Musselman’s second season and to at least win one game.

The Hogs haven’t won an NCAA game since the 2016-17 season and haven’t been to the Sweet 16 in about a quarter of a century. Getting picked to be there before we even know who the players are is partly due to some strong recruiting and a little bit of Musselman’s reputation.

Reports say Harris entering transfer portal as grad transfer for final year

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Reports say Harris entering transfer portal as grad transfer for final year

Arkansas guard Jalen Harris has put his name into the NCAA’s transfer portal as a graduate transfer, according to his announcement Tuesday via Twitter:


Harris saw his playing time reduced significantly under new coach Eric Musselman with the addition of Jimmy Whitt, Jr., coming to the Razorbacks as a graduate transfer from SMU before this season.

Harris started every game in 2018-19. He averaged 7.6 points and 5.6 assists in 30.8 minutes per game. His 189 assists that year are seventh for a Hogs’ single season along with his 2.86 assist-to-turnover ratio. His 5.6 assists rank eighth.

He became a role player in Eric Musselman’s first season as head coach. In 32 games, Harris started five times and averaged 4.2 points and 2.4 assists in 24.3 minutes.

With five players coming in for next season, Harris’ departure opens a spot for Musselman to add a graduate transfer of his own in what has become another recruiting season all by itself in college sports.

“Right now the whole world has come to a stop except the basketball transfer portal and that moves a quicker rate than anything,” Musselman said in a teleconference last week.

Now that has hit the Hogs with a departure.

???? HALFTIME POD presented by Jeff’s Club House ???? 3/24/2020

Tye Richardson
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???? HALFTIME POD presented by Jeff’s Club House ???? 3/24/2020

Most surprising results of Razorback football over last 60 years or so

Andy Hodges
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Most surprising results of Razorback football over last 60 years or so

During this downtime in the world of Arkansas sports is a good time to look back and wander a couple of times down memory lane for the best of times … and maybe some not-so-great.

We kick it off with the Top 10 Surprises of Razorback football.

Notice that doesn’t say top 10 top wins, but games that, well, didn’t exactly end up the way  I thought they would going in. The Hogs have had some surprising losses, too. Some of those were downright gut-wrenching for fans.

Oh, and these are my Top 10. The whole thing is subjective. It’s an opinion and my opinion is never wrong, despite the fact you may not agree (and that also means your opinion isn’t wrong, either).

For this I only included games I saw with my own eyes and I’m not relying on accounts.

1977 win over Oklahoma in Orange Bowl

Hands down, nobody expected No. 6 Arkansas to have a shot against second-ranked Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. Well, maybe Lou Holtz and Monte Kiffin suspected it, but finding anybody else that gave the Hogs a shot in Miami weren’t speaking up.

Considering the Razorbacks were without several starters and had Roland Sales starting at running back, the sports books even took the game off the board for awhile in Vegas.

The stadium was a little strange, too. The game started late (the Rose Bowl rang long with Warren Moon leading a comeback win over Michigan), the Sooners had a fullback fall out of his stance after OU accidentally fired a cannon, it had rained … and neither side could believe how their respective teams were playing.

The Sooners were over-confident and un-motivated. Defensive coordinator Larry Lacewell had finally gotten coach Barry Switzer to look at the Hogs on film two days before the game and they both knew they were in trouble then.

Then Holtz threw a wrinkle into the mix, turning Oklahoma’s hard-charging defense against them and opening up huge holes for Sales and others with one semi-decent block on each play.

Arkansas finished No. 3 in the final polls and had as good of a claim to the title as anybody else, but nobody saw that win coming.

It’s going to take something big to top that.

1969 loss to Texas in the ‘Big Shootout’

To this day I still haven’t seen an entire state as electrified as Arkansas was the first week in December 1969.

Fayetteville took that to a level of anticipation and overall anticipation that I haven’t seen since.

And it’s doubtful so many hopes were crushed in just a couple fo hours, especially blowing a lead in the only game doing on in college football that day AND on national broadcast television.

That 15-14 loss haunted Frank Broyles until he died, reportedly without ever looking at the film or replay of the game.

1989 loss to Tennessee in Cotton Bowl

In Dallas, Arkansas appeared to be rolling through a season where they stumbled midway against Texas but had figured out a way to beat everybody else, including a fortunate pass interference call at Texas A&M.

On a cold day in Dallas, the Hogs turned the ball over too much, Tennessee got a big day from Chuck Webb and Andy Kelly had a career day. The Vols held off a late charge for what was, to me anyway, a surprising loss.

1968 win over Georgia in Sugar Bowl

Georgia was the typical SEC champion for that day and time … a defensive powerhouse that controlled the ball on offense and didn’t make mistakes.

Bill Montgomery and Chuck Dicus kept Arkansas rolling on a bright, sunny day, in New Orleans and the only points the Bulldogs got was a safety when Bill Burnett got tacked in the end zone.

It set the stage for the 1969 season.

2015 win over Ole Miss at Oxford

In a season with anticipation that was dashed after a 2-4 start, the Razorbacks stumbled into Oxford against an Ole Miss team looking for an SEC West title after beating Alabama.

Arkansas matched the Rebel’s high-flying offense and got the game into overtime before the legendary fourth-down play where Hunter Henry just threw the ball backwards, Alex Collins picked it up and got the first down set up Brandon Allen’s late heroics for an overtime win.

It was a win that ignited a big November for Bret Bielema in his best season with the Hogs.

1965 win over Texas in Fayetteville

After winning an off-brand version of a national title in 1964, Arkansas was trying to win one of the big ones the next year, but the Longhorns were in the way.

The Razorbacks built a 20-0 lead at halftime, then couldn’t stop the Longhorns from going on a 24-0 run as Frank Broyles melted down on the sidelines. He gave all the credit later to Jim Lindsey for rallying the team (“I was a babbling idiot,” he said later) and in one of the legendary drives, the Hogs drove down and scored on a 1-yard sneak by Brittenum.

Arkansas rolled the rest of the way until meeting LSU in the Cotton Bowl.

1974 win over USC in Little Rock

Arkansas didn’t have much chance against No. 1 USC as Broyles was struggling to put things together during a slump but it all came together on a September night in War Memorial.

The Trojans couldn’t do much right. Oh, Anthony Davis returned a Steve Little kickoff 109 yards, but that was about it. At one point, USC quarterback Pat Haden dropped back to pass … and set his plant foot on the back line of the end zone for a safety.

The Hogs started in the Wishbone with Mike Kirkland at quarterback, but that didn’t last the entire season and they limped to a 6-4-1 season.

USC won the UPI national championship. It was the end of a three-year series against the Trojans, who came to Little Rock twice in that time frame.

2010 win over LSU in Little Rock

Arkansas came in looking for a win to go to the Sugar Bowl in a tie with the Tigers for the second spot in the league (Alabama had fallen after beating the Hogs in Fayetteville earlier).

LSU didn’t have a whole lot of interest in playing the game, giving up a touchdown just before halftime on a Ryan Mallett pass and Bobby Petrino wasn’t playing it safe.

Quite frankly I didn’t think the Hogs had much of a shot in that game and LSU kept it close.

After a loss in the Sugar Bowl, Arkansas finished No. 12 in the final polls while the Tigers were No. 8 after blasting Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl.

2006 loss to Florida in SEC Championship

Arkansas had lost a shootout to LSU in Little Rock the week before, but had already secured the West title and all they needed was a win over the Gators to go to a national championship game after UCLA’s upset of USC earlier.

For awhile it looked possible.

Then Florida blocked a punt, Reggie Fish fumbled a punt taking my prediction of the Razorbacks going to a title game right along with it.

1965 loss to LSU in Cotton Bowl

No. 2 Arkansas was riding a 22-game winning streak going into a cold, gray, Dallas morning and LSU was 7-3 with little respect.

But quarterback Jon Brittenum was injured in the first half and we found out Ronnie South wasn’t quite ready to take over plus the Tigers had Joe Labruzzo and the Hogs couldn’t get him on the ground when they needed to, falling 14-7.

There were a lot of misty eyes all the way from Dallas back to Arkansas for a lot of fans after UCLA knocked off top-ranked Michigan State in the Rose Bowl and Alabama leap-frogged into a national title.

Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast — Upset you want, if Muss knows, plus Rashad Phillips

Tye Richardson
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Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast — Upset you want, if Muss knows, plus Rashad Phillips

Tye & Tommy on the football upset you want, if Muss knows about Mason/IJ, plus Rashad Phillips breaks down Mason and Isaiah!

???? HALFTIME POD presented by Jeff’s Club House ???? 3/23/2020

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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???? HALFTIME POD presented by Jeff’s Club House ???? 3/23/2020

Cancelling spring football could level fall’s field for Hogs … by just a little bit

Andy Hodges
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Cancelling spring football could level fall’s field for Hogs … by just a little bit

Yes, everybody is bored to death with no spring football going on as originally scheduled, but it might not be that big of a reason to worry for Arkansas fans.

I’ll spare everyone a recitation of the facts because we’re all aware of the global health concerns that have caused it. For Razorback fans, though, this could offer a benefit once games start back.

“Everybody will be in the same boat,” Hogs coach Sam Pittman said last week in a teleconference before this week’s spring break.

That means, simply, he and his coaching staff will be at roughly the same point when the season starts everybody else is and there is the possibility nobody will really have a clue what’s going to happen in September.

He pointed out several other teams will already know their players pretty well. Two other teams in the SEC West (Ole Miss and Mississippi State) are also breaking in new coaches.

What he didn’t say is the coaches know their talent after a full spring practice followed by player-led workouts during the summer that can’t be coached, but are handled with some guidelines from the staff.

Mainly it’s the spring practice and supervised conditioning and strength training where coaches get the barometer on their players.

Just these few weeks leading up to academic finals and a small break before summer classes (if that’s even a possibility at this point) will change the entire landscape of college athletics for this season.

Look at it this way: What schools have been building with few disruptions since World War II ended has now suddenly been halted. One thing that is true is it doesn’t take as long for something to fall apart after decades of building.

“The season is long as it is, so I don’t know,” Pittman said. “The kids will still need a break before that first August 1 deal because now we’re at 12 games, and some teams  are at 14, some at 15.”

Those are really just 14 teams. If you don’t make the playoffs you’ll play 12 … or 13 if you can manage to win half of the 12.

This is where coaching high school ball decades ago comes in handy for Pittman. That’s when a lot of high schools started over from nearly scratch every year and didn’t see much of them until August rolled around.

In the world of college football these days they get over a season’s worth of practices in August before the first game and you get the idea from Pittman the Hogs will be ready for Nevada on Sept. 5.

“I just don’t know if we can start much faster than we do now,” Pittman said. “I’m talking about practice. Obviously you are doing a lot in the summer with the lifting and 7-on-7s and those type of things, but you are not able to coach the 7-on-7’s.”

He’s taking a pragmatic approach. He can’t do anything about it, but he’s confident his staff will have a team ready.

“We’ll do whatever they tell us to, and we’ll do it and be happy about it,” he said. “I don’t know how we can go longer than what we are now.”

Fans, already starting to get antsy with a disruption that is less than two weeks old, will be squirming like the kid who got called out by the preacher for talking in Sunday service.

Pittman is just dealing with what comes every day. After taking a little break this week (they had already calculated some downtime for spring break), it’s a matter of getting some questions answered.

“It’s gone from when can we have our 15 practices to now it’s, can we get 10 in … can we get eight in?” he said last week. “What about the teams that have had practices before us? How long of a period do we need in conditioning before we got out there to practice?

“All those things have been talked about. I don’t know about when August starts and we roll out the ball and get ready.”

A lot of questions without answers coming … or even an idea about when the answers might arrive.

Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast — Mason on his decision, Marc Kestecher, and more!

Tye Richardson
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0
Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast — Mason on his decision, Marc Kestecher, and more!

New faces in running backs’ room including coach, but Boyd still No. 1

Andy Hodges
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New faces in running backs’ room including coach, but Boyd still No. 1

When new coach Sam Pittman was hired in December, probably his first recruiting accomplishment was with a player already on the roster, convincing running back Rakeem Boyd to stay.

Yes, the No. 1 guy there stays in place but the depth picture will be completely different now and Jimmy Smith comes from Georgia State after a high school coaching career in Georgia.

He replaces Jeff Traylor, who got the head coaching position at Texas-San Antonio.

And apparently there wasn’t a lot of looking around.

“Jimmy was the first guy that came to mind when I was in the hiring process,” Pittman said on a teleconference Friday. “I needed to hire a great coach. I needed to hire a great recruiter. I have been as pleased as you can possibly be about how he has handled his room.”

He also can get players in the talent-rich Georgia.

“He is an exceptional recruiter and I needed a guy to recruit Georgia,” Pittman said. “We wanted to hire him when I was at Georgia, we just weren’t able to because we didn’t have a full-time job there, but he did interview there and was outstanding in that interview.”

He combined with former Missouri coach Barry Odom to recruit Dominique Johnson from the Fort Worth suburb of Crowley.

“(Smith) was the athletic director at his school as well so he knows how to handle people,” Pittman said. “He is an exceptional football coach and his future is bright, bright, bright.”

It will help that he’ll have Boyd and a supporting cast that could be an upgrade over the past couple of seasons.

“Trelon Smith has stood out,” Pittman said of the redshirt sophomore who sat out last year after transferring from Arizona State.

Just to give you a heads-up, to get Pittman’s attention in the early drills it’s a lot about effort and Smith’s work ethic grabbed the new coach’s eye.

“The guy is a phenomenal effort guy,” Pittman said. “He has a lot of talent. We don’t know if he can hang on to the ball or not. I imagine he can, but just the way that he works. The way he goes about his business. He’s a tough kid and I’ve really grown fond of the way he works.”

He will be joined by redshirt freshman A’Monte Spivey and, as usual, redshirt senior T.J. Hammonds. It feels like Hammonds has been around for a decade or so.

There’s no question who’s at the top of the list, though.

“Of course you have Rakeem,” Pittman said.

What could have been interesting in the spring is Pittman doesn’t exactly sit his star running backs down, which is a risk both ways.

In Razorbacks’ history, there have been running backs suffer season-ending injuries in the spring and August practices and other times they weren’t used to contact and fumbled too much in early games.

Pittman has a plan to be smart about it.

“He would obviously not get as many carries as some of the other kids that haven’t shown as much as he has,” Pittman said. “Nah, there wouldn’t be any limit other than that on him.”

But he wouldn’t be just kicking it on the side.

“If we were going to scrimmage we would limit (Boyd) some, have a limit on his number of carries,” Pittman said. “That would be the same with Smith, Hammonds and Spivey. We would have a number of carries we want them to get in the scrimmage.”

That position group has some depth this year, which is always needed in the SEC, but it is lacking in experience. That means, simply, we don’t know.

Pittman is optimistic, though.

“We’re pleased with a bunch of areas,” he said Friday.

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